The Mystery of Irma Vep response

The Mystery of Irma Vep response
Matt Weinstock


I didn’t think this play was enjoyable to read, although I was constantly picturing how enjoyable it would be to see performed. Irma Vep is almost like a sketch from a variety show, where the humor doesn’t come so much from the material as the theatricality of performance: for example, from the frantic quick changes of the actors (and the times when one takes longer than expected and the other has to stall frantically, or they accidentally leave on the mittens of another character) and the line delivery, complete with thick Cockney or uppercrust British accents. I think seeing it performed would clear up some things I was confused about while reading—like the tone. I was continually wondering how campy the play was supposed to be. Is the plot-heavy story of Irma Vep meant to be authentically thrilling and suspenseful, or is it all overplayed for laughs? I’m still not sure. The fact that (in the introduction) Steven Samuels mentions Ludlam’s affection for “character and plot,” as well as his love for the Classics and other stray bits of pop culture, suggest that perhaps Ludlam is sincerely trying to “reanimate tradition-bound classics” like the Alfred Hitchock movie Rebecca (the plot of which is lifted, whole-hog, for Irma Vep—even the names of the estates, Mandacrest and Manderley, are practically identical). (Ludlam also references The Raven, Hamlet, and probably a bunch of other works I didn’t pick up on.) On the side of “it’s meant to be camp,” though, Ludlam does allow for the possibility that his audience might “hiss” at a couple of his puns, and he specifically requests that Alcazar and Lord Edgar pronounce sarcophagus “sarcoFAGus.” I guess the ultimate goal is to be both campy and suspenseful—like that play with Ludlam played a drag queen and had the audience, according to Samuels, both in laughter and in tears.

Questions
Did you guys think the play was meant to be totally campy or totally sincere? If it’s meant to be a mix of both, was Ludlam able to pull this off? Or did it feel like an uneasy balance?
What did you think of the cuts made for the 1998 production? (They were mostly for the scene between Edgar and Alcazar, I think. The cuts tend to reduce this scene down to its bare bones, like, just what the audience needs to understand how the plot is progressing—and several good jokes are cut, as when Alcazar says to “Leave some wine for the return trip.”) Do you think the cuts were an improvement?
Is this a “gay” play? Could it be performed by two straight actors, or a man and a woman? (Since they’ll probably say no: why not?) (After writing this question, I learned that Ludlam has a clause in the play’s licensing that requires that the play always be performed by two same-sex actors.)

Benno Blimpie response

Benno Blimpie response
Matt Weinstock


Reading this play made me feel like I was wallowing in someone else’s filth. Which I think is a valid emotional response—and one I feel that at least some of the audience members who see the play performed must have. Do lines like “I hadda run the vacuum cleaner to get the scales from his sores” and “you know, whatever cockroaches do in cunts” make anyone walk out? Is Benno Blimpie a play that, no matter how well-performed, could never receive a standing ovation—just because the audience would just be so grossed out by the end? The play is remarkably off-putting, to the extent that I’d guess a lot of audience members would shut themselves off and not react to it in any deeper way than “That was disgusting.” Perhaps the reality of having a padded performer who isn’t actually obese (or who, at least, weighs less than 500 pounds) play Blimpie would make the play more bearable, because you’d be constantly aware that the play was just a game of dress-up.
The funny thing about Benno’s revoltingness was that it made the less egregiously off-putting elements of the play seem comparatively sweet. I was charmed by the romance between Benno’s grandfather and the girl—especially the opening moments of Scene Six, where the lovestruck lines of the grandfather (“You very pretty for an Irish girl. I like you hair, it is so long and thick”) alternate with the girl’s frank observations (“You have bumps on your feet.”) Benno’s crushed-dreams father is probably the character I latched on to most—there was something very arresting about the image of a guy who played football and has stayed in shape living in a house where everyone else is overweight, crumpled, or aging. Of course, he has mental flaws (lives in the past) and he “can’t get it up,” but he still felt almost heroic. Since the whole play is through Benno’s eyes, this just may be how Benno sees him.

Questions
1. At what point in the play did you start to care about Benno? (If you ever did.) Are we meant to care about him, or be repulsed? (Since these memories are “presented” by Benno, do you get the sense that your reactions were deliberate on his part—i.e., when he wanted you to be repulsed, you’re repulsed, when he wanted to you pity him, you pity him? Or is he not that good a manipulator?)
2. Why does the Girl talk about food so much? (Almost as much as Benno, she seems to equate it with love and sex—like when she fantasizes about chicken legs, or seduces her cousin Donny by spilling meatball sauce on her dress.) Is Innaurato laboriously trying to weave the theme of food through the play, or is there a sincere connection between the Girl and Benno?
3. In Benno’s monologues, what purpose do the shifts between third person to first person serve? (Specifically, the monologues on page 18 and page 27.) Can a line be drawn between the two Bennos?
4. Why does the Old Man also show up as the butcher? Is there any significance, or is it just a matter of not wanting to pay another actor for such a brief appearance?
5. In Innaurato’s notes for production, he says he’s trying to “answer those questions in advance which, in my experience, have always come up regarding the performance of this play.” Why do you think he doesn’t include any advice for the actor playing the Father, though he writes about each of the other four characters? (Is the father meant to be played like a stereotype? Is there less depth to him?)

ONE ON ONE MEETING SCHEDULE

This is for WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17 in Lit Arts 303:

3:00 - 3:15 Candice
3:15 - 3:30 Matt
3:30 - 3:45 Kari
3:45 - 4:00 Harry
4:00 - 4:15 David
4:15 - 4:30 Daria
4:30 - 4:45 Ben
4:45 - 5:00 Max
5:15 - 5:30 Eva

Is someone missing from the list?

PLEASE COME PREPARED WITH A SHORT PROPOSAL FOR YOUR FINAL PLAYWRITING PROJECT.

Class 5: Subtracted Aristotelean Elements Exercises

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Class 5: HAMLETMACHINE Reading Responses

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Class 5: How I Learned to Drive Reading Responses

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Class 4: Greenspan/Hancock Plays

Please post Class 4 homework (the SON OF AN ENGINEER and CONVENTION OF CARTOGRAPHY exercises) here.

Class 4: AMERICAN NOTES, Len Jenkin

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Class 4: Short Beckett Plays

Please post response in this thread.