Bathory – The Blood Countess
Bathory – The Blood Countess
Written and Directed by John DiDonna
Starring Peg O’Keefe, Nicky Darden, Samantha O’Hare, John DiDonna
Empty Spaces Theater Company at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival
Jesus, like the king had little to say about anything in 16th century Hungary. As a long war with the Ottomans wound down, authority rested in the hands of whoever lived in the castle and priests were in no position to censure their masters. Rugged terrain, isolation, and mysticism made any action justifiable and nearly impossible for a weak central authority to rout out. Countess Bathory may be the worst of the lot, but I doubt she was unique. Her particular hobby was beating peasant girls to death and bathing in their blood. Bad as that sounds, it’s the gossip that upset the king – Hungary wanted acceptance in a larger Christian Europe and Countess B was an embarrassment. King Matthias became so disgusted he sent is Minister Lord Thurzo (DiDonna) to tighten up royal discipline. The Bathory name was most important – Count Bathory fought with the king to oust the Turks, and if something wasn’t done to keep up appearances, it might be hard to get in the European Union later on.
Murder required Motive, Opportunity and Method. In this dark and disturbing production, Countess Bathory is played simultaneously by three actresses. Innocent Bathory provides motivation – she’s bullied by a domineering mother in law (Peni Lotoza,) seduced by her cousin Klara (Babette Garber), and goaded by the local witch coven. When you’re bored by Sodom and hubby is far away at war, murder seems a reasonable weekend sport. Stateswoman Bathory (Peg O’Keefe) shows us Opportunity – clever enough to conceal her actions and viscous enough to seek a steady stream of victims, she laughs off accusations and drafts the creepy Ficzko (Blake Logan) to help her harvest more bodies. Ironically, it’s her scrupulous record keeping brings her down. Most bothersome is the Legendary Bathory. She lives by the old dictum “Show don’t Say” as she graphically strips, beats and murders of one young servant (Beth Harless), then pours blood on herself and most of the cast.
There’s a splatter zone, and it’s not just in the gallons of special effects. We’ve refined the bloody habits of past eras into the iconic cartoon world of Halloween. DiDonna forces us back to the roots of this apparently harmless tradition. Surrounded by stage violence, edited news reports, and special effects, we’ve lost the horror of sudden and senseless death. Bathory takes us back down into this Black Persona lurking inside of us, and while her motives are repellent, the Countess’s action do have a logic, twisted as it may be. Here’s the real splatter – we inflict painful, brutal death on each other for no reason other than “we can.” Whether you prefer to blame sin or statistical mechanics is of no import. It just happens. Now that’s scarier than anything Universal can pull out of its makeup kit.
For more information on Empty Spaces Theater Company, visit http://www.emptyspacestheatre.org
