The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful

by Charles Ludlam

Comedy



2 men playing various roles

Simple sets

This definitive spoof of Gothic melodramas recently revived Off-Broadway to raves is a quick change marathon in which two actors play all the roles. A sympathetic werewolf a vampire and an Egyptian princess brought to life when her tomb is opened make this a comedy that has everything. "Far and away the funniest two hours on a New York stage....What more meaningful gift could Ludlam bequeath [audiences

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Queer, School, Vampires, Gothic

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Charles Braun Ludlam was an American actor, director, and playwright.

Ludlam joined John Vaccaro's Play-House of the Ridiculous, and after a falling out, became founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in New York City in 1967. His first plays were inchoate exercises: however, starting with Bluebeard he began to write more structured works, which, though they were pastiches of gothic novels, Lorca, Shakespeare, Wagner, popular culture, old movies, and anything else that might get a laugh, had more serious import.

Theater critic Brendan Gill after seeing one of Ludlam's plays famously remarked, "This isn't farce. This isn't absurd. This is absolutely ridiculous!".

Yet on his own work Ludlam had commented: "I would say that my work falls into the classical tradition of comedy. Over the years there have been certain traditional approaches to comedy. As a modern artist you have to advance the tradition. I want to work within the tradition so that I don’t waste my time trying to establish new conventions. You can be very original within the established conventions."

Ludlam usually appeared in his plays (particularly noted for his female roles), and had written one of the first plays to deal (though tangentially) with HIV infection. He taught or staged productions at New York University, Connecticut College for Women, Yale University, and Carnegie Mellon University. He won fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. He won six Obie Awards, the last one 2 weeks before his death, and won the Rosamund Gilder Award for distinguished achievement in the theater in 1986. His most popular play, and the only one to enter the standard repertory, is The Mystery of Irma Vep, in which two actors manage, through a variety of quick-change techniques, to play seven roles in a send-up of gothic horror novels. The original production featuring Ludlam and his lover Everett Quinton was a tour de force. In order to ensure cross-dressing, rights to perform the play include a stipulation that the actors must be of the same sex. In 1991, Irma Vep was the most produced play in the United States; and in 2003, it became the longest-running play ever produced in Brazil.

Ludlam was diagnosed with AIDS in March 1987. He attempted to fight the disease by putting his lifelong interest in health foods and macrobiotic diet to use. He died a month later of PCP pneumonia in St. Vincent's Hospital, New York. The street in front of his theatre in Sheridan Square was renamed "Charles Ludlam Lane" in his honor.

In 2009, Ludlam was inducted posthumously into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. After his death, "Walter Ego", the ironically named dummy character from Ludlam's play "The Ventriloquist's Wife" was donated to the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, where it remains on exhibit today; the puppet was designed and built by actor and noted puppetmaker Alan Semok.

Reviews

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

This was another play I read for the reading committee of my community theater, being in the same general vein as Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.

Sadly, I did not like this one nearly as much as the other.

It's meant to be a sort of parody of melodrama, but it didn't read as funny to me. Maybe it would be different to see it live, but, just reading it, it left me kind of cold.

Aside from not finding the humor in it... it was just all over the place. It's a mystery in a manor about a lost wife. And maybe there are werewolves. And maybe vampires. And there's the moors and some sort of Wuthering Heights vibes...

But then we're in Egypt exploring a tomb, and a mummy coming back to life...

But then we're back at the manor...

And then it's sort of tied together in the end, but it's just so stupid.

And not, like, so dumb it's genius. It was just dumb.

[Martin Denton]

Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep is a broadly funny parody of Victorian melodrama, gothic romance novels, and about a million hoary old movies from the '30s and '40s. With two actors playing eight different roles, it's also a triumph of quick-change ingenuity.

