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The Kingdom of Monsters at the St John’s Arts and Culture Centre
The Woman in Black at Rabbittown Theatre

The Kingdom of Monsters and The Woman in Black are two seasonal shows that work to please their respective audiences by drawing heavily on established genres.

The Kingdom of Monsters and The Woman in Black are two seasonal shows that work to please their respective audiences by drawing heavily on established genres.

The Kingdom of Monsters is billed as “A Halloween Magic Show Spectacular Featuring Puppets, Live Music, And More!”—and it delivers on this promise, exclamation mark and all. The play/performance is framed by a narrative about an overly curious young boy who is given magic powers by the King of The Monsters. The first catch is that this boy—who becomes Abraxis the Magician (Peter Duchemin)—must appear at the King’s court every Halloween for 99 years to perform for the king and his monsters. The other catch is that Abraxis must also try to make the King’s daughter, named Whisper (Evelyn Osborne), speak, and thereby win her hand in marriage. What Abraxis does not know is that the King has cast a spell to silence Whisper. The “boy” Magician has performed for 98 Halloweens and tonight is his last chance to make the princess speak; if he fails, he perishes (the third catch).

This narrative is largely a pretext for Duchemin’s magic show, his banter with the puppets (the nicely grotesque creations of Jamie Skidmore), and the music provided by both Osborne (who does fine work on the violin) and an organ-playing Dr. Eyeball, performed by Chris Driedzic, who labours under a giant papier maché (?) eyeball.

Duchemin has honed his magical skills performing regularly at children’s events in St. John’s, and he runs through a series of illusions with confidence and skill. These include tricks with rope, spongy balls, cards (and a rat trap), metal rings, and Abraxis’ impressive stove-pipe hat. He does his best work with Osborne, who acts as his assistant for a pair of cabinet tricks—passing through spikes, suffering fragmentation, and blade thrusts. His banter with the heckling monster audience could be tightened, but Driedzic’s mood music (comic and creepy) picks up much of this slack.

Most importantly, Duchemin knows how to work the family audience and the children clearly loved the show. The night I saw it, the kids laughed at the crude jokes (Abraxis is dealing with surly and somewhat unhygienic monsters, after all), were amazed by the illusions (many wondered loudly “How did he do THAT?” when Abraxis levitated a skull), and clutched parents and grandparents when Duchemin terrified them (the killer bunny with shark teeth clearly sent a chills up their spines). They also seemed to appreciate Abraxis’ battle with the King (or at least one of his tentacles that emerged from the wings to assail him), as well as the poetic justice of the magician’s victory, the power of the love that breaks the spell cast over Whisper, and the princess’ assumption of her father’s crown.

The Woman In Black, adapted from Susan Hill’s novel by Stephen Mallatratt, confines itself to working on its audience’s fear, but like Kingdom of Monsters, it carefully follows the contours of an established genre, in this case, the ghost story. A solicitor, Arthur Kipps, wishes to purge himself of a tragic memory by having an Actor help him perform the events surrounding his tragedy. As a young lawyer, Kipps was charged with closing the estate of the Alice Drablow, who lived and died at Eel Marsh House, isolated at high tide from the mainland. While sorting out Drablow’s papers, Kipps is haunted by the Woman in Black. Pressing a local for information about the Woman, he learns the truth about this spectre’s terrible past, and subsequently loses his wife and child to her curse.

The play includes a familiar examination of the power of theatre to cure and to generate unexpected, fearsome—even supernatural—consequences for those who take on “dangerous” roles. Although Kipps eventually seems to come to terms with his past by working with the Actor to perform his own story, the Woman in Black herself appears in the “rehearsals,” passing her fatal curse on to the Actor and, we are led to believe, his young family.

Aiden Flynn plays the Actor (and, in the course of rehearsing, Kipps) with his usual intelligence and charisma. He is in total control as he re-enacts Kipps’ dreadful experiences at Eel Marsh House and this apparent control over the performance only sets us up for a harder fall when we realize that he will succumb to the illusion he has created. Steve O’Connell, too, is excellent as he switches between various roles, and as he demonstrates just how much Kipps has changed from the start of the play/rehearsal.

Directors Petrina Bromley and Brad Hodder are to be commended for making all the production’s elements blend together to such an eerie effect. The atmosphere, provided by Brian Bishop’s lighting and Geoff Adam’s set, an un-credited sound design, and the un-credited performance of the Woman in Black, who appears at terrifyingly opportune moments, is certainly chilling.

However, while there is plenty of talent on display in this production, there must be more meaningful projects to engage such talent. The Woman In Black may offer its audiences thrills but it is not exactly “The Turn of The Screw,” no matter what the official website implies. The work has been adapted to the screen and the play has enjoyed a long run in London (and this Rabbittown staging is a re-mount for the company). Indeed, The Woman in Black has the institutional whiff of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and is closer in spirit to Conan Doyle than Poe; the production’s shock is sharp but short and easily forgotten.

Duchemin has indicated that he hopes to remount (like Abraxis) The Kingdom of Monsters on Halloweens to come. I am sure that, with minor refinements, Kingdom will continue to find enthusiastic audiences. Rabbittown, fortunately, is embarked on a much more ambitious project than the franchised Woman in Black, namely the New World Theatre Project, which is to be held in Cupids NL this summer. For that project, they will turn to that other venerable theatrical institution, William Shakespeare. Keep watching the company’s website for information.