The Mystery of Irma Vep

Two heads are better than one, sure, but how about eight? Charles Ludlam’s enduringly popular drag satire tests that proposition by casting just two actors (in Park Square’s case, Charles Hubbell and Steve Lewis) to play all eight characters, male and female, in a goofball sendup of penny dreadfuls, Alfred Hitchcock, and horror films. Ibsen this ain’t: Story line falls on its sword in favor of the pun and the jokey reference, and careens loosely around characters including a werewolf, a mummified Egyptian princess, two preening aristocrats, and a vampire (anagram enthusiasts, take another look at the title). Mixed in with the quips and winkingly overblown dialogue (“It’s alive!”) are ludicrously frequent backstage dashes to change wigs and costumes—sometimes with only a single line of the other guy’s dialogue for cover. In other words, pure nonsense in the best sense of the term. Park Square Theatre, 20 W. Seventh Pl., St. Paul, (651) 291-7005, http://www.parksquaretheatre.org


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