The script is choice nonsense: Lady Enid Hillcrest, second wife of Lord Edgar, is having trouble feeling at home at Mandacrest, mostly because Irma Vep, Lord Edgar's late first wife, remains such a palpable presence. (If it sounds like Rebecca then I've described it right.) There's also a werewolf lurking about, as well as an Egyptian mummy, two bizarre servants, and enough plot twists to fill a pretzel factory. All of these entirely implausible events are delivered in dialogue that is a mix of old movie cliches, bad puns, and terrible jokes.

[Eliot_vibes]

The problem with reading plays like this is that you aren't seeing it performed. The issue exists with Shakespeare it is an issue that continues with many plays regardless of material. This play is one that you really should probably be seeing on stage to actual enjoy it. I understand that it's meant to be a satire of a lot of tropes in gothic stories, but reading it does not create entertainment. If anything it's rather dull. Its alright at first but by the mid point my eyes sort of glazed over. I'd like to see it on stage, that's for sure.

[Jason Cady]

Wow! What a masterpiece! This play is so funny. I wish I could see it performed. Many plays read well as literature, and this one does, but a lot of the humor and interest results from two actors playing multiple roles, with frequent exits and costume changes. It must be virtuosic to pull off.

[Logan]

Can I believe my eyes and ears? The five senses? This shit was CRAAAAZY. I hope I can see this one day, I need to know what it feels like to have the actors quick change and move in and out of each character. My kind of play.

[Daniel]

It’s fun and creative, and a virtuosic feat if you can pull it off.

[Quinn]

This has a special place in my heart because this was the first play I stage managed. ❤

[shri]

a crazy play

[Josie]

this was a loveable hoot

[clara]

another fun suite play-reading with abi &co :)

[Z]

this is one of my favorite plays

[Brian McCann]

Definitely not my jam. I bet as a two-person show, it might be fun. It doesn’t read well.

[Scott]

This was a trip - so much fun! Especially tricky since only TWO actors play ALL eight roles - men, women, vampires, mummies, and werewolves! Must be breathtaking - a whirlwind - to see performed onstage with all those changes of costume and character intact in continuous motion!

[Tom Varner]

THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP is supposed to be a comical satire of gothic literature. The plot of the play revolves around Lord Edgar and his new wife, Lady Enid. Lord Edgar seems to love Lady Enid, but is also haunted by the memory of his first wife, Irma Vep, and their child, both of who apparently died in a mysterious fashion. In the first act, Lady Enid spends much of the time discussing Lord Edgar with the maid, Jane Twisden, and a swineherd named Nicodemus. The second act follows Lord Edgar as he uncovers an ancient tomb of a princess in what is apparently Egypt. The final act returns to the setting of Act I, the Mandacrest estate. Here Lady Enid actually meets Irma Vep. Both werewolves and vampires make appearances.

The play is written solely for two actors who are supposed to be the same sex. Between the two of them, the two actors play eight total roles and the show includes over thirty different costume changes.

THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP is a play that is probably much funnier to see on stage than it actually is to read from the page. Reading the play, there were times I became bored by it: it reminded me of poorly written version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS with some gothic elements thrown in. There were a few laugh out moments (particularly in the third act), but overall, the script doesn't read well. What makes the play funny is the knowledge that there are two actors playing all the roles and imagining what they would like and how a scene would be pulled off. That's where the humor of the show lies. Unfortunately, many people just reading this script probably won't realize that.

If you get an opportunity to see a staged production of THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, it will probably be worth your while. If you're just looking for a play to read (and aren't trying to select a play to perform), then I'd skip this one.

[Andy Ober]

I think I might have missed something here. I didn't realize this was a comedy until about halfway through. I trust that, like most plays, a reader loses something in simply reading a script versus seeing it on stage. There were some funny moments here, but I found the story to be a bit scattered, with some of the jokes forced in with a soldering iron.

I do believe, in the hands of two capable actors or actresses, this could be a perfectly serviceable comedy. Unfortunately, those two actors or actresses were not the ones performing the version of the play in my head.