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The Great God Pan
By Arthur Machen
Adapted and Directed by Charley Sherman
Produced by WildClaw Theatre
At the Athenaeum Theatre
2936 N. Southport
Chicago, IL
Log on to: www.wildclawtheatre.com, tickets $10 - $20
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time 2 hours, 40 minutes with 2 intermissions
Through March 30, 2008
World Premiere Arthur Machen play, The Great God Pan, almost brilliant
Arthur Machen (1863 -1947) was a writer, actor, translator, journalist and mystic. His obsession was for Welsh folklore and gothic horror. His mixture of dark sensuality and horror was quite controversial in Victorian England. He influenced horror writers H. P. Lovecraft, Stephan King and Peter Straub. Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle admired his work. Machen’s The Great God Pan (1890-94) is considered a masterpiece of horror fiction.
WildClaw Theatre, dedicated to bringing the world of horror to the stage, opens with their artistic director, Charley Sherman’s new adaptation of Machen’s classic. This is a major achievement as a piece of horror theatre. Once Sherman figures out how to sustain his multiple scene changes without the need for two intermissions, the flow and build of the mysterious tension will enable the horror to explode from his stage. Horror mysteries work best in a fast paced one act (think Woman in Black). Still, his well acted and eerie work (with terrific lighting by Paul Foster with outstanding mood setting sound design by Adam Kozlowski), delivers Machen’s relatively unknown work quite effectively. This production of The Great God Pan is an outstanding evening of horror/mystery theatre. Chicago needs a “horror theatre” and Wildclaw Theatre sure makes an impressive debut in that realm. 
Sherman unlocked Machen’s dense work through the character, Thomas Clarke’s “Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil.” It opens with old Clarke (J. David Moeller) being interrogated by a policeman (Greman?) based on the missing pages of his handwritten book. Flashback to the British in the Crimean War (1853-56) as they retreat through the Ukraine where upon they discover a massacre of an entire village in a church. Mutilated bodies are an act of evil incarnate. Reynolds (Steve Herson) finds a six year old girl, Mary (Michaela Petro) as the only survivor. She is mute and suffering from torture. He takes her back to England and raises her as his own. The puzzle get more complicated as Clarke’s obsession with proving the existence of the devil leads him to Reynolds who invites him to his Wales home to witness his experiment on the teen age Mary toward lifting the pan that will throw her back to relive her past horrors.
The experience sets off a trail of sex and bloodletting that spans generations covering many countries and countless acts of horror and suicide. We see Helen (the terrific Lily Mojekwu) as the seductress personification of evil. Tom Hickey’s Clarke and Peter Corey’s Jones struggle to solve they mystery of the trail of suicides in 1888 London. Machen and Sherman use the pulsating eyes of evil that both intoxicates leading to blindness to heighten the tension.
Without giving away more, let me state that The Great God Pan aptly explores the nature of evil and the search for evil’s true identity that unfolds with several unique twists. This major work is engaging and scary. The low budget production delivers several well-time moments that make you jump out of your seat. Tom Hickey, Lily Mojekwu and Peter Corey were terrific. Kudos to Charley Sherman for attempting and succeeding with a complex horror classic. I await more.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: February 28, 2008
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