Irresistibly funny, invigorating theatre
FEW people exiting the theatre after a performance of this scintillating send-up of the Victorian “penny dreadful” would disagree with the adage that laughter is the best medicine. The richly comic material is exploited with an irony that is no less real for being latent – and audience members can forget the tribulations of real life for a couple of hours while absorbing this apparently mindless melodrama.
All the clichés of the genre are present in dollops: The isolated mansion in a state of picturesque disrepair on the Scottish moors, where wolves prowl and storms howl; the vulgarly pretty second wife of the eccentric aristocrat whose late first lady is scarily omnipresent in the house; the servants with their own questionable agendas, added to which are werewolves and vampires, a mummy purloined from an Egyptian tomb… the eclectic list goes on.
What really makes this a remarkable tour de force is the fact that eight personae of both sexes and various ages (excluding werewolves) are played seamlessly by two actors – Jonathan Roxmouth and Weslee Swain Lauder – with perfect authority and aplomb. There is an exit and an entrance, with total costume/ accent/ personality change, a minute – all executed with a sleekness that borders on elegance.
Some inkling of how this is achieved comes when the exhausted cast of two take their final bow, accompanied by two young women who have assisted continuously with wig and costume changes backstage.
Ingenuity is not confined to the latter stratagem: It is equally manifest in the transition from Scotland to Egypt as aspects of Lord Edgar’s mansion are lit to suggest pyramids.The rest is achieved through clever mime by the two performers, one of whom (Lauder) impersonates a tour guide and a sexy, mummified Egyptian princess in quick succession.
Of the innumerable comic episodes that make up the patchwork of the plot, one that stands out is the lengthy pursuit of one protagonist by the other around the cluttered set (pausing occasionally to put furniture to rights) and marked by great determination to offset their lack of urgency. Another is the brilliantly-mimed dangle from a spinning rope shared by Lord Edgar and his amorous tour guide.
Costumes are predictably outré in keeping with the show’s tongue-in-cheek character, but there are no anachronisms. The maid and her new mistress play a duet on dulcimers, with quavering sopranos and soulful expressions (another instance of Roxmouth and Lauder’s astonishing versatility).
This is irresistibly funny, invigorating theatre and pure escapism at its best.