Cal Shakes Theater
100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda
Wednesday, August 12th, 2015 – Sunday, September 6th, 2015Cal Shakes’ outgoing artistic director Jonathan Moscone has chosen Charles Ludlam’s uproarious 1984 comedy for his final bow at the Bruns. In an unparalleled theatrical feat, Cal Shakes favorites Danny Scheie and Liam Vincent will make 35 costume changes to play eight different characters, ranging from a nobleman to an Egyptian princess. Taking place at a sinister estate near Hampstead Heath, where Lord Edgar and his nervous new wife Enid find themselves haunted by werewolves, ghosts, a vampire, and Edgar’s mysterious ex-wife, Irma Vep is a hilarious send up of a medley of different styles and sources, specifically, Hitchcock’s thriller, Rebecca, Brontë’s dark romance, Wuthering Heights, and Noël Coward’s otherwordly comedy Blithe Spirit.
A pioneering work in gay, and drag theater, this production will be a gender- (and genre)-bending tour-de-force.