THE REVIEWS ARE IN!
The Mystery of Irma Vep
The Ark Theatre
REVIEWS!!
LA Weekly
GO THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP: A PENNY DREADFUL Only the late Charles Ludlum, founding genius of NYC’s Ridiculous Theatre Company, could have combined so many hilariously affectionate Gothic send-ups in a single play: There are shades of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, plus The Mummy, Falconcrest, The Werewolf, and many vampire tales. To make the madness madder, Ludlum designed the play as a quick-change tour de force, with two actors (Jim Hanna and Steven Shields) playing seven roles. The time is the 1880s, and the place is Mandacrest, the home of famous Egyptologist Lord Edgar (Shields), who has recently arrived with his new second wife, Lady Enid (Hanna). The portrait of the first Lady Hillcrest, Irma Vep (an anagram for Vampire), stares balefully down above the fireplace as the treacherous housekeeper, Jane (Shields), and the one-legged care-taker, Nicodemus (Hanna), discuss the family’s dark history. Wolves howl, thunder crashes, sliding panels slide, a portrait bleeds, costumes are changed at lightning speed and an ancient Egyptian princess (Hanna) is mysteriously resurrected. Director Andrew Crusse has assembled a brisk, funny rendition on the clever set by Shelley Delayne, and the two actors make broad comic hay of their several roles. The Hayworth, 2511 Wilshire Boulevard, L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m., through April 4. (323) 969-1707. An Ark Theatre Company production. (Neal Weaver)
LA Theatre Review
The Mystery of Irma Vep at Ark
by Geoff Hoff
The Mystery of Irma Vep
I have wanted to see The Mystery of Irma Vep, written by Charles Ludlam, since I first heard about it some fifteen years ago or so. The idea of farce, parody, social commentary and Mr. Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatricals Company mixed up with a play where two actors play eight characters seemed to me essential theatre and not to be missed. I was, however, somewhat disappointed in the production by the Ark Theatre Company at their new home in the Hayworth Theater.
The play is a takeoff of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, which Alfred Hitchcock famously made into a melodramatic movie that he himself disparaged, about a new bride coming to the country estate of her new husband that is haunted by the memory of his late wife, a memory held alive by the creepy housekeeper. It is also a takeoff of Gaslight, The Mummy, vampire movies, werewolf movies and anything else Mr. Ludlam could cram into it. The play is, indeed, ridiculous, and relies on exquisite physical comedy, expert comic timing, breakneck costume and scene changes and rich character delineation.
The Ark Theatre production of The Mystery of Irma Vep is earnest, but clumsy. That is mostly not the fault of the two actors who play all the parts, Jim Hanna as Nicodemus Underwood the “stable boy” and Lady Enid Hillcrest, among others and Steven Shields as Jane Twisden the housekeeper and Lord Edgar Hillcrest, among others. Mr. Hanna is delightful as Underwood and Mr. Shields is appropriately clueless as Lord Edgar.
Both actors were funny, although in some of the quick offstage dialogue between two characters played by one actor, the voices seemed to meld a bit. Also, although both fine actors, Mr. Shields wasn’t quite up to some of the physical comedy, such as the well written moment in which Lord Edgar almost trips over Underwood’s wooden leg several times in quick succession. The inevitable trip was clumsy and anticlimactic.
The costumes, by Dee Amerio Sudik, looked wonderful, but weren’t engineered quite well enough for the required lightning quick changes and the actors were often left on-stage vamping until a change was completed. Mr. Shields changing back and forth between Lord Edgar and Jane were often miraculously quick, giving the audience a small glimpse of what could be possible.
The set, by Shelly Delanye, tried to be atmospheric, but was mostly just functional, and sometimes barely that, although the painting of Irma Vep above the mantle was very effective and immediately set the silly mood of the piece for the audience as they entered the theatre. There was one detail that still puzzles me, a small model of the set itself sitting on one shelf of the book case. Perhaps it was meant simply as more silliness and I’m trying to make it mean more than it could.
