As fate would have it, we were at The Hypnodrome later that afternoon rehearsing the new play on the Head Trips bill, The Chaos Masquerade, when one of the men we sat next to at Luna knocked on the door and proceeded to buy tickets from Jim for that night’s performance. They made the Luna connection, Jim and I had a laugh and I, admittedly, teared up a bit at the wonder of it all. But there’s more …

That night at the show (where I work the door) the same guy introduces himself to me as “Tom”. I looked again at the will-call list where I saw Tom’s last name – “Derrah”. Well, I instantly recognized the name. Tom Derrah has been an actor in the resident company of American Repertory Theatre for years and well remember his excellent work and reputation all the way back to the mid-80s when I was an acting student at Boston University. I’ll be damned – upgrade that man the center Shock Box! He and his partner, John, had a blast!

Tom opens this week in a “penny dreadful” inspired Oliver Twist at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The production has already played American Rep and Theatre for a New City in New York to great acclaim. This may be one to see!

(Tom is the orphan boy on the far left-hand side of the photo.)

“The play, a theatre department Off-Center Production, features the two directors’ interpretation of the play. Messer and Snyder envelop the torture-heavy play with several profound layers of conceptual metaphor. For example, while the chief storyline revolves around a mad doctor’s Frankenstein-esque experiments (Igor-like deformed assistant included), the audience listens to a conversation between Alien Voices (David Kriebs and Catherine Schuler) as they discuss whether these examples of “thinking meat” deserve to be involved in the bigger galactic picture.

But if you’re not a narcissist, don’t be shocked by The Lab. Its pessimistic message – we’re all going to hell, and there’s nothing we can do about it – is the bottom line of the production.”

Read the full article.

One bone I’d like to pick with the paper is that the homepage of our GrandGuignol.com site is quoted twice in the article without any attribution given. The quoted text even appears in quotes, but isn’t followed by any source. I’m not sure how that slipped by the editors without raising a big red flag, but I have a suspicion that it may be time to ban beer bongs in the Diamondback newsroom.

Anyway, such an enthusiastic article should help ensure a full house at tonight’s final performance.

“I’m very thankful for this opportunity to explore such an obscure artform, one that is seldom done anymore. Grand Guignol is such a melodramatic, overly-exaggerated way of theatre. It definitely goes for shock value, using realistic scenes of violence which result in puddles of blood all over the stage every show. Why would people like to see this onstage? I don’t really know.”

Information is scarce on the UM website, but The Lab: An Experiment in Grand Guignol appears to be an adaptation of Andre de Lorde’s play Laboratory of Hallucinations. It will have its final performance on Monday, April 2, 2007 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center‘s Laboratory Theatre. Admission is free. Seating is limited.

Congrats to the cast and crew. Sounds like M. de Lorde would be proud.

Paula Citron of the Globe and Mail writes:

Pity the poor Rocky Virgins, that distinct underclass of society who has never experienced either the stage or movie versions of Richard O’Brien’s high camp, transsexual, sci-fi, musical spoof The Rocky Horror Show. After attending the CanStage production, they are not going to have any idea what the show is about, even after it’s over, because they won’t have heard a word.

…Actor Eddie Glen comes out before the show to tell the crowd they can shout out and use their props, but to refrain from throwing anything at the actors. There is even a Prop Rules & Instructions page in the program. Glen also administers the Transylvanian Oath, and leads the ritual that usually begins each screening where the Rocky Virgins pop their cherries.

Amid the almighty din that accompanies the performance, dialogue and lyrics go south. What is worse, when the audience does shut up for the songs, the diction of the performers is incomprehensible, which is too bad because O’Brien did write some clever lyrics to his fifties’ rock pastiche tunes. In other words, this RHS performance is virtually like a silent movie engulfed in deafening noise.

John Coulbourn of the Toronto Sun also takes issue with the audience interaction:

If you find theatrical attempts to orchestrate anarchy not only oxymoronic, but vaguely creepy to boot, you might think twice about heading out to the production of The Rocky Horror Show that opened Thursday at the Bluma Appel Theatre.

He singles out several strong performers in the cast, but also notes the chaos they’re fighting against:

Sadly, even their work is diminished by the combination of John Bent Jr.’s muddy sound design and a relentless opening-night clack seemingly determined to convince us we were all having the time of our lives.

Yeah, yeah, we know it’s cool to shout out at the movie, but frankly, in a theatre, a choice between hearing the esteemed John Neville deliver his lines via film as Narrator or someone from the audience scream “Slut,” “A–hole” or “There is no phone in a castle,” like they were on auto-pilot, doesn’t seem to be much of a choice at all.

I think that trying to replicate the experience of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in a live theatre is a lose-lose proposition. The die-hard fans will certainly feel constricted by the necessary rules (unless you want them throwing things at your actors), and traditional theatre-goers (especially subscribers) will grow weary of the audience’s antics long before the final curtain.

If you’ve seen or been involved with a production of The Rocky Horror Show that successfully incorporated the film’s audience participation elements, post a comment an let us know how it was done.

While you’re thinking, here are CanStage’s “rules” mentioned above.