‘The Mystery of Irma Vep’ promises raucous fun
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Complete with vampires, werewolves, mummies and more, “The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful” opens July 10 at the San Juan Community Theatre, and promises to be raucous good fun.
“This is a great way to spend an evening with friends! Bring your summer guests and have a blast — it’s not a show burdened by heavy-handed themes or moralizing — just a delightfully raucous romp,” Director of the play and Artistic Director for the Theatre, Nathan Kessler-Jeffery, said.
When asked why he chose this particular play, Kessler-Jeffery responded, “After two summers of incredibly successful solo performances, I was looking to expand the summer show and ‘The Mystery of Irma Vep’ was a hilarious comedy that I thought would be a great fit for a summer island audience. It’s a challenging piece that includes quick-changes, multiple settings with many requirements, a slew of fun props, a little audience interaction, stage fights, and surprises galore!”
The play, written by Charles Ludlam, premiered off Broadway in 1984. It centers around Lord Edgar, an Egyptologist, and his second wife, Lady Enid. Lord Edgar has yet to recover entirely from the passing of his first wife, Irma Vep. There is also the house staff, a maid named Jane Twisden and a swineherd named Nicodemus Underwood. After Lady Enid is attacked by a vampire, Lord Edgar seeks answers in an Egyptian tomb, and the mystery of Irma Vep unfolds. The theater’s website has some content warnings: Comic adult situations and innuendo, language, flashing lights, gunshots and fog. There are action scenes galore that will keep the audience on their feet.
“There is so much fight choreography and door-slamming farce moments as characters flee intruders, fight monsters, and discover secrets along the way,” Kessler-Jeffery said, giving a shout out to Larz Anderson and Kim Ryan Long for their work on the set and prop design. “This show would be impossible to do without their immense creativity,” he said.
All characters are played by two actors, Anne Marie Ryan and Adam Parrott, causing some of the play’s action. While this may typically be a challenge, Kessler-Jeffery explained that he would not have chosen the play if his wife, Courtney Kessler-Jeffery, had not been able to do the costume design. “Courtney is the Head of Wardrobe at Seattle Opera and specializes in extremely fast quick changes—it’s how we met in fact!” Kessler-Jeffery said. “On our first show together, she changed my clothes eight times in the first 20 minutes of the play. Courtney knows how to design and rig costumes to be changed in seconds, and so far we’ve had very few challenges in making all the quick-change times work for the show.”
The show is most definitely a comedy, what Kessler-Jeffery calls a loving pastiche of penny dreadfuls, old horror films and many other influences peppered throughout.
“Folks with more literary taste will love the allusions to Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Edgar Allen Poe, and several Shakespearean plays. But it’s also a fast-paced mystery with clever word play, and the occasional low-brow joke sprinkled in,” he said, reiterating that some of the humor is geared for adults and this isn’t a show for the younger kids.
It is a Penny Dreadful, and for those unfamiliar with the term, they were a publishing fad in the 19th century — stories were published in serial form of 8-16 pages and purchased for a penny, according to Kessler-Jeffery. The subject matter was often sensational and sometimes lurid, from Gothic horror to “true crime” stories of notorious criminals.
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” follows that concept, with lots of twists and turns.
“One of the reasons I attend theatre as an audience member is to be surprised. If a show can surprise me, I am in! ‘ The Mystery of Irma Vep’ is chock full of surprises in every aspect, from the performances to the costumes, to the set, to the props, there is always something you didn’t see coming, and that’s my favorite part,” Kessler-Jeffery said. “There’s so much going on, folks may want to see it more than once to catch all the delightful details.”
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” runs July 10 to Aug. 3, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $26 for adults, $13 per student, and $5 Student Rush, and can be purchased on the theater’s website (www.sjctheatre.org) or at the box office, which is open Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call 360-378-3210.