In defense of the production, the main problem may lie, actually, with the theatre space itself, which was quite small and obviously did not have the backstage area required for frenetic costume changes and more clever set pieces, such as, perhaps, having a couple of walls that swivelled so you could, for example, move to Egypt in a couple of seconds, rather than the minutes it took here.
The production did valiantly try to make a virtue of the low tech, such as making the stage hands argue and hurrumph about the impossibility of the few set changes while they were doing them but the effect of that was requiring the audience to keep hold of the frenetic pace in their mind until the actors could come back out and pick it up.
The Mystery of Irma Vep was directed by Andrew Crusse. The lighting was by Jeffrey M. Davis, sound by Corwin Evans. There is a long list of stage managers and assistant stage managers who should be mentioned as they were necessarily a part of the play itself - Stage Manager Renee Scott, and assistants Jen Albert, Catherine Cronin, Renae Geerlings, David Glasser, Anna Quirino Miranda, Patty Robinson and Sasha Sobolevsky.
The play is performed Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm through Saturday, April 4th, 2009.
The Hayworth Theatre is located at 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 90057 - east of Vermont, between Coronado and Corondelet - entrance on Corondelet.
Ticket prices: $22.00 on Fridays and Saturdays, $20.00 on Thursdays and Sundays ($18.00 on Fridays and Saturdays and $15.00 on Thursdays and Sundays for seniors and students)
Reservations online at www.arktheatre.org or by phone at (323) 969-1707
Tags: Ark Theatre Company, Geoff Hoff
NOTE: woo, I got a mention...
Backstage West
The Mystery of Irma Vep (PICK)
March 04, 2009
Reviewed by Hoyt Hilsman
Playwright and actor Charles Ludlam's play is a cross-dressing two-character farce that lampoons such items as vampire movies and Egyptology. After Ludlam's death in 1987, The Mystery of Irma Vep became one of the most widely produced stage plays in the country -- all from its humble beginnings at a tiny theatre in Greenwich Village. The play still sings with the ridiculous and magical perspective of Ludlam. In this production, with stellar direction by Andrew Crusse and the dynamic cast, the play is hilarious and memorable. Ludlam's script is as fresh as it was 25 years ago, and the pacing and tone of the production is delightfully crisp and engaging.
As a playwright, Ludlam understood that the key to successful farce was to hold nothing back. Set among the moors in Lord Edgar Hillcrest's spooky Victorian mansion, the play features Lord Hillcrest (Steven Shields), an Egyptologist and widower of the recently deceased Irma Vep (an anagram, by the way, for vampire) who has brought his new bride (Jim Hanna) back to the family estate. Crusse and cast pull out all the stops, racing nonstop through dozens of lightning-speed costume changes, prancing through the play at top speed even as the actors push their characters to the limit with winks, poses, and double-entendres, all in magnificent Ludlam style. Shields shows tremendous versatility as he flies from the insouciant Lady Hillcrest to the rough-shod stable master to the greedy Egyptian-tomb guide. Shields switches at top speed from the upper-crust Englishman to the Eastern European maid and back. The two actors have terrific rapport and chemistry, which adds fuel to the flaming comedy and makes for an evening of unrelenting hilarity. Charles Ludlam lives on in Los Angeles.
Presented by the Ark Theatre Company at the Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Feb. 20-March 28. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m. (323) 969-1707 or the Ark Theatre Company.
Still waiting on the LA Times...
Currently working on Survived (it's going to be huge), poster for Dido and Aeneas at UCLA and sound design thesis project Anything Goes at UCLA. Also trying to finish a play made up of three one-acts and a screenplay (Werebound - working all quarter, failed to complete) in time for the Donor Awards. Might be working on The Heretic Mysteries with the LA Theatre Ensemble, a couple student films and I'm auditioning for some stuff in a week or so.
In the meantime, God I wish I had this whole spring break thing everybody else seems to be in on.
