What Monsters Do

What Monsters Do - Etcetera Theatre 

★★★★☆

Having previously played a grotesque body-horror character called Chatterer in Hellraiser I and II, Nicholas Vince knows how appearance can shock. But in his anthology What Monsters Do, he shifts the focus onto actions, rather than looks. Two of these short stories, Tunes From the Music Hall and Green Eyes have been adapted for the stage, and whilst the storylines and settings don't immediately fit, it's the idea of the human capacity for evil which links them and creates a gripping hour of horror inside a black box theatre.

In the first piece, a lonely ghost (Doug Colling) is delighted to see his former landlord, Albright (Mark Philip Compton) rent out the house to a young family. However, after a trip abroad which sees husband Rudolf (Craig Hannah) spend an inappropriate length of time with new friend Angelo (Harpreet Chaggar), the problems with his wife, Bella (Tara Howard) bubble angrily to the surface. As the ghost helplessly watches Bella and little Victoria (voiced by Tallulah Ward) be neglected by Rudolf, the ghost's own story begins to intertwine with theirs.

The Victorian costumes are all beautifully finished and set the piece immediately, it comes as no surprise to hear they've (justifiably in this instance) come from the National Theatre on loan. Original music by Peter Davis and Paul Thompson gives a melancholic feel, keeping up the gothic tone between scene changes. And Kayla Holyrod does a terrific job of blinding and disfiguring Colling's character. There's a clear attention to detail, both in this and the play that follows.

Green Eyes has a much less serious tone. Justinian (Compton) and Sally (Melanie Fenn) prepare for the arrival of young visitor Davis (Colling), overseen by the narrator (Craig Hannah). Much of the humour comes from the ridiculously moody scowls of Justinian and the long awkward pauses. Director Phillip North's hand is felt more keenly here, he shows great flair in translating Green Eyes from a short story into a blackly comic piece of theatre.

Rather than holding a toy cat, Justinian spends an inordinate amount of time stroking a burnt orange pillow. There's a hint of Bond villain to his actions and also of general madness. From the very beginning, he strikes us as unhinged, bizarre, possibly some sort of secret axe murder. He continually bursts out with socially inappropriate comments and actions which are both menacing and petulant at the same time. There's a distinctive, unsettling kind of humour to Green Eyes, which gives rise to plenty of laughter.

Colling as well seems to relish the opportunity to take on a more playful role. Both the ghost and the visitor are well-mannered young men, but there's a darkness to the ghost's behaviour which just isn't visible here.

Overall, What Monsters Do is a perfectly judged production for the London Horror Festival. It's a piece sympathetic to its original text but that manages to extrapolate it into something more without issue. But, most importantly, it genuinely unnerves despite a distinct lack of gore.

— View from the Gods

What Monsters Do: Etcetera Theatre, Camden - Theatre Review

★★★★☆

Hidden Basement Productions returns to The London Horror Festival following last year’s success of Peter Davis and Philip North’s original play The Puppetry of Flesh.  This year they have teamed up with co-producer Claire Soares, and Hellraiser’s ‘Chatterer’, Nicholas Vince with an adaptation for the stage of two of his short stories from What Monsters Do.

This is a powerful collaboration between the creators of the Hellraiser Podcast, and one of the film’s stars; What Monsters Do is accomplished, layered and hugely entertaining.  The two short plays run back to back, using some of the same actors in both, and also some new casting.  

Tunes from the Music Hall is the tale of young family moving into a house haunted by the spirit of a young murdered man.  This starts as a classic horror story set in Victorian London – a place and time that famously adds a chill to horror stories. As the play unfolds, it becomes clearer that the husband and father is more haunted by his (illegal) homosexual desires than by any ghost.  This revelation gives the time and place setting even more dramatic relevance and is a brilliant writing choice.  Victorian London is not only a favourite setting for horror with its smog, dimly lit streets, its creaking townhouses and flickering lamplight, but is also one of the most sexually repressed periods in history.  Tackling a gay theme in a horror story in a Victorian setting works brilliantly, and highlights each chosen theme.   The ensemble cast are excellent, with special mention to Craig Hannah as the tortured husband Rudolph, Tara Howard as his frightened and betrayed wife, and Doug Colling as the disfigured ghost looking suitably shocking thanks to special effects makeup by Kayla Holroyd.

