You may not believe in ghosts but The Woman In Black may change your mind.

Chemainus Theatre Festival’s fall play, starring actor-director Bernard Cuffling, is more than things going bump in the night, the veteran actor said of the gripping horror story.

“What appeals to me about this play is the unknown,” he told the News Leader Pictorial.

“Either people believe in ghosts or they don’t, but when something strange happens the skeptics can relate to ghosts.

“I think there are ghosts and British theatres have ghosts.”

In fact, he set WIB, penned in 1983 by Susan Hill, in a Victorian theatre.

“There’s something in all of us that we want to think about the paranormal and that’s why this play’s so popular.”

So popular, it’s London’s second-longest running play, next to Agatha Christie’s whodunit The Mousetrap.

“In this play the unknown appeals to the audience,” Cuffling said.

“There are little clues in the play with a twist at the end but unlike Mousetrap, no one can figure it out half-way through.”

Kevin James plays Arthur Kipps who, as a young lawyer was sent to bleak Eel Marsh House to sort out the affairs of deceased Alice Drablow.

Things turn scary as Kipps learns about Mrs. Drablow’s past.

Cuffling plays various characters in the haunting story.

“She’s not a nice ghost,” Cuffling notes of the spirit.

Sound, lighting and active imaginations are just as important as actors in Cuffling’s production.

“I wanted to make things a bit scarier with lighting and sound.

“Sound and lighting become characters in this play,” he said of work by lighting designer Marsha Sibthorpe and sound designer Robin Boxwell.

“I love this play because it’s a theatrical piece,” the native Brit said of occult action that occurs on Pam Johnson’s period set.

“I also love playing extremes and like a good whodunit.”

“I set it in Yorkshire because I like that part of the world and it is mists and fogs and something more spooky.”

Cuffling doesn’t believe there is a moral to WIB.

“Use your imagination and listen. If you come prepared like that, you’re in for a very entertaining evening.”

Your ticket:

What The Woman In Black

When: Sept. 10 to Oct. 31

Where: Chemainus Theatre

Tickets: Call 250-246-9820.