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Lady Madeline
Based on Edgar Allen Poe’s
The Fall of the House of Usher
Adapted by Mickle Maher
Music and Lyrics by Andre Pluess & Ben Sussman
Directed by Jessica Thebus
At Steppenwolf Theatre
1650 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL
Call 312-335-1888, tickets $12
February 19, 19 and 25 at 11 AM
Tuesdays-Fridays at 10AM for High School classes
Running time is 85 minutes with no intermission
Poe’s macabre story a sensory eerie treat
Steppenwolf Theatre’s creative team led by director Jessica Thebus and sound/music and lyrics by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, with lighting by J.R. Lederle, have created the spooky tone of gloom, death and decay that aptly conveys the terror felt by the occupants of the crumbling House of Usher. Mickle Maher adapted Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher from the heretofore silent point of view of Madeline (Tracy Michelle Arnold) who was buried alive in the mansion by her brother Roderick (Matthew Krause).
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Tone, atmosphere and settings are key elements necessary to establish the gloom needed to convey the fear, terror and disintegration of Madeline and Roderick physically and mentally. Terrific use of sound effects combined with live human humming and scary repetition of phrases together with hauntingly dark ballads with moody lyrics underscore and enhance to feeling of impending doom. Poe’s gothic masterpiece vividly comes to life in a non-linear mixture of re-enactments, dreams and memories told from Lady Madeline’s point of view. This creepy mystery will have you on the edge of your seat throughout. This fantasy will wet our dark imagination as we witness the strange siblings wasting away in their crumbling mansion in 1830’s New England.
Madeline and Roderick are strangely connected twins in that Madeline suffers from an illness whose apathy leaves her physically losing feelings and thus rendering her in a deathlike rigid condition. The twins are so interdependent that each can sense and feel what is happening to the other. Roderick’s reaction to Madeline’s physical deterioration manifests itself psychologically as a “derangement of personality” in “a morbid acuteness of the senses” that has him react emotionally to sounds, to many foods and fabrics of clothing. Roderick’s depression makes him a recluse whose crippling superstitions have him believing that the house controls him and dominates his thoughts. Only his music (from string instruments gives him solace).
When his friend (Kirk Anderson) arrives to attempt to break his delusional state, Roderick’s melancholy proves insurmountable. The guest helps Roderick bury Madeline upon her apparent death.
We see Madeline’s attempt to understand why she was buried alive in this scary tale of revenge, retribution and madness. The pace and sheer energy of the show will scare you to your core in this amazing well-crafted piece. Creating sheer terror on stage is no easy task, yet this production sure accomplishes that. With the tour de force, career best performance by Matthew Krause, Lady Madeline unfolds as magnificent piece of theatre. Krause is so convincing as the mad musician that his performance alone makes the play worth seeing. The tone, sounds, music, dialogue and the manic physicality of the performers (especially Kraues’s Roderick) contribute to the mysteriously compelling look at the weird world of madness.
Lady Madeline is a wonderful play to vividly introduce teens into the magic world of live theatre where they’ll experience interaction between the stage and audiences that only live theatre can produce. Steppenwolf Theatre Arts Exchange and Jessica Thebus should be proud of this amazing play.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio show
This show is eligible for a C.S.T. Equity Theatre Award
February 11, 2006
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