The Mystery of Irma Vep
A Penny Dreadful by Charles Ludlam
Directed by Marcella Kearns
October 4- 22, 2023
Wednesday, October 4 Pay-What-You-Will Preview
Thursday, October 5: Final Preview
Friday, October 6: Opening Night
Wednesday – Saturday evenings at 7:30pm
Friday matinee October 13th at 2:00pm
Sunday matinees at 2:00pm
A quick-change, gender-bending comedy!
Lord Edgar, an Egyptologist, is newly married to Lady Enid, and comfortably residing in Mandacrest Estate. However, Lord Edgar has yet to recover entirely from the passing of his first wife, the eerie Irma Vep.
Two nimble actors quickly change back and forth between roles of both genders in a world filled with vampires, ghosts, mummies and werewolves. Charles Ludlam’s groundbreaking satire pokes wicked fun at several genres, including Victorian melodrama, Wuthering Heights and Hitchcock’s film Rebecca.
Community Partner
Pay-What-You-Will Preview
October 4th at 7:30pm
Post Show Conversation
October 13th
About The Playwright
Charles Ludlam
Charles Ludlam (1943-1987) grew up in Queens, New York, just a few subway stops from Greenwich Village, and the heart of Gay America. At twenty-four, he founded the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, where he wrote, directed and performed in almost every production for the next two decades, often with Everett Quinton, his life partner and muse, by his side. Renowned for drag, high comedy, melodrama, satire, precise literary references, gender politics, sexual frolic, and a multitude of acting styles, the Ridiculous Theater guaranteed a kind of biting humor that could both sting and tickle. His many plays included Turds in Hell, Der Ring Gott Farblonjet, a riff on Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Bluebeard, and The Mystery of Irma Vep, his most popular play, and a performer’s tour-de-force. Ludlam continued working until almost the day he died of PCP pneumonia, just three months after his AIDS diagnosis. He was 44.
Meet the cast
Karen Estrada*
Natalie Rich*
artistic team
Director: Marcella Kearns
Production Stage Manager: Kelsey York*
Set Design: Lisa Schlenker**
Costume Design: Kim Instenes
Lighting Design: Noele Stollmack**
Sound Design: Hannah Foerschler
our show sponsors
Steve and Jackie Kane
OtherWorlds Books & More
“The Mystery of Irma Vep – A Penny Dreadful” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com