A family-friendly, horror-comedy with Werewolves, Vampires and an archaeologist with MUMMY issues!

One of the most produced comedies in U.S. history. This outrageous spoof is a family-friendly horror comedy as two actors (Benji Regen & Damian Gillen) play all of the play's eight characters, racing through a literal quick-change marathon! The Mystery of Irma Vep guarantees fun for everyone!

• “It’s Monty Python meets Young Frankenstein.”

• Voted one of the best plays by Time Magazine & New York Times!

• Winner of prestigious Drama Desk & Obie awards!
  

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PRESS:

ACTORS EXTRAORDINARY IN 'IRMA VEP'

Last night I dreamed I went to Mandacrest again, but it turned out to be Charles Ludlam's "The Mystery of Irma Vep" at the Cameo Theatre.

The show — a joint staging by the Cameo and The Company — is half shocking mystery, half Victorian melodrama, half "Dracula," half "Rebecca," half "Hound of the Baskervilles," half curse of King Tut, and all campy, farcical nonsense in the tradition of everything from Carol Burnett to Monty Python. That makes about seven or eight shows, all delivered by two actors in seven roles.

All isn't well at gloomy Mandacrest Manor. A wolf, or something, stalks the moors. Lady Enid, who never comes down in the daylight, is haunted by the memory of her predecessor, the mysterious Irma Vep , whose history conceals half a dozen dark secrets. (To reveal one of them, play around with the letters of her name.)

Lord Edgar is an Egyptologist who spends half his time raiding tombs for mummies and the other half gabbing with the wooden-legged handyman, Nicodemus Underwood, who spends half of his time flirting with Jane, the maid who remains loyal to the reputation of her late mistress.

Only certain characters can interact with each other, "for obvious reasons" as one of them says, so some of the comedy comes from the semi-frantic way one or another person rushes off stage and carries on conversations from the wings before someone else enters just in time from the other side.

Since Damian Gillen (also the director) and Benji Regan know their roles backward and forward, mostly forward, they're free to extemporize and expectorate in the moment, weaving their well-timed and multiaccented delivery with casual asides on costume flubs or other random whimsicalia.

More than celebrating the type of plots it spoofs so briskly, a show like this is a celebration of performance. The real pleasure is the spectacle of two actors loving what they do and doing it well. They're in the zone, wherever that is. The joy of performance becomes its own kind of dance.

Such a demonstration can make you wonder why every play doesn't double up roles. It's like getting twice the talent for half the money. It may be mainly a joke, but it has the magic of theater in it, the kind that could encourage you to see a show more than once because each performance strikes different notes on the same music. 

Antics of two-man cast make over-the-top 'Irma Vep' a delight!

by Jasmina Wellinghoff
Special to the Express-News

Halloween is a time for masquerades, so it is quite fitting that the Company Theatre has chosen to produce the ultimate theatrical masquerade, "The Mystery of Irma Vep," at this time of the year.

Staged in an intimate setting at the cozy Ruben's Café, the play is a campy, Halloween-ish spoof of melodramatic gothic novels — and the movies that followed — complete with ripping thunder, howling wolves, vampires, secrets, ancient curses and things that go bump in the night.

To enjoy it, come prepared to go with its silly flow.

Here's the premise. Lord Edgar Hillcrest has returned to his isolated ancestral manor on the moors with his new bride, Lady Enid. But the portrait of his dead first wife, Irma Vep (Clue: Irma Vep is an anagram for…?), hangs in the drawing room and the housekeeper, Jane, is not exactly friendly to the new mistress.

Nevertheless, Jane soon reveals a deep, dark secret to Enid regarding the mysterious death of Irma's son, who was killed by a wolf or, maybe, a werewolf. "The dead cling to us. They don't want to let go," muses Jane. The only other inhabitant of the mansion is the wooden-legged Nicodemus, who has plenty of secrets of his own.

The rest of the action is a convoluted succession of gothic plot elements, condensed in the most abridged, most over-the-top and mixed-up way imaginable. You'll probably recognize quite a few of playwright Charles Ludlum’s literary sources.

What makes this theatrical crazy quilt work is the actors' antics, ably handled here by director Damian Gillen and Benji Regan. Quick-change artists that they are, the two play all the parts, both male and female, without ever making us feel that we are waiting too long for a certain character to appear. What's more, they successfully create the impression that there are others somewhere there in the back, interacting with them.

Gillen is especially adept at instant transformation as he repeatedly turns himself from the rough-talking Nicodemus to the mannered Lady Enid and later into an Egyptian guide. Regan starts as Jane, whom he impersonates with goofy ease, but he is less on target as the pompous Lord Edgar.

The staging itself is simple, and scary effects are limited. But there are still a few surprises and a lot of great howling.

 

Bevy of stage plays shined in '08"

By Deborah Martin

"The Mystery of Irma Vep," The Company: Damian Gillen and Benji Regan played multiple roles in this farcical Victorian send-up, staged at the Cameo Theatre."