15 December, 2008

I Lost 1d6 Points of Sanity Yesterday

It was a cloudy, windy day in the Windy City yesterday as we entered the Athenaeum Theatre for a production of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House" by WildClaw Theatre. Perfect weather for a bit of supernatural horror.

Adapting Lovecraft for the stage must have been quite a challenge. His stories are not exactly action-packed and instead chronicle slow descents into madness amidst the unnatural and eldritch. They are about characters' inner states as they struggle with the indescribable and the ineffable. But UK transplant Charley Sherman did an admirable job adapting and directing the story.

Walter Gilman is a young man attending the fictitious Miskatonic University in the equally fictitious Arkham, Massachusetts. He is a boarder in an old house which was once home to a witch named Keziah Mason. The room inspires macabre dreams and eventually they and reality become a distinction without a difference. Whereas Lovecraft began his tale with Gilman already suffering from the first hints of madness, Sherman begins his version with infanticide and shows us Gilman leaving his hometown of Haverhill. He also introduces us to Lillith, a character not found in Lovecraft's original. Heavy with child, she escapes her abusive husband by killing him and flees to Arkham. Purists may cry foul but Sherman adds to the story lovingly. When he creates something new or enacts events that Lovecraft mentions almost in passing, he generally does so in the spirit of the author.



The first act is a bit scattered as the story is set up and multiple characters are introduced in rapid fire. These short scenes felt lacking but they are suitably moody despite being heavy on the exposition. The second act really shined, however. As madness seeps in even further, things get weirder and the performances more intense. Sherman peppered his story with humor as well as references that only Lovecraft fans would catch. He did so at just the right times and so provided some relief in the midst of an otherwise strange and horrific tale.

The set was rather interesting. Lillith's prison cell is on the right while Gilman's room in the witch house is on the left. Not only does this arrangement allow action to easily go from one character to another, but it also echoes the relationship of the two characters. The space in the center stands in for various locations around Arkham as well as the eldritch non-Euclidian dimensions that Gilman enters in his dream states. Judicious use of black lights, tennis balls, and sound effects made our protagonist's ventures into the void much more creepy than I ever thought could be realized onstage. And there were tentacles!

The acting was also excellent. I appreciated how Thomas Wittingham didn't overdo his flailing upon entering the void and how his madness caused him to continually look skyward. Brian Amidei played up the role of Father Iwanicki just to the point of parody without going over the line. (Not too far, anyway.) His break with sanity was marvelous! Similarly, Michaela Petro hammed it up a bit as Keziah Mason but she never went overboard. The crowd favorite, however, had to be Ron Kuzava who portrayed Brown Jenkins, Keziah's half-rat, half-human lackey. He menacingly scurried about the stage and at one point gleefully chomped into Gilman's arm. A perfect companion for Keziah.



Sherman obviously adores Lovecraft's story but, to his credit, he adapted it in a way that was true to the spirit of the original while playfully channeling Ken Russell all the while.

The Dreams in the Witch House closes next weekend so catch it while you can.

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