The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Preview of a Penny Dreadful
The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Preview of a Penny Dreadful
By Charles Ludlam
Starring Joshua Eads-Brown and Doug Bowser
October 31, 2011
Footlights Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
Pardon me, I’m having déjà vu all over again, and I haven’t even seen this show yet. Except I have, about 2 years ago in a little-visited theatre on the tacky side of town. Yes it’s a remount of the Two Man / Cast of Thousands dragged out Catherine and Heathcliff in Withered Heights Halloween Camp Extravaganza “Irma Vep.” The title is a thinly veiled anagram, and the cast is the same but has changed the punctuation on their names. The show has moved up from Tourist Town but rather in the always Fabulous, always Over Air Conditioned Footlights Theater at … well, you used to read the Sentinel. OK, it’s at the P-house, and that gives it at least two legs up – a bigger, more enthusiastic audience and much stiffer drinks at the bar. Doug Ba’aser (or Bowser, he’s the taller, more burly one) and Joshua Eads-Brown (the cuter, more vulnerable one) are reprising their 2009 performance which impressed me greatly. (see the first self referential link below). Is it funny? It was last time. Is it scary? Come ON people, Halloween is now nothing more than an overdone self-indulgent excuse to get shit faced drunk while acting out a secret Rule 34 fantasy that involves anime characters, organic salad dressing and an elderly Pit Bull. I’ll be the guy dressed as a hack writer, and you’ll be impersonating a supporting mook from Area 88. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_88 Monday is your last chance to see this performance, and to hell with those rug rat trick or treaters. Leave a 2 pound bag of whatever is cheapest at Publix on the front step and let’s party!
Previous, more coherent comments on this show may be found at
http://blogs.ink19.com/archikulture/2009/10/25/the-mystery-of-irma-vep-a-penny-dreadful/
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Tickets and other minutia such as pricing and times are to be savored at WANZIE.COM/boxoffice or (shudder! Quiver!) http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=273154609371981
And don’t even BEGIN to waste your time on Google Crop Circles.</em>
