10 H&H Series, Thursday October 23, 2014 theatre Bridget Galton | spotlight | London Horror Festival Delusional dictator’s wife parties on dance floor Small budget National Theatre – Dorfman – but they’ll be ith an Evita revival Wrunning in the West End, there seems a trend for musicals about big on screams despotic, spendthrift self-styled women-of-the-people who married international leaders. Like the Rice/Lloyd Webber Ingenious shows will have audiences on the offering, this boogie through the life of by edge of their seats, writes Nathalie Raffray musician/composer and DJ offers dazzling costume changes, a sung-though score of uplifting melodies and an anti-heroine overs of all things effective and successful horror with a cold, ambitious heart. spine-chilling and theatre on a small budget is a real Taking inspiration from ghoulish should get skill and art,” says producer Peter Imelda’s love of disco dancing. Ldown to Camden Davis. “The ingenuity and talent the newly refurbished Town’s Etcetera from the festival companies this Dorfman Theatre – formerly Theatre for the fortnight-long year is outstanding and really the Cottesloe, now with better London Horror Festival. establishes horror theatre on the toilets and bigger bar – has Now in its fourth year, visitors London fringe scene.” been converted into a nightclub. can expect the unexpected from Ladybird (Oct 23), inspired by Audience members can sit in the the 15 different shows on offer local writer Lisa Appignanesi’s Mad, Bad and Sad: A History gallery or throw shapes on the Natalie Mendoza dazzles as Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love incorporating theatre, comic book of Women and the Mind Doctors dancefloor, shepherded by pink- Picture: Tristram Kenton horror, radio plays and film. “Horror by its nature often from 1800 to the Present, tells jumpsuited bouncers as shifting and assassination of opposition and pay tribute to the bravery of requires a lot of money for special the story of three women who catwalks and rostra are used leader Aquino. the Filipino people for staging a effects, prosthetics, elaborate have been institutionalised in to perform upon. At one point Natalie Mendoza is seductively peaceful coup against the Marcos sound and lighting – so producing an asylum to protect society and we’re even taught to line-dance. dazzling as Imelda, ably in 1986. In a tightly-choreographed supported by a slick-haired Mark But the lack of dialogue, enjoyable camp fest that borders Bautista as coupled with the relentlessly on the glib, Alex Timbers’ slick and Dean John-Wilson as a throbbing disco beat deny direction fast-tracks us from poignant Aquino who bravely quieter moments to explore Imelda’s modest origins in the returns from exile to his death. either political or emotional 1940s via beauty pageant success complexities. to first dating senator Ninoy Towering ego We hear almost nothing from Aquino, then future president And ’s evocative ordinary folk about what it’s to Ferdinand Marcos. projections on multiple screens live in a dictatorship, nor do we As the story turns darker offer images of real life figures get a window on the inner life – Imelda pops pills to deal that remind us of Imelda’s of the increasingly delusional with the public attention and towering ego and the Marcos’ Imelda. Oddly there’s barely a marital infidelities – the couple’s globe-trotting courtship of world mention of shoes. popular presidency turns to leaders. For all its dazzle design and dictatorship with extravagant From the programme notes energy, Here Lies Love leaves you spending, the declaration of Byrne means to criticise as empty as its heroine’s heart. martial law, and imprisonment America’s complicity in the saga Until January 8. Ladybird tells the story of three Mind reader, magician and women in an asylum hypnotist Sean Smith Issues of skin colour and status Period piece are explored with real insight stripped back

THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND placage emerged in which mixed to shed light on Tricycle Theatre race mistresses and their children could negotiate for property, money and education. Here, human truths mixed race matriarch Beartrice OUR TOWN n Marcus Gardley’s 1830s (Martina Laird) was colonist Almeida Theatre INew Orleans-set play, Albans’ (Paul Shelley) placee. the ghost of a murdered While their three daughters European colonist threatens to are born free, their shades of bring down his property and his skin colour promise different he heartfelt message of bereaved mixed race mistress social destinies: the oldest Agnes Thornton Wilder’s iconic and daughters. But there are few “is the colour of butter”, the T 1938 play is delivered cracks evident in the buoyant UK middle Maude Lynn “is white as Michele Austin, Ronke Adekoluejo, Danusia Samal, Ayesha Antoine and Martina Laird in The House That Will Not Stand Picture: Mark Douet with stunning directness in David premiere of this lyrical, witty and milk” and the youngest Odette Cromer’s unaffected revival. wildly unpredictable play. is “brown as oatmeal”. With The mix of righteous fury and Scarlett O’Hara to shame. Laird Wilder’s fourth-wall-busting Fusing magic, music and even Albans’ corpse freshly laid out in despair, the literary allusions and is a revelation and Tanya Moodie piece endeavours to communicate voodoo, Gardley hones in on the their living room (an impressive race issues could all make for a brings a heartbreaking dignity to the truth of what it means to be issue of skin colour and status dummy oppresses throughout), tough night out but this play is the role of maid Makeda. Yes, the human by limiting theatrical and brings that into the present the daughters fight for their right bursting with playfulness and blend of the supernatural with artifice – an aim honoured by with a fierce clarity. Under French to attend the annual New Orleans shrewd, humane insights. It’s camp comedy sometimes jars but Cromer’s intimate, immersive and Spanish rule in the Louisiana ball where they hope to bewitch quite something to see a cast of director Indhu Rubasingham pulls staging, in which house lights territories, it became common a man who will liberate them such strong female characters the contrasting elements together stay up and actors wander freely practice for male European from their mother’s house rule. battle it out on stage, playing with great energy and ultimately through the audience. colonists to take enslaved African But just as in Lorca’s House of up the social mores, while seals the right balance. Often played as a mistily women as mistresses or common- Bernarda Alba (Gardley’s main undercutting the hypocrisies with Until November 22. nostalgic paean to small- law wives. A unique system of inspiration), freedom is hard won. catty exchanges that would put Caroline David town America, Cromer’s Our Thursday October 23, 2014, H&H Series 11