Oh well. VODKA!
-C
The Ark Theatre
REVIEWS!!
LA Weekly
GO THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP: A PENNY DREADFUL Only the late Charles Ludlum, founding genius of NYC’s Ridiculous Theatre Company, could have combined so many hilariously affectionate Gothic send-ups in a single play: There are shades of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, plus The Mummy, Falconcrest, The Werewolf, and many vampire tales. To make the madness madder, Ludlum designed the play as a quick-change tour de force, with two actors (Jim Hanna and Steven Shields) playing seven roles. The time is the 1880s, and the place is Mandacrest, the home of famous Egyptologist Lord Edgar (Shields), who has recently arrived with his new second wife, Lady Enid (Hanna). The portrait of the first Lady Hillcrest, Irma Vep (an anagram for Vampire), stares balefully down above the fireplace as the treacherous housekeeper, Jane (Shields), and the one-legged care-taker, Nicodemus (Hanna), discuss the family’s dark history. Wolves howl, thunder crashes, sliding panels slide, a portrait bleeds, costumes are changed at lightning speed and an ancient Egyptian princess (Hanna) is mysteriously resurrected. Director Andrew Crusse has assembled a brisk, funny rendition on the clever set by Shelley Delayne, and the two actors make broad comic hay of their several roles. The Hayworth, 2511 Wilshire Boulevard, L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m., through April 4. (323) 969-1707. An Ark Theatre Company production. (Neal Weaver)
LA Theatre Review
The Mystery of Irma Vep at Ark
by Geoff Hoff
The Mystery of Irma Vep
I have wanted to see The Mystery of Irma Vep, written by Charles Ludlam, since I first heard about it some fifteen years ago or so. The idea of farce, parody, social commentary and Mr. Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatricals Company mixed up with a play where two actors play eight characters seemed to me essential theatre and not to be missed. I was, however, somewhat disappointed in the production by the Ark Theatre Company at their new home in the Hayworth Theater.
The play is a takeoff of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, which Alfred Hitchcock famously made into a melodramatic movie that he himself disparaged, about a new bride coming to the country estate of her new husband that is haunted by the memory of his late wife, a memory held alive by the creepy housekeeper. It is also a takeoff of Gaslight, The Mummy, vampire movies, werewolf movies and anything else Mr. Ludlam could cram into it. The play is, indeed, ridiculous, and relies on exquisite physical comedy, expert comic timing, breakneck costume and scene changes and rich character delineation.
The Ark Theatre production of The Mystery of Irma Vep is earnest, but clumsy. That is mostly not the fault of the two actors who play all the parts, Jim Hanna as Nicodemus Underwood the “stable boy” and Lady Enid Hillcrest, among others and Steven Shields as Jane Twisden the housekeeper and Lord Edgar Hillcrest, among others. Mr. Hanna is delightful as Underwood and Mr. Shields is appropriately clueless as Lord Edgar.
Both actors were funny, although in some of the quick offstage dialogue between two characters played by one actor, the voices seemed to meld a bit. Also, although both fine actors, Mr. Shields wasn’t quite up to some of the physical comedy, such as the well written moment in which Lord Edgar almost trips over Underwood’s wooden leg several times in quick succession. The inevitable trip was clumsy and anticlimactic.
The costumes, by Dee Amerio Sudik, looked wonderful, but weren’t engineered quite well enough for the required lightning quick changes and the actors were often left on-stage vamping until a change was completed. Mr. Shields changing back and forth between Lord Edgar and Jane were often miraculously quick, giving the audience a small glimpse of what could be possible.
The set, by Shelly Delanye, tried to be atmospheric, but was mostly just functional, and sometimes barely that, although the painting of Irma Vep above the mantle was very effective and immediately set the silly mood of the piece for the audience as they entered the theatre. There was one detail that still puzzles me, a small model of the set itself sitting on one shelf of the book case. Perhaps it was meant simply as more silliness and I’m trying to make it mean more than it could.