Green Eyes follows, and is probably my favourite of the two.  This story unwinds very slowly, piece by piece, making the final climactic scene all the more powerful.  Another sexual theme is explored here; this time it’s brother/sister incest.  A strange and troubled couple receive a visitor for dinner one night who turns out to be the abandoned son of the woman.  He has come to meet his birth mother and get some answers.  Over dinner, the couple become more strained and strange, their behaviour unnerving the young man.  By the time it becomes too much, and he wants to leave, he is faced with the truth of his parentage and realises he will not be allowed to leave the house- resulting in the play’s shocking conclusion.  The real gold in this play is the unexpected comedy – of which there is plenty.  The comic performances of the cast are spot-on, thanks to Philip North’s skilled and meticulous direction.  Each gesture, expression and note is exact, which allows the comedy to be fully appreciated.  North’s ability to find and portray comedy within the medium of horror was also seen in last year’s The Puppetry of Flesh when audiences found Harriet Field’s masterful manipulation of the demon puppet both disturbing and hilarious in equal measure.   Again, strong performances from all, with particularly good comic moments from Mark Philip Compton as the socially stunted, suspicious Justinian.

The ‘monsters’ of the piece are the desperate driven to desperate acts, the misunderstood and those perceived as ‘monsters’ by a bigoted and frightened society.  Vince taps into a fresh new challenge for the idea of what a monster is, and doesn’t leave the audience with an easy answer.  The company cleverly uses the style to elevate the underlying issues and pushes the viewer to question where the wrong-doing lies, who the victims are, and if there is any blame to be placed.  Love, jealousy, betrayal, fear, identity and pain are all prevailing themes, and all approached in original ways, and there are no clear cut characters; all are, at times, the monsters.  

What Monsters Do is a great, original addition to the London Horror Festival.  The run is sold out, and people were waiting for return tickets on opening night.  I look forward to seeing next year’s project!

— Jade Allen - Female Arts

Review: What Monsters Do

We recently interviewed Nicholas Vince about his works and his new stage play, What Monsters Do.  Nicholas has adapted two of his dark stories from page to stage and has brought them to life as a Hidden Basementproduction at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden as part of the London Horror Festival 2013.

We had the chance to go along to see the play over its three-day performance, and we were not disappointed.

Why are humans inherently evil? Because humans are biologically programmed to meet our own survival needs - our desires naturally come before others. Unfortunately, this of course is at the sacrifice of others' needs and wants.  These are some of the themes and ideas Nicholas has asked us to think about in these two dark tales.

The play consists of two twenty-five minute stories. The first story being Tunes from the Music Hall. We begin in the Victorian era with a young man in a room (Doug Colling) – who also plays narrator to this well-acted story) who has clearly experienced a recent trauma, as indicated by the scars on his face and his monochromatic white eye.  He seems very sad and alone until we meet Albright, the landlord (Mark Philip Compton) who is trying to rent the house to Rudolf (Craig Hannah). We find out that the young man is in fact a ghost who was murdered in the house. After Rudolf agrees to rent the property, we meet his Wife Bella (Tara Howard) and their young daughter Victoria (voiced by Tallulah Ward). All seems well with the family until Rudolf’s estranged friend Angelo (Harpreet Chagger) enters their lives again. Rudolf begins to neglect Bella by spending a concerning amount of time with Angelo. This results in a shocking turn of events with a distraught Bella fighting to keep her family together and the ghost is outraged by what he is witnessing. The story behind the nameless ghost blends in very well with that of the main family helping to bring the story to a dramatic ending. Needless to say it all comes to a head in a superbly acted Dickensian style ghost story. It is filled with moments of brilliant wit and humor as well as dealing with dark themes of love, lust and revenge.

