Faust's satirical 'Cursed House of Ravensmadd' is crammed with humor | Theater Review

Paul Donnelly
·3 min read
Based on cabaret sketches she’d developed years ago by Terry Galloway, "Ravensmadd" is her skewed interpretation of the Jane Eyre story but filled with odd characters, including the poor, pathetic, 36-year-old orphan Clara, her sickly younger sister Pained.
Based on cabaret sketches she’d developed years ago by Terry Galloway, "Ravensmadd" is her skewed interpretation of the Jane Eyre story but filled with odd characters, including the poor, pathetic, 36-year-old orphan Clara, her sickly younger sister Pained.

The Mickee Faust Club bills "The Cursed House of Ravensmadd" as a mix of "Jane Eyre" and "The Rocky Horror Show."

The production more than lives up to that billing, providing a blend of satire of gothic romance, a dazzlingly eclectic score, spoofs on the conventions of musical theater, and liberation from repressive gender norms.

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Directors Terry Galloway and Donna Marie Nudd have assembled a supremely gifted cast who punctuate every moment of humor in the fantastically witty book by Galloway and Stacey Abbot.

During an eerie voiceover introduction, a deep fog envelops the stage when Clara Ayres (a charismatic Folly Hood) emerges and begins reading her diary entry, which includes a meeting with the handsome and dashing, as well as klutzy and failure prone Lord Brood (Jimmers Micallef, firing on all cylinders and fully realizing the character’s comic potential). She recognizes that her encounter with Lord Brood is only a dream, but what a prescient dream!

As Clara’s story unfolds, she is joined by her cough-racked sister Pained (the deliriously deadpan Gabrielle Camp).

Their nemesis include Aunt Regima (Samantha Renee, oozing evil and in splendid voice), cousin Rathful (an appropriately oily and hiss inducing, Scott Campbell), and The House of Ravensmadd’s housekeeper, Dandle (a richly expressive Missy Hollingsworth) who all connive to keep the orphans from learning that they are actually heiresses.

At Ravensmadd, Clara hears the unearthly howling of a creature in chains, locked in the attic. Of course this turns out to be Lord Brood’s wife, now living as the Mad They (Christy Rodriguez de Conte, channeling a character of robust integrity and libido) whose crime is gender nonconformity.

Riotous complications ensue and Clara and Painful eventually flee to The Lady Of Perpetual Sorrows Abbey.

Perpetual Sorrow turns out not to be their thing and they return to Ravensmadd, which has burned to the ground in a fire following a Grand Masquerade Ball. Regima has lost her voice in the fire and communicates through coughs which can only be interpreted by Pained.

She reveals that the girls are, in fact, heirs to the Ravensmadd fortune, which sits safely in a bank. Rathful has seen the error of his ways and has found love with his male life coach. Painful takes up with Reverend Sinister after he attempts to console her for the loss of her beloved chicken. Clara declares her independence and announces that this play will not end, as is typical of both gothic romances and musical comedy, with the heroine’s marriage.

Special kudos must go to the trio of Danielle Beard, Jes Tice, and Maude Bell who at various time play a trio of Mean Girls, a trio of ditzy maids, and a trio of lugubrious nuns.

The show features a variety of musical styles ranging from 80’s pop ballads to hoe downs and polkas with music by Grammy Award-winning composer Peter Stopschinksi and lyrics by Terry Galloway and Stacy Abbot. The production is well served by Abbot’s sprightly choreography and by many hysterical costumes.

The opening night audience hooted and hollered and laughed ‘til their sides aches. You will, too, if you journey to "The Cursed House of Ravensmadd."

If you go

What: Mickee Faust Club presents "The Cursed House of Ravensmadd"

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 20-22; 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23; and 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oc. 27-28.

Where: 609 Railroad Square 

Tickets:  $20 for general admission, $15 for people with disabilities or those on a fixed income. All shows are open captioned and the space is wheelchair accessible. For more information or to reserve your ticket, visit mickeefaust.com 

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Theater review: Mickee Faust Club's 'Ravensmadd' packs mad laughs