Stage frights: The Woman in Black is an atmospheric stage triumph

THE BRITISH THEATRE director and actor Robin Herford is in buoyant mood, even when discussing darkness.

"One of the extraordinary things today is how we have become accustomed to light. Light when we want it: flick a switch and there you have it," he says on the phone from Cheltenham, a picturesque town on the fringes of the Cotswolds, in England's west. "That's relatively recent, in terms of reliability. You go up to the northeast coast of England today and many parts are still gloomy. These little communities have electricity now, but in living memory they haven't."

Herford, who studied at the Bristol Old Vic, has a voice with a timbre that is both rich and clipped, a staple of classically trained actors everywhere. When he eulogises over that particular eeriness that lingers in old theatres, you can't help but be transported to the empty spaces and dark shadows.

"Theatres are extremely spooky places, but not always in a bad way. This may sound a bit fanciful, but I tend to think that they absorb the emotions that are dissipated on stage: passions and loves, and hates and fights. All that seeps into the walls. As a director you often experience it. Maybe you've finished a late lighting rehearsal, it's one in the morning, you've left your jacket behind and you're creeping along dark corridors. That can be terrifying. I thought, 'We can use this'."

Wind the clock back to 1987. In the sleepy town of Scarborough, on the northeast coast of England, Herford has just been named acting artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The National Theatre had poached Stephen Joseph's principal artistic director, Alan Ayckbourn, and Herford found himself in charge.

He had also just been given a budget of £1,000 (HK$12,432) to spend on a three-week Christmas play. Unsure what to do, he asked his friend and playwright, the late Stephen Mallatratt, for help. A few nights later, Mallatratt handed him Susan Hill's 1983 short novel The Woman in Black, which Herford read in one sitting. He was immediately drawn to it, despite being convinced that it couldn't be made.