The Bride of Death

The Thrillpeddlers are presenting the 13th edition of Shocktoberfest this month, which consists of a trio of horrific one-acts linked loosely by the concept of The Bride of Death, along with a couple of funny musical interludes. The evening begins with a 1920s British curtain-raiser by Fredrick Whitney in the style of French Grand Guignol, Coals of Fire. Leigh Crow above left played the old, fat, blind upper-class wife who is kind on the surface and a cauldron of rage on the inside. Crow's cancerous cough throughout was particularly disturbing.



Then there was a silly song by Douglas Byrd with the wonderful Annie Larson as Mrs. Mummy and Jim Jeske as Mr. Mummy above.



The Bride of Death above was a campy mashup of everything from Sunset Boulevard to This Old House to Franju's French horror film, Eyes Without a Face.
It was written by Michael Phillis (above, second from the right, with Dalton Goulette, Bonni Suval and co-writer Flynn DeMarco), and was bizarrely entertaining.


The new company stalwart, Cockettes composer Scrumbly Kodewyn, was represented by a brilliant musical number called Those Beautiful Ghouls, which felt like an homage and parody of both the Sondheim musical Follies and The Monster Mash. (Pictured above is Annie Larson and Leigh Crow.)



The final play, The Twisted Pair, by Thrillpeddlers regular Rob Keefe, went on too long much too insistently, but Dalton Goulette and Andy Wenger above as Brazilian rowers Matheus and Thiago who had just won their race on the Charles River in Boston, just about saved the day.



Also deserving special mention is Flynn DeMarco (above, flanked by Russell Blackwood and Leigh Crow) who was oddly attractive in a bridal dress, even covered with blood.