Theater Review - Stage blood

When terror is in the air, the best respite might be a good scare. This weekend will test theatergoers’ appetites for fearsome escapism with the opening of three shows written or inspired by major horror writers.

Sensurround Stagings takes over the Art Farm for its Clive Barker Project, while Whole World stages Veronica’s Room by Ira Levin, author of Deathtrap and Rosemary’s Baby. Meanwhile, Dad’s Garage opens a lighter vein with Carrie White: The Musical, “an unauthorized musical parody” of the Stephen King novel and Brian DePalma film.

It’s unusual to see so many fright writers lurking at local theaters, though in April, Neighborhood Playhouse staged Stephen King’s Misery and Art Within presented a theatrical version of H.G. Wells’ Island of Dr. Moreau. Halloween will see a fresh infusion of spooky scripts, including supernatural works adapted from Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde at the Shakespeare Tavern. But shows that tingle spines are frequently thin on the ground, which strikes me as a missed opportunity.

Traditionally, theater has been a vehicle for mystery nearly as often as comedy and tragedy, especially at community playhouses. But when it comes to thrillers, theater’s finger is nowhere near the racing pulse of the general public. Intelligent horror films have been hugely successful, and ghost stories like The Sixth Sense or The Others prove that elaborate visual effects aren’t necessary.

Sensurround aspires to stage midnight re-creations of classic monster movies if it can find a permanent playhouse. Their Clive Barker Project may be the next closest thing, presenting in repertory two plays by the Hellraiser creator: The History of the Devil and Frankenstein in Love.

The troupe has found Barker to be enormously supportive; he’s charging them a nominal $1 per performance. That’s quite a contrast to the reception Dad’s Garage Theatre received in 1999 when it sought permission to produce the infamous Carrie: The Musical. The theater company received a cease-and-desist order from Stephen King’s attorney for even considering the legendary Broadway flop. Consequently, artistic director Sean Daniels and actor George Faughnan have written their own campy version, with Faughnan in the Sissy Spacek role.

Atlanta puppeteer/goremeister Chris Brown is concocting the special effects for both Carrie White and Clive Barker plays, so expect both to be bloodfests. (Showing foresight, Sensurround secured Decatur’s Pinkcard Dry Cleaners as a sponsor.)

Chilling plays can be tremendously theatrical without resorting to grisly gimmicks. ART Station’s production of The Woman in Black last year provides a prime example. ART Station’s superbly haunting effects demonstrated how to unnerve audiences in a small playhouse.

Striking fear into audiences isn’t easy, but it strikes me as having the potential of reaping enormous dividends. Live theater’s greatest advantage is its intimacy. The audience shares the same space with the actors, and thus has a greater potential for identifying with victims and getting goosebumps when they’re menaced. A good, clean thriller that goes “Boo!” could be a tremendous word-of-mouth hit and a means to fund more serious, less commercial work.

So I dare you: Scare me. I double-dog dare you.

CASTING: Actor’s Express has announced plans to conclude its 2002-2003 season with Hedwig & the Angry Inch. The pop opera offers a perfect match to the playhouse’s sensibilities, but casting the lead role, unforgettably created by John Cameron Mitchell, is one heckuva challenge.

Artistic director Wier Harman rightly says that the role of the ferocious yet sympathetic German transsexual calls for “emotional availability.” Yet the performer must also be an archly funny drag queen with the credibility of a rock star. Plenty of local actors can live up to some of Hedwig traits, but few have all of them, although Bryan Mercer comes to mind. One name I keep coming back to is perhaps the least likely to play the role: Actor’s Express founder, Harvey Milk Show star and Portland, Ore., resident Chris Coleman himself.

ENTRANCES: Off-Script has received numerous e-mails from readers interested in contacting Kenny Leon’s new theater group: True Colors Theatre Company, 181 Tenth St., Suite 1, Atlanta, Ga., 30309. 404-541-2316. Fax: 404-541-2318. janebishop@mindspring.com

The Renaissance Project, a community theater company in south DeKalb County, produces its third summer season with Lost in Yonkers (June 21-29) and the American stage debut of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (July 19-28) based on the film of the same name. 404-243-6937.

ENCORE: After an absence of several years, Clyde Annandale’s Theatre With a Mission has resumed production in Marietta with a new storefront space on Powder Springs Street. The theater is located next door to Class Act Theatre and around the block from Theatre in the Square (which has two stages), making the southwest corner of the Marietta Square arguably the Atlanta area’s most densely populated theater district.

Off-Script is a biweekly column on the Atlanta theater scene.??