The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Time to Time Warp again
Neptune Theatre revives cult hit The Rocky Horror Show
It’s been more than just a little jump to the left and a step to the right since The Rocky Horror Show first revealed what was in Dr. Frank ’N’ Furter’s lab on the London stage nearly 50 years ago.
But in that time, new generations of fans have come forward to embrace Richard O’brien’s cult musical combining sci-fi and horror, glam rock and sexual liberation in a heady bacchanal of unforgettable songs and characters.
In Halifax, fans of the play and its equally successful cinematic sister The Rocky Horror Picture Show have been waiting in antici ... pation for the Neptune Theatre production to hit the stage since it was announced as a special summer event for 2020. But waylaid by COVID-19, the Jeremy Webb-directed show now hits the downtown stage this week as the not-so-good doctor removes the cause — but not the symptom — for its delay.
Audiences are bound to get shivers the moment Merritt Award-winning Allister Macdonald (Alice in Pantoland) comes down set designer Andrew Cull’s castle stairs to the slinky beat of Sweet Transvestite, and throws open his surgeon’s gown to reveal a corset and stockings.
It’s the classic look for Frank ’N’ Furter, going back to when Tim Curry first defined it on stage and screen in the 1970s, but Macdonald looked further into the heart of the play for his own interpretation.
“What I really love about the script is its references to old-time movies and Bmovies with Fay Wray and Steve Reeves,” he says. “So I really wanted to pay homage to different performers of the time, specifically women like Joan Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor.
“I wanted to find some of the camp and the mad scientist in the role, so there’s a bit of Tim Curry, but also a bit of those women, so I mashed it all up, and that’s how I put my stamp on it.”
Gorgeously lit by Leigh Ann Vardy, with eyecatching costumes by Helena Marriott, The Rocky Horror Show walks a fine line between sexy and silly, with intimacy director Samantha Wilson on board to ensure the cast feels comfortable and safe with their roles as wild and untamed things in an age where consent is key.
Macdonald says the show is a call to be free and uninhibited, but it is also a landmark event in LGBTQ+ culture that has moments of beauty as well as outrageousness.
“The way we’re telling the story, we have the high moments of camp, but camp is used in queer culture as a way to protect yourself and guard your grief and turn that into something beautiful,” he explains. “That really resonates in the age we’re in.
“People are becoming more liberated and more accepted for who they are. Last night we had our first pay-whatyou-can preview, and the audience was just there with us in a really liberated, fun way. It’s pretty amazing that this play has stood the test of time.”
In the role of Frank ’N’ Furter’s sly and subversive butler Riff Raff, originated by show creator O’brien, Breton Lalama gets to channel the forceful energy they displayed in Neptune’s Act One opener Fully Committed last fall into a fresh take on the character whose secret identity is key to the musical’s climax.
You sense it from the start during the signature ensemble number Time Warp, choreographed by Jeff Dimitriou, which was also a key moment for Lalama when they first saw the film version while growing up in a rural community.
“It definitely meant something to me as a young trans person who didn’t really know what he was feeling. I was compelled by it for reasons that were not then clear to me. But getting to be in the world of it now, it’s truly a beautiful thing to share with people.
“And it really does feel full circle, because it was something that I looked to as something that made me feel less weird, back then. Maybe simply because it was so weird, and no I get to share all that weirdness with all these people.”
Progressive for its time, The Rocky Horror Show can seem a bit creaky in places after nearly half a century, but the essentials of the show — the need for love and acceptance for people of all backgrounds and identities — still ring true in Frank ’N’ Furter’s plea to his fellow Transylvanians, and the audience: “Don’t dream it, be it.”
“At its heart, it’s a show about wanting to belong and wanting to become your full potential and the thing you really want to be. And that’s a message that will always remain relevant,” says Lalama, who feels the show has helped its fans be joyful in who they are and in being visible.
“Yes, we’ve come a long way in terms of queer and trans acceptance — and minority acceptance at large — but we still have so far to go, and this show right now feels exceptionally relevant because it feels like it is speaking to the movement that is happening.”
The Rocky Horror Show runs at Neptune Theatre until June 26. There are also midnight shows on Friday, May 27 at 11:59 p.m. and Friday, June 10 at 11:59 p.m., with a late-night show on Sunday, May 22 at 9:30 p.m.
For more info, visit www. neptunetheatre.com.