Take a dash of “Rebecca,” a dose of “Gaslight” and throw in some cross-dressing and split-second costume changes, and you’ve got “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s loving satire of melodramatic mysteries and campy horror movies, directed at Arena Stage with a barefaced bent for sheer entertainment by Rebecca Bayla Taichman.
Not everyone could happily lead audiences down a path heavily strewn with pop culture and literary references ranging from the Bronte sisters and Shakespeare to Alfred Hitchcock and Hammer film studio creature features. Yet fearless comic duo Brad Oscar and J. Fred Shiffman prove equal to the task.
With their physical grace and silent-movie faces, the two are Laurel and Hardy on steroids, playing a grab bag of stock characters (and monsters) and shucking flamboyant outfits more often than Carrie Bradshaw and the other “Sex and the City” gals put together. They also tread lightly on the script’s double-entendres and visual puns, shameless enough to make Mel Brooks blanch.
“Irma Vep” is a kitschy pastiche of black-and-white classics and deep purple emotions, as Lady Enid Hillcrest (Mr. Oscar), new wife of the odd Lord Edgar (Mr. Shiffman), tries to find her place in a gloomy estate (rendered to look like a TV rerun in James Noone’s visual pun of a set) populated by the ghost of the ex-wife (Mr. Shiffman), a sinister housekeeper (Mr. Shiffman), a conflicted stable boy (Mr. Oscar), a werewolf (Mr. Oscar), a vampire (Mr. Shiffman), and a mummy (Mr. Oscar).
The late Mr. Ludlam, founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, has given the actors a wealth of opportunities to milk laughs in a show that appears free-wheeling but is actually meticulously controlled mayhem. “Irma Vep” depends on faultless timing, a variety of comic voices, and actors who can improvise when things run amok.
Miss Taichman, who seems to bring clear-cut inventiveness to every show she directs, taps into her inner vaudevillian with a production as mindless and breezy as a summer blockbuster, starting with a hilariously schlocky title sequence projected upon a red velvet movie curtain. With “Irma Vep,” no humor is too low, no pun too awwww-inspiring.
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WHAT: “The Mystery of Irma Vep” by Charles Ludlam
WHERE: Arena Stage at Crystal City, 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through July 13.
TICKETS: $47 to $66
PHONE: 202/488-3300
WEB SITE: arenastage.org
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
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