Jackson Free Press

The Fondren Theatre Workshop will take over the former Radio Shack space at Meadowbrook Mart this weekend for a production of Charles Ludlam's camp-Gothic penny dreadful "The Mystery of Irma Vep."

Set in the waning years of 19th-century British imperial power, the show opens in the library of Mandacrest, a well-appointed English manor house furnished with plunder from distant colonial conquests. A macabre gallery of mounted taxidermy fills out the walls, and the cumulative effect evokes a successful subjugation of both foreign cultures and the natural world. Lord Edgar Hillcrest, world-weary Egyptologist and master of Mandacrest, anxiously introduces his young bride Lady Enid to the estate's residents.

A classic tale of "new bride meets the family" quickly unfolds. Enid endures the hostility of the dour housekeeper Jane Twisden and learns that a large portrait of Lord Edgar's former wife, Lady Irma, still occupies a prominent spot above the fireplace. But her feminine wiles conquer all obstacles. She ultimately earns Lord Edgar's affection and persuades him to remove the offensive reminder of his former marriage.

But the happy triumphs of love and English dominion prove short-lived. The deformed swineherd Nicodemus asks Lord Edgar early in the play, "So you've finally killed the beast, eh? … but what about the beast within?" As the sun sets over the empire, a dark mystery dating back to ancient Egypt unleashes unspeakable horrors upon the ordered Victorian household.

Director Opie Cooper delivers a delectable feast of magic, morbidity and mayhem. The deceptively simple set conceals many surprises and belies a technical sophistication worthy of the best magician's stage. Characters appear unexpectedly and disappear just as fast, compelling audience members to follow intently lest they miss another revelation. The monster-filled storyline offers an ample dose of vampires, werewolves and mummies, but fear not. The show's biting sarcasm, pun-filled script and well-executed physical gags ensure that any screams from the audience are induced by laughter rather than genuine terror.

Ludlam wrote the show for just two actors, and the original staging featured himself and his boyfriend. For the FTW production, actors Richard Lawrence and Ian Cory Drake play all of the show's six roles, seamlessly switching outfits and voices through deft manipulations of space and timing.

Lawrence plays the sweetly naïve Lady Enid, the foul-minded swineherd Nicodemus and the Egyptian crypt-guide, Alcazar. Drake covers the remaining roles as the English explorer-gentleman Lord Edgar, the proper English maid Jane Tisdale, and finally the "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" Lady Irma.

Cooper describes the production's aesthetic as that of "a silent movie performed on stage … with sound."

As implausible as this may seem, Lawrence and Drake pull it off, masterfully recreating the overblown emoting of early film and vaudeville. In a nod to the orchestras of yore, the show features live musical accompaniment by FTW members Brad Bishop and Bret Kenyon. Bishop and Kenyon's spooky sound effects and bone-chilling score sound oddly familiar, a series of eerie though recognizable versions of classic pop hits.

You'll have to look carefully to find any cogent themes in Irma Vep, scattered and covered as they are beneath the raucous bacchanal of dismembered limbs, dancing bare-bosomed mummies and bloodthirsty-though-misunderstood monsters. But the show does offer more to gnaw on than just the flesh of the living.

The fluidity of identity and the frequent character transformations throughout Irma Vep encourage audience members to question the public faces we all choose to adopt. Perhaps a hairy paw or an overgrown fang is not a reason to judge. But then again, it's also harder to think favorably once that fang or paw is buried in your bloodied neck. As Nicodemus reminds Jane early in the play, "we're all cut from the same bolt o' goods," for better or for worse.

So what is the mystery of Irma Vep? Does this post-colonial narrative conclude with a re-assertion of Western hegemony? Should we ultimately embrace outcasts as our brothers, or stuff them, pop in some marbles for eyes and hang them on the wall? And who will win in the final between vampire and werewolf? Answers await in the old Radio Shack.

"The Mystery of Irma Vep" runs Nov. 1-3 at 7:30 p.m. in the former Radio Shack location in Meadowbrook Mart. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students. Call 601-982-2217 to reserve tickets.