(Pic: Michael Gritten and Steven Stead as Lady Enid and Lord Edgar)KickstArt’s campy melodrama tribute to Gothic horror films as excellently-presented as it was three years ago. (Review by Caroline Smart)
I first saw KickstArt’s multi-award winning production of The Mystery of Irma Vep when it had its premiere at Seabrooke’s Theatre in 2007. Three years on, many appearances and numerous accolades later, the show comes to Heritage Theatre in Hillcrest to run for two weeks.
With Steven Stead and Michael Gritten again putting in excellent performances in this campy melodrama tribute to Gothic horror films, the production has grown considerably with some delightful nuances and quirky additions.
I make no excuse for quoting from my 2007 review because the comments still stand:
"In Charles Ludlam’s laugh-a-minute play, Irma Vep is an integral character who we never see, apart from in a painting which at one point produces an alarming and eerie reaction. Turn her name around and the result is something – or maybe someone – ominous. Lurking nearby, possibly? Perhaps even among the characters themselves?
To find the culprit could be like looking for a needle in a haystack – or in this case, the mill run, or perhaps in a tomb in Egypt or even in the elegant drawing room in which The Mystery of Irma Vep is set. The reason is, this amusing and convoluted plot involves many characters.
There’s the feisty, forthright Irish housekeeper Jane Twisden; a gnarled wooden-legged hunter who goes by the weird name of Nicodemus Underwood; the simpering seemingly-fragile former actress Lady Enid; her enigmatic noble husband Lord Edgar Hillcrest; the fast-talking smarmy Egyptian tour guide Alcazar, and a topless belly-dancing Mummy, not forgetting a masked Intruder and a mysterious prisoner in a cage.
Counting the embodiment of Irma Vep, that’s eight characters altogether in a two-act play. So when you discover that there are only two actors involved, you’ll figure out that the action is mildly manic. The hectic and hilarious scripting sees them in and out of costumes at a dizzying pace – at one stage, wearing two costumes at the same time but I’m not explaining how – go and see the show!"
To handle this kind of action and to plausibly pull off the different characters, you need two actors of a high degree of skill and comedy talent and a director who can hold it all together firmly and sensibly. Greg King handles this with ease and Steven Stead and Michael Gritten act out the dizzying scenario with aplomb – a tour de force excellently executed – all dramatically lit by Tina le Roux’s design. Greg King’s set design transforms the Heritage Theatre stage.
Heritage is an interesting choice for what is strictly drama rather than the music compilation reviews this supper theatre venue normally hosts but it’s a must if you want an evening of really fun send-up spoof impeccably presented at top speed with the minimum of music involved, apart from some well-chosen pre-recorded links, one song and a few tunes on the dulcima!
If you know your movie classics such as Wuthering Heights, The Mummy's Curse and Rebecca as well as the works of Ibsen, Shakespeare, Poe, the Brontë sisters, Omar Khayyam, and Oscar Wilde, then you’ll appreciate the clever “borrowing” of famous lines or scenes. If not, you’ll just enjoy the fun and marvel at the costume changes.
Tickets include a two-course meal and tonight’s starter choice was Melenzane Parmegano – grilled eggplant layered with Mozzarella Cheese and baked in a Tomato Sugo served with an Italian Side Salad; Hearty Minestrone Soup (which they insist in serving in bowls big enough to wash your face in) and – my choice – the delicate Prawn Cocktail with a Marie Rose sauce. For main course, I opted for the Heritage’s special, the Braised Lamb Shank, but this time I missed its normal succulence. The other choices are Marinated Half Baby Chicken; Grilled Line Fish and Vegetarian Lasagna.
The Mystery of Irma Vep runs at the Heritage Theatre, Heritage Market in Hillcrest from July 13 to 25. Book on 031 7654197 or online: www.heritagetheatre.co.za – Caroline Smart
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