Twins Macabre: Small Mediums at Large tells the story of siblings with a penchant for murder themselves, while tomorrow true story of Sarah Winchester, 10-year-old psychic siblings (Oct 24) there’s an exclusive the widow of a gun magnate Maurice and Ivy, who have a screening of short horror films who was responsible for San penchant for finger painting – Horror Shorts. The winner of Jose’s infamous Winchester and murder. Having run away a competition for best original Mystery House. The show is from the circus, the pair lock short horror film will be set on the evening of a seance their audience in the Playroom announced on the night. in a rambling labyrinthine Prison and conjure the souls If you like a little magic with mansion as exotic medium Mr of the damned through twisted your horror tales then mind De Villiers helps owner Ethel sketches and comic songs. reader, magician and hypnotist Charles to make peace with the Expect a fast-paced Sean Smith should have it ghosts she believes are hunting black comedy laced with all in his show Folklore Unto her. vaudevillian theatrics, Himself (Oct 25-26). maleficent spirits, demonic Smith presents a collection Twisted sketches party games and moments of of his favourite British folklore Rounding off the festival is I’ll genuine horror – just the ticket which he believes is the root Be Right Back’s reimagining for Halloween. of our horror tradition. From of Christopher Marlowe’s deal- The festival of horror is horseshoes to hag stones, the with-the-devil drama Faustus sponsored by the British Green Man to the Black Shuck, (Oct 29-31), set in the cut-throat Library in conjunction with discover the ancient stories corporate world, and Small their Terror and Wonder – The that speak to our deepest fears. Mediums at Large (Oct 30-31), a Gothic Imagination exhibition Award-winning theatre dark comedy last seen on BBC and runs until October 31. troupe The Off-Off-Off 3’s Live at the Electric and a Broadway Company bring old- hit at the Edinburgh Fringe in For full listings, times and school chiller Peaceful (Oct 27- August. prices, visit londonhorrorfestival. 28) to the festival, based on the The Twins Macabre are com/whats-on/

suitor. Anna Francolini and Kate Dickie evoke the weary domestic grind, Richard Lumsden displays deft timing, Annette McLaughlin lands an hysterical cameo, and Christopher Staines’ depressive choirmaster delivers both Jonathan Mastro’s expressive music and a genuinely disquieting beat. The absence of props results in some dubious Laura Elsworthy, David Cromer and David Walmsley in Our Town mime, and allowing the Picture: Marc Brenner story to drift into a more Town instead strips away attendant pointing out fire contemporary realm period dressing that might exits. The effect of this makes the gender politics act as a barrier: Alison artlessness – Wilder’s preferred problematic. Yet this quietly Siple’s costumes are neutral “understatement of sentiment” sincere piece is a striking contemporary and performers – and Stephen Dobay’s microcosm, homespun use their natural accents. New minimalist set is to stimulate philosophy masking deeper Hampshire settlement Grover’s our imagination and demand a wisdom. Wilder argues Corners may be evoked with rewarding level of engagement. for the preciousness of dogged deliberateness, but this Similarly unshowy inconsequential moments, production balances specificity performances communicate and in asking what makes with resonant universality. emotional undercurrents a life and how we might be Cromer himself plays the with admirable restraint. remembered, Our Town is metatheatrical Stage Manager, Laura Elsworthy’s Emily startlingly profound in its narrating and directing the is refreshingly spiky, while seeming simplicity. action with dry matter-of- David Walmsley is fearlessly Until November 29. factness, like a jaded flight unfiltered as her puppyish Marianka Swain