The Mystery Of Irma Vep
08/11/2008 - 20/12/2008
Production Details
Vampires, werewolves, Egyptian mummies, damsels in distress – not elements you’d expect to find in your average Christmas show. But then Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery Of Irma Vep, Centrepoint’s end-of year production, is anything but average. This outrageous comedy marathon for two plunders everything from Shakespeare to B-grade horror movies, taking the audience on a high-energy rollercoaster ride that promises to be a wickedly funny end to the theatre’s season.
Lady Enid, newly married to famed Egyptologist Lord Edgar Hillcrest, arrives on a dark and stormy night at Mandacrest Estate. It’s bad enough that Edgar clearly isn’t over his first wife, Irma Vep, who died in somewhat mysterious circumstances and that the estate is haunted by something that prowls the misty moors. When Lady Enid’s arrival coincides with spooky appearances from all manner of ghoulish creatures, she realizes she better crack the mystery of Irma Vep…and fast!
Actors Stephen Butterworth and Jason Ward Kennedy have their work cut out for them, playing, between them, the entire array of men, women and monsters that populate the play. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, The Mystery of Irma Vep is famed for being a quick-change tour-de-force: with an estimated 40+ costume changes in the first half alone, the actors will be kept on their toes, and the audience on the edge of their seats!
Director Steven Ray, last seen at Centrepoint in Man of La Mancha, says "This dazzling show features two of our best comic actors – it’s an evening to savour with friends or workmates; the perfect end to the year. We are excited the season is already booking fast!"
The Mystery Of Irma Vep
opens on Saturday 8 November
and runs until December 20.
Performances run Wednesdays at 6:30pm;
Thursday – Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 5pm.
CAST
Lord Edgar Hillcrest: Jason Ward Kennedy
Lady Enid Hillcrest: Stephen Butterworth
PRODUCTION TEAM
Set Design: John Hodgkins
Set Construction: Harvey Taylor
Costume Design and Construction: Ian Harman
Lighting Design: Laurie Dean
Stage Manager: John Lepper
A wild time had by all
Review by John C Ross 14th Nov 2008
Horror upon horror! A sinister late-Victorian English country house plagued with grotesque retainers, ghouls, vampires, and a gruesome past! The woods around it infested with howling, ravenous wolves and werewolves! Lust! Madness! Murder!
And anyway, what did happen to Lord Edgar Hillcrest’s first wife Irma? Can his second wife survive?
Premiered in New York in 1984, by Ludlam’s own Ridiculous Theatre Company, and very widely performed since, this play is an exceedingly clever spoof of horror movies, with all sorts of twists of plot, dialogue-echoing, and theatrical game-playing. It’s even more amusing if you can identify some of the echoes, but not essential.
It’s a two-hander, with two blokes acting multiple roles, male and female, going out one door and making top-speed costume-changes before entering through another. It gets wilder and wilder.
In this production, Stephen Butterworth plays Lady Enid Hillcrest, the retainer Nicodemus, etc., etc., with extreme switches of style; and Jason Ward Kennedy copes authoritatively with Lord Edgar, and again, etc., etc. Their duet `The Last Rose of Summer’ is a highlight. A pair of stage-crew persons help now and then around the edges.
John Hodgkins’ set is, frankly, a stage-set, with a few tricks built into it, and the stage-business involved in Lord Edgar’s excursion to Egypt, to explore an ancient tomb, is neatly and amusingly managed. Ian Harman’s costumes are a delight.
As Centrepoint’s pre-Christmas production, it’s good for a laugh or three. Scary-type fun.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments