The Pearly Queen Theatre makes its dazzling debut in London with The Mystery of Irma Vep — A Camp Extravaganza of Gothic Glamour, Quick Changes & Delicious Mayhem.
Two actors. Eight characters. One outrageously haunted manor nested above the most iconic pub in the East End. The Pearly Queen Theatre proudly announces its inaugural production: Charles Ludlam's camp classic The Mystery of Irma Vep. Tucked above The Bow Bells Pub, an iconic, independent, family-run institution that has always celebrated the grit, humour, and diversity, its upstairs has been repurposed into a 50-seat black box theatre housing our theatre company to bring a new kind of mischief to the East End of London in a brand new theatre destination.
Who is Irma Vep?Welcome to Mandacrest Manor, fog-drenched, gargoyle-haunted, and soaked in Gothic excess. Lady Enid has just arrived as mistress of the house, only to find herself ensnared in a labyrinth of wolves, Egyptian curses, and a housekeeper with more secrets than the servants' quarters can contain. Just two performers play all eight roles, executing lightning-fast costume changes with a speed and precision that borders on the supernatural. Think you blinked? So did they, and they're already someone else entirely.
Ludlam’s script devours the Gothic novel, Hollywood horror, and Victorian melodrama whole, spitting them back out bejewelled and bewildering. Every line is a conspiratorial wink, every scare laced with laughter; horror turned hilarious, comedy deliciously macabre. Slyly exposing identity and gender as performance and hurtling between husbands, heroines, villains, and monsters, two actors make masculinity and femininity fluid, theatrical, and gloriously unstable, inviting audiences to revel in the wicked freedom of reinvention.
The Pearly Queen Theatre was born in the East End, a neighbourhood that has always told its stories loud, proud, and without apology. Taking their name from London's own tradition of working-class pageantry and pride, The Pearly Queen Theatre believes that camp, far from frivolous, is one of the most subversive and joyful theatrical modes ever devised. The penny dreadful was born on these streets too: cheap, thrilling, lurid, and beloved by the masses. They're here to drag it, sequins, fangs, and all, into the 21st century. Irma Vep is their opening statement: bold, baroque, and absolutely bedazzled.
Cast: Curtis Burrows, Leyon Stolz-Hunter
Director: Glenn T. Griffin
Venue: The Bow Bells, 116 Bow Rd, London E3 3AA
Dates: 7–23 May
Times: 19:30 (plus select Sunday matinees at 14:30)
Running time: 2 hours (includes intermission)
Tickets: from £20 (concessions available)
Book: www.pearlyqueentheatre.co.ukPearly Queen Theatre I
This Is The Bow Bells I
Glenn T. Griffin
