Theater Reviews

Apr 5, 2009 - It may not be Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca," but Bruka's "The Mystery of Irma Vep" is never a drag

By Jack Neal

If Reno’s Bruka Theatre can get blood out of a turnip, who cares if Dracula sucks?

The turnip in question, a remarkably fine turnip, is playwright Charles Ludlam’s hilarious farce, “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” which took off-Broadway by storm on a dark and stormy night back in 1984.

Ludlam wrote the play as a starring vehicle for himself, and his lover, Everett Quinton. There’s a touch of “Rebecca” and Manderlay. There’s a hint of “Wuthering Heights” and Heathcliff. There’s a full moon and “The Wolfman.” There’s an Egyptian dig and “The Mummy’s Curse.” Then there’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” a classic send-up of Gothic horror clichés, and it’s lots of fun.

It’s a two-actor play. Two men playing what could be eight parts (one loses track), three of whom may be women (one can’t be sure). The actors are, in order of appearance: Andrew Mowers (playing Jane, Lord Edgar, Intruder, Lady Irma), and Scott Beers (playing Nicodemus, Lady Enid, Alcazar, Pev Amri). Bruka’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep” is lovingly produced and is a tribute to the humor Ludlam, who died in 1987, so wittily and irreverently brought to his art.

Cross-dressing is part of “Irma’s” charm. To insure its cross-dressing connection, it’s a contractual stipulation that only two actors play all roles and that the actors must be of the same sex. In 1991, “The Mystery of Irma Vep” was the most performed play in the U.S. In 2003, it became the longest running play ever produced in Brazil. Critic Brendan Gill once said of a Ludlam play: “This isn’t farce. This isn’t absurd. This is absolutely ridiculous.” So, to the delight of viewers, is “The Mystery of Irma Vep.”

The play is a tour de force for Mowers and Beers, and belly laughs for an audience. The two actors quick-change costumes and genders with the speed of a Keystone-Cops two-reeler.

As for Mowers, blink your eyes and the bravado of Mandacrest’s master has been replaced by an Agnes Moorhead housekeeper hiding her jealousy over the new lady of the manor replacing her beloved Irma. (What’s a lesbian to do?) As for Beers, he shifts from a one-legged haunter of the hearth into the new mistress of Mandacrest with a mere flip of the wrist. Like a hermorphodite in the heat, he changes profiles and voices as quickly as a ventriloquist shifts voices and dummies. There is a love for the characters in Ludlam’s parade of creatures that simmers the hot oils of pathos and warms the hearth of hearts. Both actors are terrific.

The play is directed by Lewis Zaumeyer who clearly loves the material and has cracked the whip to keep things moving. Zaumeyer has also designed the fabulously funereal sets. The scenery is artfully constructed for trickery, including an animated portrait of the first First Lady of Mandacrest, and a false-backed sarcophagus filled with wickedly naughty surprises.

The intricate and darkly effective lighting and sound designs are by David Simpson. The creepy music, a patchwork of Gothic movie scores, has been glued together by Nicole Seaton. The clever costumes (and fast changes) are supervised by Patty Knutson.

Neither Shakespeare nor du Marier at their darkest can keep laughter from the door of Ludlam’s imaginative world of nonsense and wit. And that makes “The Mystery of Irma Vep” just too much fun to miss.

“The Mystery of Irma Vep” can be seen at the Bruka Theatre, 99 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. For information call 775-323-3221.