Just entertainm ent
The Mystery of Irma
Vep opens at
Storefront
«
torefront Actors Theater will present the
Portland premiere of the late Charles
Ludlam’s farce The Mystery of Irma Vep,
March 31 through April 22, at the Delores
Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for the
Performing Arts. The performance on April
18 will benefit the Cascade AIDS Project.
The Mystery of Irma Vep, A Penny
Dreadful, takes place in England at an estate
near Hampstead Heath and at various places
in Egypt. Its cast of characters — Lady Enid
and Lord Edgar, Nicodemus Underwood and
Jane Twisden, Alcazar, Pev Amri, and Irma
Vep, are all played by two actors. It is a
romantic mystery-farce, or perhaps a farcical
mystery-romance; at any rate it is shameless
and delightful, original but full of wonderful
echoes, and great fun for all.
Charles Ludlam, the playwright, was bom
April 12, 1943, in Floral Park, NY. He died
May 28,1987, at the age of 44, of
complications of AIDS.
“In 1984, when he was forty-one years old.
The Mystery of Irma Vep brought Charles
Ludlam surprisingly close to his long-term
goal of conquering the universe. Possessor of
a personal yet influential vision of modem
American stage comedy as a synthesis of “wit,
parody, vaudeville farce, melodrama, and
satire,” he had, since 1967, pursued this vision
as a superb actor, inventive director, delightful
designer, and — most significantly —
prodigious playwright, with a year-round
company dedicated exclusively to producing
his works. New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical
Company had had major successes before
(Bluebeard, Camille, The Ventriloquist’s
Wife, and Reverse Psychology among them),
but even the back-to-back hits Le Bourgeois
Avant-Garde (a tribute to and transfiguration
of Ludlam’s revered French comedic master,
Moliere, and a declaration of independence
from aesthetic labels he had found confining
since the sixties) and Galas (the life of opera
singer Maria Callas conceived as a “modem
tragedy,” with Ludlam himself as the diva),
could not prepare the press or the public for
The Mystery of Irma Vep.
“An astonishing tour-de-force in which
two performers — Ludlam and his longtime
lover, Everett Quinton — portrayed men,
women, and an assortment of monsters in a
full-length quick-change act. The Mystery of
Irma Vep was inspired by the “penny
dreadful," that quintessential! y Victorian
melange of sensationalism and sublime
poetry. Ludlam had always ransacked the
history of art for the form and content of his
crafty comic engines; this time he introduced
a vampire, a werewolf, and an Egyptian
mummy into his usual assortment of jokes and
puns, trademark stage business like cross
dressing and billowing fog, and literary
references ranging from Jerusalem Delivered
to Little Eyolf. An uproarious, thought-
provoking paean to love everlasting. The
Mystery of Irma Vep garnered praise, awards,
adoring audiences, and an embarrassment of
offers for Ludlam from the world of film,
television, opera, and the legitimate stage.”
(From “Charles Ludlam, A Brief Life,” by
Steven Samuels, in The Complete Plays of
Charles Ludlam, Harper & Row, 1989.)
Storefront Theatre’s production runs March
31 through April 22 at the Dolores
Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for the
Performing Arts. There are low-priced
previews March 31, April 1 and April 3.
Opening night is Wednesday, April 4. Ticket
prices are $10-18 with discounts available to
students, seniors and groups. Reservations
can be made by calling 224-4001.
*
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