The second story is Green Eyes. Although this is not as dark and intense in tone as the first story, it deals with true monsters and is in my opinion, even more chilling and disturbing. We meet Justinian (Compton) and his wife Sally (Melanie Fenn) who are awaiting the arrival of a guest for dinner. The visitor is a young man named Davis (Colling again – who seems to have more fun in this role). 

The Narrator (Hannah) has a more traditional, less interactive role. Justinian comes across as a very disturbed man with serious issues; he strokes and talks to the family cat in a maddening way which leads to more laughs. There is a scene where the three sit down for a Sunday roast. Imagine the first time you sat at the dinner table with your new girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s parents. It’s always filled with awkward moments of silence and judging stares which we all can relate to. Well that situation is taken to a hilarious extreme here with Justinian being socially outrageous and vexatious towards the poor Davis.  By the end, Justinian truly becomes a real-life monster. It’s shocking and unsettling; however, it really is a testament to Nicholas’ understanding of the genre and talent he possesses.

In summary, What Monsters Do is intelligent, funny, horrifying and thought provoking. The actors are a credit to Nicholas and his production, and the entire stage play comes together under the masterful direction of Philip North.

It was a great mix of humor, drama and - of course - horror. What made this most fascinating is the fact that the real horror in these tales are not that of the boogie man or other things that go bump in the night but the real life horrors that we - as human beings - inflict upon each other.

— Anthony Silver - We Heart Horror

WHAT MONSTERS DO AT LONDON HORROR FESTIVAL REVIEW

Last weekend we had the pleasure of seeing the final night of Nicholas Vince’s new play, What Monsters Do, at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden as part of the London Horror Festival.

Vince, who is perhaps best-known for his role as the Chatterer Cenobite in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser films, worked closely with Hidden Basement Productions in order to bring two stories from his What Monsters Do collection to the stage in a ground-breaking horror double bill.

First up was Tunes from the Music Hall. The story centres on a young man who also acts as the narrator. Played by Doug Colling, the young man peers out of the window from his room and sets the scene of the bustling Victorian street before turning around to reveal a viciously scarred face and a sad, lonely disposition. However, when we meet Albright (Mark Philip Compton), the landlord of the property, we learn that the young man is a ghost and that he died in the house.

Albright rents the house to Rudolf (Craig Hannah), his wife Bella (Tara Howard) and their daughter Victoria (voiced by Tallulah Ward). Despite Victoria’s initial scare when she sees the young man’s ghost (she is the only one who does), the family settle in well and the young man finds a friend in Victoria, who reminds him of his little sister.

It isn’t until an extended trip in Italy and the introduction of Rudolf’s friend Angelo (Harpreet Chagger), that things start to turn sour and the once courteous ghost becomes aggravated. In a thrilling twist of events, it is one shock after another before the story concludes into an explosive finale. We were literally on the edge of our seats as we watched Rudolph and his family’s story unfurl and delved into the backstory of how the young man came to perish. Exceptionally well-acted, Doug Colling and Craig Hannah truly excelled in their roles.

The second serving of the double bill was Green Eyes. Set on a snowy day and with Craig Hannah narrating, the story focuses on Justinian (Compton) and his wife Sally (Melanie Fenn) who are waiting for a guest to arrive for dinner. Later we find out that the guest is a young man called Davis (Colling) who believes that Sally might be his real mother.

From the outset it is clear than Justinian is not altogether a ‘well man’, in fact, he seems pretty psychotic right from the opening scene whereby he stares out the window at the snow, stroking the family cat. Green Eyes is a much lighter story than Tunes from the Music Hall and from that very first scene, the audience wasn’t far off doubling over with laughter, which seemed only to spur Compton on, pushing him to reach further depths of creepiness (the kind of creepy that makes you physically shudder).

