THE
CREATURE CREEPS
Little
Baddow Drama Club
at
the
Memorial Hall
20.11.2014
This
Gothic comedy was penned back in '77 by Jack Sharkey, onetime jokes
editor of Playboy.
“Dreadful
is a relative term”, and his often clever spoof of the
Transylvanian
genre has many witty touches, and is amusingly self-referential. But
it runs out of comedy steam a little towards the end, as the
characters sit around listening to explanations of what's been afoot.
Director
Kenton Church [who also dresses up to play the various Shtunken
brothers] has
assembled an excellent cast, including some stalwarts and several
new faces. The range of accents is breathtaking. We're in the
Carpathians, I think, but there are Americans, including
the daughter of the Home Counties Baroness and her Mad Scientist
spouse.
The
piece really needs brazen, bold performances, and some actors achieve
this better than others here. Peter White is excellent as the
deformed Mord, as is Sylvia Lanz as the prim Teutonic housekeeper,
knocking back tots of schnapps.
John
Peregrine is the mysterious von Blitzen, with Rita Ronn as an
imposing grande dame [beautifully turned out, as are many of the
women characters]. The youthful US contingent is
well
handled by Sarah Trippett-Jones, Heather Lucas and James Oakley.
The
sound effects [phonograph horns high on the castle walls] are
brilliantly done in the manner of steam radio,
and the set, with its tiny fenestrals
affording a glimpse of figures on the stairs, magically makes this
tiny stage into a cavernous baronial hall.
1 comment:
Despite director Kenton Church explaining in the programme that he had discovered this comedy 20 years ago I had never heard nor seen it.
Played out on the wonderfully Gothic set with a clerestory window from the attic, it was sturdily built by Barry Weight's team on three levels – no make that four – I'd forgotten the dungeon, this spoof send-up of Frankenstein was good fun.
The central partnership was between John Peregrine's Baron Von Blitzen and his henchman Mord, the twisted hunchback complete with vocal ticks, excellently played by Peter White. Together responsible for the lurid howls coming from the basement. Meanwhile rigid, grim and floating on a sea of alcohol, housekeeper Gretchen Twitchett was played by Sylvia Lanz
But the nasty plans went awry with the unexpected arrival of his innocent, pretty daughter Daisy, played by Sarah Trippett-Jones, her dumb blonde friend Babsy (Heather Lucas) and dim but heroic boyfriend Frank Sterling brought to life by James Oakley.
Plus Rita Ronn, trailing clouds of glory and elaborate costuming, as Daisy's mother Maritza Von Blitzen estranged wife of the Baron. An imperious figure, mistress of all she surveyed.
Suddenly all the female relations of the Von Blitzen's turn up unannounced adding yet more chaos to the existing turmoil. With Gill Peregrine as Hannah Zitzen, Helen Langley as Freda Zitzen, Nicola Martland as Freda Zitzen and Sarah Bell as the runner-up Zitzen they made an astonishing array of kinship.
Then of course there was Kenton Church as Heinrich Shtunken Chief of Police and all his numerous brothers which involved a host of quick changes of costume and characterisation.
Although the whole evening was enjoyable to watch I felt that the plot rather tailed off with the extraordinarily lengthy explanations of events. The cast also needed to give the whole thing more of a kick with tongues firmly in cheek.
Maybe it's got something to do with it being hellishly difficult to direct and act at the same time!
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