Ludlam launched his prolific two-decade-long career in the fertile and largely gay off-off-Broadway scene of the Sixties. A playwright, actor, producer, director, and founder of New York's Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Ludlam wrote and presented more than two dozen plays before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1987. Shamelessly, he raided the dramatic, literary, and operatic canon and plumbed the well of popular culture in order to create a body of shrewd parodies. He revamped well-known characters, plots, and themes into highly original modern works, from 1973's Camille (based on Alexandre Dumas's 1848 La Dame aux Camelias) to 1984's Medea (drawn from Euripides's original) and 1974's Hot Ice, a bizarre take on gangster movies.
On the surface, Ludlam's work appears merely whimsical and campy, but through deceptively simple techniques he juggles various themes and associations. For example, his insistence on using cross-dressing male actors to play female parts underscores drama's dependence on role playing and make-believe; he also bows to a centuries-long convention of men playing female roles (women were once legally prohibited to appear on public stages) and simultaneously celebrates and mocks gay obsessions. Upholding this dual tradition of paying homage and spoofing, Ludlam's long-time partner Everett Quinton continues to mount Ridiculous Theatrical Company performances in New York; Quinton's one-person show Phaedra, based on the seventeenth- century tragedy by Jean Racine, just closed there last weekend.
The three-act Irma Vep serves up all the ingredients of Gothic literature: family secrets, lonely moors, a drafty manor house, tortured love affairs, ghosts, werewolves, vampires. As staged by Florida Playwrights' Theatre (FPT) in Hollywood, where the set design features the gold and red wallpaper of a Victorian parlor and the sound design proffers howling wind and crashing organ music, we are almost transported to the gloomy English countryside of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca or Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre -- until the burlesque kicks into gear. Men take on both male and female roles, briskly changing costumes; wigs perch askew, hemlines mop the stage floor, and dress seams burst; florid language expresses smoldering passions; puns, anagrams, and quotes from Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe fly. We are, unmistakably, in Ludlam territory.
Matt Regan's giddy direction loses momentum during Act Two -- the Egyptian sequence -- but regains its footing on English terra firma during Act Three. Paul Thomas and John Manzelli camp it up throughout, as poker-faced Lord Edgar; neurasthenic Lady Enid; crippled servant Nicodemus; and psycho-chicken Jane Twisden, the housekeeper at the family manse, Mandacrest. With Manzelli perpetually tugging at his wig, Thomas's makeup trickling down his face, and a tech crew clumsily moving furniture between scenes, we are never lulled into the naturalism to which slicker dramatic productions often aspire. I cannot decide if such low-budget production values are an intentional part of this particular FPT evening or not, but they certainly reinforce Ludlam's commitment to celebrating the artifice of theater.
A truly inspired production of a Ludlam play demands keen ironic direction that fully excavates the playwright's stratum upon stratum of parody. Regan mines only the most superficial layers of Irma Vep, such as drag and over-the-top characterization. Yet, despite torpid spacing at its center, this Irma Vep otherwise gallops along at an appropriately histrionic speed. Surrender to Ludlam's outrageousness and enjoy the ride.
Stage Whispers
With a lively theater scene in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties keeping audiences busy, we tend to forget that Monroe County has its share of dramatic activity as well. In Key West, the Red Barn Theatre, the Waterfront Playhouse, and the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center host full schedules from December through June each year. And October brings us the annual Key West Theatre Festival, dedicated to presenting new national and local scripts; the fest opens its fifth season tonight (Thursday) and runs through Sunday, October 13.
"We've been knocking on the door of the world for five years, and it looks like this year someone outside Key West might answer," festival artistic director Joan McGillis notes in a phone interview. The Manhattan Theater Club recently called McGillis, after receiving a festival brochure, requesting that copies of two scripts from this year's lineup (Alana Macias's Denny's Chronicles and Sharr White's Iris Fields) be sent to New York for the Theater Club's perusal. Both plays are slated for full productions in Key West during the ten-day fete, along with Joseph Coyne's Exploding Love (directed by visiting artist Mike Rutenberg, theater professor at Hunter College in New York) and Rich Orloff's Water Boy. Six other original works will receive staged readings during the week. Other highlights include a playwright workshop led by Rafael Lima, screenwriter, dramatist, and director of the creative writing program at Miami's New World School of the Arts.
