Now, I don't know about you but I find the Luas Red Line to be pretty terrifying at the best of times, so it was with some trepidation that I found myself boarding it after work to head out to the Civic Theatre in Tallaght. What had me going out there was Robert Lloyd Parry performing two M. R. James short stories, "Lost Hearts" and "A Warning to the Curious", as part of the Red Line Festival. These are both ones I have seen Lloyd Parry perform previously online ("Lost Hearts" in particular he does every year on 24 March, the day of the story's disturbing climax), but it was great to see the performances in the flesh.
The two M. R. James stories might well be familiar to readers in their original form or through other adaptations. "Lost Hearts" is the one where a young orphan is adopted by Mr Abney, an eccentric distant relative, who seems friendly but who has had remarkably bad luck with previous attempts to adopt young children, who always seem to vanish just before their 12th birthday. It was memorably adapted for the BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas in the 1970s, with the famous still of ghostly children looking in a window. "A Warning to the Curious" meanwhile is from that M. R. James subgenre of Norfolk-coast-holiday-goes-wrong. They both allowed Lloyd Parry to show off his acting talents, inhabiting all the characters and expertly handling the shifts in tone from light comedy to creeping dread. "A Warning to the Curious" is the objectively better story, as the other one has some problems of internal logic. Nevertheless,"Lost Hearts" is somehow still my favourite, with its horrible villain and suggestions of crimes more terrible than the supernatural ones the story contemplates (I'm thinking in particular when Abney invites his young charge to meet him in his private study late at night for a special and secret treat, and to not tell anyone else that he will be going there).
It is actually so long since that performance in Tallaght that since then Robert Lloyd Parry has been back in Dublin again to read two early folk horror tales at an event to launch an anthology he has edited for Swan River Press. For upcoming events, check out his event schedule: if he isn't performing near you, there are always the livestreamed performances he has coming up of the M. R. James stories "Martin's Close", "Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book", and (on Christmas Eve) "The Mezzotint".
Revenant meanwhile was another one-man play, written and directed by Stuart Roche and performed by Patrick O’Donnell. It was staged in the Smock Alley Theatre as part of last year's Bram Stoker Festival, Dublin's attempt to cash in on the famous author of The Lair of the White Worm and The Lady of the Shroud. Revenant (not a Stoker adaptation) sees O'Donnell playing Carter, the director of a low budget Irish zombie horror film, and also the other members of the film's cast and crew. Carter's lead actor drops out of the production just before shooting is about to start, but he recommends an old actor bud as a replacement. This fellow is named Vardell, and he is suave, charismatic, and a natural in front of the camera, but someone who has somehow never appeared in anything anyone has ever heard of. The cast and crew head off to an island off the west coast of Ireland to shoot their film and, well, you can see where this is going. It's played somewhat for laughs but it does manage to ramp up the unease when the macabre goes into overdrive. Patrick O'Donnell's ability to bring Carter, Vardell, and the others to life before our eyes is incredible and it is small wonder he was nominated for prizes at the Manchester and Buxton Fringes in 2021 and 2023.
Dracula: A Journey into Darkness was another Bram Stoker Festival event, a staged reading in the Abbey Theatre of the first four chapters of Dracula, which are made up of diary entries by solicitor Jonathan Harker describing his journey to a remote part of Transylvania to assist a local nobleman in the purchasing of some properties in England. Andrew Bennett (whom you may have seen as the foster father in An Cailín Ciúin) plays Harker, with noted Dublin stage actor Barry McGovern providing the Count's disembodied voice.
Everyone in the world has read Dracula so you know what happens here, right? Initially it is somewhat comedic, Harker as the Englishman abroad commenting on the quaint customs of the locals and their interesting foods. As he gets closer to his goal he expresses some bafflement at the misgivings people have about his plans to visit Castle Dracula and their tendency to press holy charms on him. But the real transition happens when the coach he is travelling on is met by one sent by the Count; Harker is then conveyed into an increasingly strange realm before finding himself effectively imprisoned in the Count's castle. The odd chortles from the audience that greeted Harker's initial observations completely fade away as his terrible predicament becomes apparent. It was a stunning performance by Bennett (aided by impressive lighting and sound design) that completely held the audience. I generally disapprove of standing ovations in the theatre, seeing them as a bit pro-forma, but I had no hesitation in leaping to me feet at the end of this. It is a shame that something so striking was only being performed for one night only, but it did make the event all the more special for those of us who attended.
Because we were only getting the first four chapters of Dracula the piece did end on something of a cliffhanger. It was only later that it occurred to me that it actually ends on a literal cliffhanger; if you have read the book you will know what I am referring to.
For this year's Bram Stoker Festival the Abbey Theatre is staging Dracula: Lucy's Passion, a sequel of sorts to A Journey into Darkness, again for one night only. See you there.
images:
Robert Lloyd Parry (Civic Theatre)
Lost Hearts (BBC iPlayer)
Revenant (Smock Alley)
A Journey into Darkness (Bram Stoker Festival: 2023 Festival Crypt)
