The cast and crew of Penobscot Theatre’s next production, the just-in-time-for-Halloween comedic thriller “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” consider the show a feat of engineering as much as they do a creative endeavor. Two actors, seven characters, 40 costume changes and a whole mess of little jokes, sound cues and clever props. To pull it off, it’s got to be a well-oiled machine.
“It challenges everyone’s brains, be it a designer, an actor or a director,” said director Matt Morrow, who is based in San Diego. “It’s a big machine, and it has to work perfectly or else it all falls apart. It’s incredibly detailed. There are so many little moving pieces that all have to blend seamlessly, and there’s little to no room for error because it all happens so fast. It’s a thrill ride.”
“Irma Vep” is a madcap send-up of everything from Victorian melodrama to gothic horror. It tells the tale of the bereaved Egyptologist Lord Edgar and his new wife, Lady Enid, who seek to solve the mystery of who killed his son and his first wife, Irma Vep.
There are vampires, ghosts, werewolves and mummies. There’s over-the-top melodrama. There’s also loads of laughs, thanks to the two actors cast in every role in the show, male or female: PTC mainstay Dominick Varney, and returning PTC actor Mark Chambers, last seen in “The Woman in Black” in October 2013. Both actors are used to lightning-fast costume changes and to playing multiple characters in one show: Varney did a similar thing in PTC’s production of “The 39 Steps” in the fall of 2010, and Chambers has been in “Irma Vep” before, along with other similarly farcical romps.
“Irma Vep,” written by playwright Charles Ludlam and first produced in 1984, is one of the most popular plays for regional theater worldwide, and with good reason: it’s an incredibly fun show to produce, design and be in.
“I think this show is so popular and has remained so popular because the genres that it tackles are so well-loved. It takes horror and farce and camp and mashes them up together into something really unique and different,” said Morrow. “I’ve always admired Charles Ludlum’s work. He makes so many intelligent literary references, and he is at once heartfelt and hilarious.”
Visually, the show has the stamp of longtime PTC designer Lex Liang, who designed both the set and the costumes. Sarcophaguses, creepy portraits and dastardly servants roam the halls and parlors of the grand Victorian manor in which most of the plot occurs, and Liang has served up a delicious, detailed set on which the actors can play, along with lighting from Shon Causer, props by Meredith Perry and sound by Brandie Rita.
“One of the interesting things about a show like this is that you have to drop all your conceptual ideas, and just embrace the fact that it’s silly, it’s fun and ridiculous. This is not a show you overthink,” said Liang. “It’s just a show that everyone, audience and crew, can just have fun with.”
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” opens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16. Performances are set for 7 p.m. Oct. 17, 22-23 and 29-30; 8 p.m. Oct. 24-25 and Oct. 31 and Nov. 1; 5 p.m. Oct. 18 and 3 p.m. Oct. 19 and 28 and Nov. 2. For tickets, visit the Bangor Opera House box office, call 942-3333, or visit penobscottheatre.org.
