REVIEW: Geneseo’s Richmond Hill Nails Mysterious, Creepy “Woman in Black”
One-person and two-person plays seem like the most challenging, thrilling and satisfying productions an actor could ever participate in.
The current, mesmerizing show at Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo — the mysterious thriller, “The Woman in Black,” adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill — is one such example. The vast majority of the two-hour play features just two strong actors, James Driscoll and Patrick Kelley, playing a variety of characters.
The framework of this spine-tingler (penned in 1987 by Mallatratt) is unusual: a lawyer (Arthur Kipps) hires an actor to tutor him in recounting to family and friends a story that has long troubled him, concerning events that transpired when he attended the funeral of an elderly recluse. There, he caught sight of the woman in black, the mere mention of whom terrifies the locals, for she is a specter who haunts the neighborhood where her illegitimate child was accidentally killed.
Patrick Kelley and Jim Driscoll (with Tifany Simosky in back) in a scene from the new Richmond Hill Players production.
* WIB2: Jim Driscoll, left, and Patrick Kelley in “The Woman in Black.”
Kipps and the actor recreate the events of that dark and stormy night in this classic tale of the Gothic mystery genre. The show is not recommended for children under 12, with a warning for discussion of child loss.
When the play starts – directed with assurance and blazing technical skill by RHP veteran Dana Skiles – the two men read from manuscripts. The commanding, upright Driscoll (one of the most authoritative actors in the QC, I could watch in anything) is initially the actor who is coaching Kipps, a more modest, awkward Kelley, who says more than once that he is not a performer and says this is “a fool’s adventure.” When Driscoll acts as Kipps initially, he’s much more natural and persuasive (not reading from the manuscript), more confident and talking directly to the audience.
The ”play” within this play is to be performed before family and friends, and as the two men recreate the scenes in this increasingly complex web of stories and hauntings, Kelley is the one who takes on a greater multitude of parts, and varies his accents and hats to go with the role. Kelley as Kipps appears to more easily shed his nervousness and grows more solid and compelling as these different characters.
Patrick Kelley, left, and Jim Driscoll in a scene from “The Woman in Black,” running in Geneseo through Oct. 12, 2025.
Due in no fault of the actors or director, it is occasionally difficult to keep track of who is who throughout the show’s two acts, as the men slip and in and out of their roles, back to “themselves.” Kelley and Driscoll also are responsible for moving the basic set pieces around the stage (in the theater-in-the-round Barn Theatre), and there are many scenes, and countless lighting changes, also deftly handled by Skiles.
The 37-year-old Geneseo High alum is the third generation of her family to be active in the 57-year-old organization, which presents six shows a year on the second level of a converted dairy barn in Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo. Dana is truly a multi-talented person, equally adept at acting and directing – recent successes for her at RHP include directing the intimate Stephen King thriller “Misery” in 2023, and co-starring in last year’s mystery, “Laura.”
Patrick Kelley and James Driscoll.
Skiles impressively rises to the challenge as “The Woman in Black” is as much an Everest-level technical test, as an acting master class. Playing the mainly mute, shadowy figure, Tifany Simosky is fittingly creepy in the title role, often appearing in different corners of the space, still as a statue, shrouded in fog and blue light, usually in brief, key appearances. When she finally verbalizes in an outburst in the child’s room near the end of the story, and appears again in fog on the theater’s second level, the impact is pretty stark and frightening.
Kipps is forever haunted by a horrifying encounter, of which we don’t learn about until very late in the play. They retell the events that shattered his life. Together, they re-enact his life in a remote, fog-shrouded English village, and the fog often takes over the play’s stage. Driscoll (who has dominated local stages as Willy Loman and Atticus Finch) brings his trademark intensity and magnetism to this play, and Kelley also displays admirable range and titanic emotion.
Jim Driscoll, left, and Patrick Kelley in “The Woman in Black.”
“The Woman in Black” features three other actors in unseen voice-over parts – Aimee Albrecht, David Shaffer and Cali Van Zandt. In addition to all the lighting effects, Skiles handles the boundless variety of sound effects, including moody, melancholy music between and during scenes; key horse-clopping sounds, an unseen dog that accompanies Driscoll, and a rocking chair that sounds like a “tell-tale heart” beating.
The RHP staff includes stage manager/special effects coordinator David Shaffer, stage crew Aimee Albrecht, Cali VanZandt, Perry Farley (Geneseo) and Sarah Carrington (Galesburg); light and sound designer/operator Dana Skiles, and set builder Jim Skiles (Colona). This is a very well-executed show that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
Performances will continue Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Oct. 9-11) at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the Richmond Hill box office at 309-944-2244 or by visiting the website at rhplayers.com. Late seating is not permitted; no one will be admitted to the theater after the show has started. Admission to all performances is $12.
Tifany Simosky as The Woman in Richmond Hill’s “Woman in Black.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.