All white on the night
THE WOMAN IN WHITE Palace Theatre, London
'This is the story of what a woman's patience can endure, and what a man's resolution can achieve'. So begins Wilkie Collins's 1860 novel, a tale of mystery and intrigue, a story in which the polarities of light and dark, good and evil, masculine and feminine are set against each other through complex narrative and vivid characterisations.
It is not a novel that appears to lend itself to a stage dramatisation, a musical one at that. However, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and direction from Trevor Nunn, The Woman in White is an engaging and exhilarating production with strong performances and breath-taking sets.
The play opens on a misty evening in Cumberland as Walter Hartwright (his surname is a clue to his character!) travels to Limmeridge Hall to work as a drawing master. It is the set that immediately arrests the attention - the production uses computer-generated images throughout, allowing us to soar over rooftops, walk in the gardens of stately homes and see trains rattling by.
