Nothing evokes the holiday spirit better than a claustrophobic ghost story, one brimming with infanticide and set in a spooky English manor. Not your idea of yuletide cheer? The Shakespeare Theatre Company begs to differ, and with an unexpected and ear-splitting boo!

The Woman in Black, an evocative and unnerving production now playing at the newly renamed Michael R. Klein Theatre, may seem like counterprogramming to Peter Pan and Wendy, the company’s more conventional holiday production showing across the street at the Sidney Harman Hall. But there’s an enduring tradition of trading ghost stories during the Christmas season, one that long precedes the most famous example: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

This production arrives in D.C. with its own storied history. The Woman in Black, adapted from Susan Hill’s novel of the same name, was first staged on a shoestring budget in the English coastal city of Scarborough in 1987. Two years later it opened on London’s West End, where its run has remained uninterrupted for 30 years. Only one play—another mystery, in fact—has it beat.

Arthur Kipps (Robert Goodale), an old, shell-shocked survivor, recounts his harrowing story to an unnamed actor (Daniel Easton), a young, blissfully ignorant man, who literally walks in Kipps’ shoes. The Woman in Black then settles into a Russian-nesting-doll format, one where the audience has to actively juggle between reality and memory. Lighting designer Kevin Sleep’s visual cues, bright whites versus golden hues, help to distinguish one from the other.

Reality and memory eventually collide head-on as The Woman in Black—with its original West End director Robin Herford at the helm—barrels toward its nihilistic conclusion. The older and younger protagonists have to reckon with the phantasm, that vision, that bleak premonition for which the play is named. A rocking chair sways with a rhythmic knocking that curdles the blood. Loud screams punctuate and exacerbate moments of heightened tension. A deathly figure suddenly appears here and there, only to make the worst seem even worse.

The Woman in Black is as close to a visceral horror experience you can get inside a theater. Sure, there are a half-dozen jump scares that can rival anything you’ve encountered outside an amusement park’s overblown Halloween attraction. But there’s more to this stately and surprisingly complex production than a mere jolt to your already frayed nerves. This gothic tale is, like a rollercoaster, just as frightening as it is fun.

The Woman in Black runs at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Michael R. Klein Theatre through Dec. 22. Tickets $39-$79. Runtime approximately two hours with one 15-minute intermission.