Before Blair Witch, prior to Paranormal, The Woman in Black chilled theatregoers

Mallatratt, who died before his time in 2004, conceived the play in Hill’s hometown of Scarborough as a cheap Christmas production. His great achievement was to harness the power of audience imagination to generate the goosebumps – what you don’t see always being more scary that what you do.

So if The Woman in Black does not surprise or chill the marrow as much as it might have done when it was first staged in 1987, that’s not to its discredit. Something is still freshly unwholesome about it, all these years later.

The veteran Waters, in his second Australian tour of the play, offers a masterclass in character work, pivoting between narrator, coachman, innkeeper, landowner and provincial solicitor. MacPherson, also something of a legend with a career spanning Neighbours to Dancing with the Stars, is equally riveting. It’s quite the treat to spend two hours in the hands of two such charismatic and technically astute stars.

You could look for deeper meanings in The Woman in Black: about misogyny, the pervasive power of grief, and the role of entertainment in exorcising our worst demons. But mostly it exists to put the willies up of audience members and, judging by the gasps on opening night, it achieves that.

The Woman in Black plays at the Playhouse, QPAC until May 11; Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide, May 15-26; His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, May 30-June 9; the Athenaeum, Melbourne, June 13-July 6; Canberra Theatre Centre, July 9-14; Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong, July 17-21; Civic Theatre, Newcastle, July 23-27; and Theatre Royal, Sydney, July 30-August 17.