Since coming onboard as artistic director three years ago, McGillis has streamlined the number of presentations each year. The first season she presented nine full productions; the second year five. "Audiences liked all the work," she admits, "but they said it was confusing to see so many plays in such a short time." After reading through two hundred submissions this time around, McGillis found eighteen plays that moved her, and then reduced that number to four, hoping to render the festival "manageable on the production end and the viewing end."
Another change in this year's programming includes outreach performances. High school students in Key West, Marathon, and Key Largo will have a chance to see Denny's Chronicle, a surreal exploration of love, death, and time, featuring teenagers who gather in an all-night Denny's restaurant. Written by a recent graduate of New World School of the Arts High School, the work will be directed by New World professor and Carbonell Award-winning director Patrice Bailey. "It's a wonderful thing for students to see a new work by a young playwright," explains McGillis. "It gives them an opportunity to learn about theater, participate in it, and be inspired to write." For complete details on festival scheduling, call Theatre Key West at 800-741-6945.
Plans are underway by the South Florida Critics Association (SFCA) to honor the most sparkling work of the 1995-96 season at the 21st annual Carbonell Awards ceremony on Monday, November 18, at Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables. The event marks the award ceremony's return to Dade County after more than ten years in Broward and Palm Beach.
The SFCA announced the nominations for the awards last week. More than 125 professional regional theater productions in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach were eligible; a total of 28 productions have been recognized. The Pope Theatre Company in Manalapan leads the way with 26 nominations, the highest number for any theater yet this decade, including Best New Play (Not Waving), Best Production of a Play (Hysteria), and Best Production of a Musical (Puttin' on the Ritz). Actors' Playhouse of Coral Gables follows with fourteen nominations, two for Best Production of a Musical (Man of La Mancha and Tom Foolery). Other Miami-based theaters receiving honors include Coconut Grove Playhouse with nine nominations, such as Best Production (Death of a Salesman) and Best New Play (Marjory); Area Stage with three, one of which is for Best New Play (Passage); and New Theatre with three, including Best New Play (Youth and Asia). The recently defunct ACME Acting Company garnered two nominations, while the newly launched City Theatre earned three. City Theatre will also receive a special citation at the awards ceremony, commending the company for bringing South Florida its first one-act play marathon Summer Shorts.
Adding some sizzle to the acting competition, different actors portraying the same character in two separate productions of Love! Valour! Compassion! will run neck and neck for awards: Matthew Wright, for his performance as both James and John Jekyll in New Theatre's production, goes up against Anthony Newfield, in the same roles at the Caldwell Theatre Company, for Best Actor; George Contini played Buzz in the show at New Theatre, while Kraig Swartz interpreted Buzz at the Caldwell; both men are nominated as Best Supporting Actor. Meanwhile, two actresses find themselves eligible to win two awards this year: Aymee Garcia, for Best Supporting Actress in a Play (Summer Shorts) and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (The Pajama Game), and Kim Cozort for Best Actress in a Play (Sylvia) and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Puttin' on the Ritz).
For ticket information and details, call Carbonell Award box office chair Karen Caruso at 407-392-3755.
Erratum: In our September 19 issue, a theater company in the article "The Year in Revue" was incorrectly identified as Americas Theatre Group at the Florida Shakespeare Theatre. The correct name of the company is the Florida Shakespeare Theatre at the Biltmore Hotel. New Times regrets the error.
The Mystery of Irma Vep. Written by Charles Ludlam; directed by Matthew Regan; with John Manzelli and Paul Thomas. Through October 13. For information call 954-925-8123 or see "Calendar Listings.