ON STAGE: Scary Stories
eye WEEKLY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eye WEEKLY May 9, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ON STAGE ON STAGE
SCARY STORIES
Featuring Hugo Dann, Hardee Lineham, Allegra Fulton. Written by Gordon
Armstrong. Directed by Peter Hinton. Buddies In Bad Times, 12
Alexander St. To May 12. $10-$12, 975-8555.
by
Robert Armstrong
Despite seeming more Roger Corman than Tales From The Crypt, Gordon
Armstrong's Scary Stories works extremely well as a chunk of absurdist
satire. At least for the first half.
It's the mid-'50s, and Jules (Hugo Dann), creator of the comic book
series Tomb Of Doom, has trekked from Manhattan to Nevada to convince
his publisher Wally (Hardee Lineham) not to cancel the title. Tomb Of
Doom is about to fall victim to the new Comics Code -- a repressive
censorship regime that the U.S. government forced on publishers
because of a belief that comic books cause juvenile delinquency.
Wally's life is as twisted as any comic book tale; his wife is mad
(possibly) and her vampish nurse is plugging him with amphetamines.
Jules is equally messed up -- the show features two major detours
through his lurid imagination that pop up as fully staged comic strip
vignettes.
Now the '50s may already seem to us like a self-lampooning cartoon,
but the first of these ghoulish vignettes goes a step further. It
descends from a Leave It To Beaver hyper-normalcy through bondage,
force feeding, cannibalism and poisoning to a surprise finish -- a
wonderful send-up of the queasy fear puritans have of their own
imagination.
But after this great, sometimes inspired, opening half, the wheels
come off. As the angst grows and the secrets tumble forth in the main
plot, there's a sudden and over-long deviation into the second comic
strip vignette. This sequence attempts to manipulate the century's
greatest symbol of repression, the Nazis, but it's more like Dr.
Strangelove meets Demon Seed, except directed by Ed Wood.
The otherwise excellent cast could do little more here than to start
chewing the scenery. As the camp values went through the roof, the
whole thing became more and more tiresome. And when the main plot
resurfaced, I found I'd lost my patience for the whole thing.
So the moral is, if you go over the top in the first half, it's really
hard to do it again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright
http://www.interlog.com/eye Mailing list available
theatre archives -----------> http://www.interlog.com/eye/Arts/Theatre
e...@interlog.com "...Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421