Love And Cthulhu With The Quasi Mondo

Early 20th century horror/science fiction author H.P. Lovecraft serves as inspiration for The Quasi Mondo's latest theatrical program as it presents Love & Cthulhu through the end of the month. The program is an episodic series of dance pieces, physical theatre, comedy and straight-ahead drama. It's an interesting mix of different bits. At its best, Love & Cthulhu is brilliant. At its worst, it is entirely forgettable. There's more than enough here to draw-in anyone familiar with the work of Lovecraft who isn't averse to dance and abstract theatre. Drawing as it does from some of the more interesting ends of Lovecraft's work, it should be quite enjoyable for anyone with an interest in live theatrical horror even if they aren't familiar with the author.

Though Cthulhu serves as a mascot, the program draws on a range of different Lovecraft stories. Source material includes Herbert West–Reanimator, Nyarlathotep, The Shadow over Innsmouth, At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu. We enter the venue and are greeted by Jeremy Eineichner in the role of the Dean of Miskatonic University. Much of the center of the program rotates around Lovecraft's fictitious university in Massachusetts. Nearly every one in the ensemble plays a professor of the university. 

The production makes full use of the warehouse space that serves as home for The Milwaukee Fortress. We are ushered into an old freight elevator by  the Dean of Miskatoinc University and shown into the lobby after having been introduced to a few faculty members along the way including  Emily Craig in the role of a professor of art history who seems to be fussing over a portrait of Cthulhu in the hallway. 

The episodic feel to the program serves it well. There are some specific plot elements that are drawn more or less  verbatim from Lovecraft's stories, but the program is at its best by far when it uses his source material as a springboard for work other works. For instance--the big climax at the end of The Call of Cthulhu is presented to us in puppet format at the end of a series of Cthulhu 'n' Friends segments. Here we have a cute, little Cthulhu puppet acting like kind of a cross between Sesame Street's Elmo and Mr. Rogers. That he's being handled by a man who has evidently lost his mind with madness in researching Cthulhu adds a sinister vibe to the whole thing that beats through the heart of all the best horror in the show. The fear lurks in the shadows where you're not necessarily expecting it, but it doesn't jump out at you with big rubbery tentacles. There's a madness in there lurking below the surface of everything. Let the fuzzy corners of your imagination play with the shadows and this show can be a lot of fun.

I think my favorite segment had to be an abstract nonverbal piece of drama involving Kathryn Cesarz as a Professor of Astronomy and Alex Roy as the doomed microbiologist Danforth. (He's the guy who went mad seeing the unspeakable in At The Mountains of Madness…for the purposes of the play, we see him evidently filling the role of the narrator in The Reanimotor--the colleague and assistant to Herbert West.)

The segment between Cesarz and Roy has an overhead projector wheeled back and forth between microbiologist and astronomer as the two work away amidst music. Gradually they come to notice each other in a very elegant bit of abstract storytelling. As evidenced by a subsequent segment, this is meant to render a furtive attraction between the two of them. Beyond the social connection, there's a whole other level to the story whether it was intended or not. Advancements often come from an interaction between two different disciplines that knocks the research a bit sideways. Here was have a really vivid artistic representation of two people working on different things in a parallel fashion running into each other and realizing connection. Here we have polar opposites in scope learning how conceptually similar their work is in an abstract bit of storytelling. Kind of a sophisticated look at dynamics within the sciences in an abstract stage performance. Very cool thematically whether it was intended or not. This is interesting in the context of the great unknown that creeps around in shadows of madness in Lovecraft's work. If people could only do a better job of communicating between each other, humanity might have a better shot of dealing with these ominous, ancient forces. A really interesting angle from which to view Lovecraft's work. 

My one big concern about the production was the faithfulness to the source material with regards to the Quasi Mondo's strengths as a live performance company. There are some really remarkably talented women involved in The Quasi Mondo. This poses a problem as Lovecraft didn't have any strong female characters. Women are barely mentioned in much of his writing. The production cleverly finesses this incompatibility by ignoring it altogether. There are A LOT of women in the cast and they're all professors. Cesarz has a strong stage presence about her. Quasi Mondo's Jessi Miller is irresistibly charismatic as an adventurous Indian Jones-type--a very cool role for her that she handles quite well. I love that Miller's playing a charmingly roguish character that would normally be played by a man. I also love that she's doing it as well as she's doing it here. I also love that Emily Craig is in the show. Emily Craig embraces a dreamy, dark fantasy about her in the role of a professor of art history who loses herself to phantoms and madness in some of the most physically beautiful moments in the show. Craig is excellent at delivering the more abstract dreaminess of Lovecraft's work to the stage. 

The men in the ensemble have some brilliant moments as well. Personally would have loved to see Andrew Parchman has a powerfully piercing stage presence. As he's not caucasian, I would have LOVED to see him play Dr. West to counteract some of Lovecraft's racism in the source material for that character. (Herbert West–Reanimator was quite racist.) That being said, Kirk Thomsen was good in the role and Parchman is quite powerful in dreamy sequences as Necronomicon author Abdul Alhazrad. Thom Cauley has compelling leading man charm in the role of a professor of anthropology in the Innsmouth stories. Eineichner seems suitably authoritative as the head of the university--a position he'd been awarded through securing a copy of The Necronomicon. Simon Eichinger makes quite an impression as the exotic human form of Nyarlathotep--a tall lanky individual possessing considerable grace. His appearance at a faculty party has its own kind of crawling chaos about it . . . gradually moving from casual entertainment to something altogether more sinister. 

Of course, the less human form of Nyarlathotep and a number of other creatures is made apparent onstage. Puppets are employed--some better than others. To its credit, the production makes use of the puppets largely only for fleeting moments . . . the single best one by far is a large serpent that dances with Emily Craig as the Art History Professor who has been touched by madness. And, of course, there is the enduring image of the cute, little Cthulhu puppet from the Cthulhu & Friends segments. Kind of hard to do a cute Cthulhu in a way that feels original anymore (my personal favorite is still The Adventures of Lil' Cthulhu.) . . . but Love & Cthulhu does so with enough menace to make it memorable if not terribly original. 

All else aside, it's all too easy to criticize this production for being long. I got in around 7:30 pm for an 8:00 show and didn't leave until just after 11 pm. Granted the show started a bit later than expected due to technical issues, but there is no question that there are a few too many segments here. It would have been much more satisfying to see a show that focussed a bit more narrowly on adapting only a couple of the stories--thus lending them a bit more breathing room onstage. That being said, this is a very, very fun show. And it's not like I wasn't surprised  to find out that I'd been at the venue for 3.5 hours when the show got out. It's a hugely entertaining show entirely unlike anything else being staged this season in Milwaukee. If you're into art-horror, it's well worth the time you put into it. The mood at its best is stylish and shadowy. Perfect for a late winter's evening just north of downtown. 

The Quasi Mondo's Love & Cthulhu runs through March 1st at the Milwaukee Fortress on 100 A East Pleasant Street. For ticket requests, visit The Quasi Mondo online.