The Carte Blanche Studio Theatre opens its adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death as September becomes October. The drama unfolds in nine scenes and a finale separated by an intermission after the seventh. It's a long, delicately woven tale that draws on many different things. Poe's dark plague serves as a stage on which are set dark allegories involving the growing distance between wealthy and un-6wealthy--healthy and unhealthy.
Director and playwright Bill Jackson had spent quite a few years cultivating this script. It is was originally staying in some smaller format in 1987 at a high school. Suffice it to say, it has grown quite a bit since then. At 2-1/2 hours in length or more it's a very, very ambitious script. And for this Carte Blanche production, Bill Jackson has put together a very ambitious staging of that script. Like any ambitious project on any budget, the staging doesn't always meet its desired potential.
Carte Blanche's Jimmy Dragolovich plays Prospero--a prince about to crown himself king. This is a particularly decadent maneuver considering the fact that his kingdom is being devoured by the Red Death . . . a fatal illness of the blood. David Kaye plays Dr. Alan Kilgore . . . a physician awarded an honorary rank equal to that of king. He seeks out and eventually attains audience with Prospero in an effort to beseech him to contain and cure the illness. Anyone familiar with Poe's source material knows that this is going to go poorly.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Emily Craig strikes some very captivating moments in the role of Sangrid . . . Dr. Kilgore's beautiful daughter. Prospero wants her for himself. You can probably imagine how that ends as well . . . but Craig has some crushingly beautiful moments onstage that make up for the somewhat cliche forced matrimony thing . . .
Samantha Paige also manages some really beautiful moments as well in the role of Mortdala--the head of Prospero's guard. Paige is stunning as the merciless femme fatale . . . capable of commanding authority simply by standing there.
The costuming doesn't hurt, either. Costume designer Kate Vannoy did a brilliant job on the costuming for Mortdala and the obscenely red and flowing wedding gown for Sangrid. Vannoy has done some really sumptuous work here. It's not often that costumes this good make it into a production in a space as intimate as Carte Blanche's. In many places, this show's worth seeing for the costuming alone.
Though the ensemble as a whole doesn't quite manage a perfect balance, there are more than a few stand out performances including that of Paige and Craig. Michelle White is fun as comic inn keeper Ina Buzzard. She also makes an appearance as the matriarch of a family that the Kilgore's run into in the beginning of the drama--a delicately rendered scene with admirable performances from Jennifer Gaul and Alex VanAble.
Carte Blanche Studio Theatre's The Masque of the Red Death continues through October 27. For ticket reservations call 414-688-7313 or visit Carte Blanche online.