The audience watched (and chuckled) in amusement as the couple’s guest arrives and the evening gets off to an awkward and, not to mention, rocky start. After dinner, everyone retires to the living room and this is when things really start to heat up, with Justinian becoming seemingly more unhinged and inhuman with each moment that passes. Then comes the twist and boy, is it a good one.

Intelligent, witty, scary and refreshingly original, What Monsters Do is an exceptional stage play. The overarching genre of horror interlinked with themes of melancholy, humour, lust, obsession and family, made this production one of the most enjoyable plays we have had the pleasure of seeing this year.

The actors were all perfectly suited to their roles and each gave a fantastic performance, Philip North’s direction was spot on and, of course, Nicholas Vince’s writing was superb. We cannot praise What Monsters Do enough and we look forward to Hidden Basement Productions next offering.

— Emma Knock - Hot House Horror Review

Do You Know “What Monsters Do”? [REVIEW]

Lucy and I had the pleasure of seeing What Monsters Do at The Eclectic Theatre in Camden last Sunday evening. Being such massive fans of Nicholas Vince’s original book, there was absolutely no way we’d miss this.

Tunes from the Music Hall 

★★★★☆

Set only in a tiny black box theatre, Director Philip North transformed Nicholas Vince’s Tunes from the Music Hall into an astounding piece of visual art.

This tale starts out in Victorian London, with a family moving into a house that is haunted by a disfigured young man (Doug Colling). As things start to progress, we find out that it’s not the ghost we should be worried about. Rudolf (Craig Hannah) starts an (at the time, illegal) relationship with another man, named Angelo (Harpreet Chaggar), and from then on, his family life breaks down. The ghost soon starts to become more and more aggravated and takes matters into his own hands. The performance ends with a tense finale – almost perfectly acted out by the wonderful cast.

Being only in a small room, with limited props, I found this performance to be incredibly atmospheric. The visually pleasing costumes (on loan from the National Theatre) and Collings facial special-effects (Kayla Holroyd) definitely helped with this. Victorian London is usually known within the horror genre to be a chilling era, and within this play, it is no different. What sets it aside from others, is that it highlights the struggle of a homosexual relationship in those times, which is hard to make believable, but with Vince and North on board, it was totally made possible.

Although the performance was only 25 minutes long, and the story only 12 pages, I could totally see this working as a feature length film. Each and every character was intriguing and ultimately, it left me wanting more.

Green Eyes

★★★★★

Green Eyes is presented to the audience through Justinian’s (Mark Phillip Compton) sadistic point of view. For the stage adaptation, this was accompanied by a narrator (Hannah) who spoke Justinian’s inner thoughts and monologues. We realise from the start of the performance that something isn’t quite right with Justinian; the first instance is the rather vivid description of a cat melting in the fire, only to discover that it was just in his mind. Some things he comes out with are morbidly funny. The audience seemed to agree too, as they laughed aloud at a lot of the stuff he both said and did. It was certainly light hearted at times compared to Tunes from the Music Hall, but that doesn’t mean it was less horrifying. The collection of stories is based on the claim that it is ‘our acts, not our flesh that make us monsters’ and Justinian is a prime example of this. He is human on the outside, but his thoughts and acts are far more chilling. Compton captured this idea perfectly on stage.

The arrival of Davis (Colling) causes clear disruption for Justinian, who displays contempt towards him from the very start. It appears to be a difficult subject for both Justinian and Sally (Melanie Fenn), who we originally assume is Justinian’s partner. The tension between the two characters is performed very well, and it is obvious that Sally is trying hard to keep things together. Davis has clearly had a serious impact on both of their lives, for reasons unknown until the climax of the play. The mystery surrounding Davis is frustrating, but also engrossing.

Without giving away any spoilers, I thought the truth about Davis was one of the most chilling twists I’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s so subtle and sudden that it took a moment for it to register. The ending was just as well-crafted as the book, which I also strongly recommend. The entire performance was flawless and you could tell the actors were immersed in their roles. Praise must also be given to Philip North who directed the whole thing, as it was well polished and evidently well-rehearsed too.

— Bloody Mess