In defense of the production, the main problem may lie, actually, with the theatre space itself, which was quite small and obviously did not have the backstage area required for frenetic costume changes and more clever set pieces, such as, perhaps, having a couple of walls that swivelled so you could, for example, move to Egypt in a couple of seconds, rather than the minutes it took here.
The production did valiantly try to make a virtue of the low tech, such as making the stage hands argue and hurrumph about the impossibility of the few set changes while they were doing them but the effect of that was requiring the audience to keep hold of the frenetic pace in their mind until the actors could come back out and pick it up.
The Mystery of Irma Vep was directed by Andrew Crusse. The lighting was by Jeffrey M. Davis, sound by Corwin Evans. There is a long list of stage managers and assistant stage managers who should be mentioned as they were necessarily a part of the play itself - Stage Manager Renee Scott, and assistants Jen Albert, Catherine Cronin, Renae Geerlings, David Glasser, Anna Quirino Miranda, Patty Robinson and Sasha Sobolevsky.
The play is performed Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm through Saturday, April 4th, 2009.
The Hayworth Theatre is located at 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 90057 - east of Vermont, between Coronado and Corondelet - entrance on Corondelet.
Ticket prices: $22.00 on Fridays and Saturdays, $20.00 on Thursdays and Sundays ($18.00 on Fridays and Saturdays and $15.00 on Thursdays and Sundays for seniors and students)
Reservations online at www.arktheatre.org or by phone at (323) 969-1707
Tags: Ark Theatre Company, Geoff Hoff
NOTE: woo, I got a mention...
Backstage West
The Mystery of Irma Vep (PICK)
March 04, 2009
Reviewed by Hoyt Hilsman
Playwright and actor Charles Ludlam's play is a cross-dressing two-character farce that lampoons such items as vampire movies and Egyptology. After Ludlam's death in 1987, The Mystery of Irma Vep became one of the most widely produced stage plays in the country -- all from its humble beginnings at a tiny theatre in Greenwich Village. The play still sings with the ridiculous and magical perspective of Ludlam. In this production, with stellar direction by Andrew Crusse and the dynamic cast, the play is hilarious and memorable. Ludlam's script is as fresh as it was 25 years ago, and the pacing and tone of the production is delightfully crisp and engaging.
As a playwright, Ludlam understood that the key to successful farce was to hold nothing back. Set among the moors in Lord Edgar Hillcrest's spooky Victorian mansion, the play features Lord Hillcrest (Steven Shields), an Egyptologist and widower of the recently deceased Irma Vep (an anagram, by the way, for vampire) who has brought his new bride (Jim Hanna) back to the family estate. Crusse and cast pull out all the stops, racing nonstop through dozens of lightning-speed costume changes, prancing through the play at top speed even as the actors push their characters to the limit with winks, poses, and double-entendres, all in magnificent Ludlam style. Shields shows tremendous versatility as he flies from the insouciant Lady Hillcrest to the rough-shod stable master to the greedy Egyptian-tomb guide. Shields switches at top speed from the upper-crust Englishman to the Eastern European maid and back. The two actors have terrific rapport and chemistry, which adds fuel to the flaming comedy and makes for an evening of unrelenting hilarity. Charles Ludlam lives on in Los Angeles.
Presented by the Ark Theatre Company at the Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Feb. 20-March 28. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m. (323) 969-1707 or the Ark Theatre Company.
Still waiting on the LA Times...
Currently working on Survived (it's going to be huge), poster for Dido and Aeneas at UCLA and sound design thesis project Anything Goes at UCLA. Also trying to finish a play made up of three one-acts and a screenplay (Werebound - working all quarter, failed to complete) in time for the Donor Awards. Might be working on The Heretic Mysteries with the LA Theatre Ensemble, a couple student films and I'm auditioning for some stuff in a week or so.
In the meantime, God I wish I had this whole spring break thing everybody else seems to be in on.
Oh well. VODKA!
-C