"The Mystery of Irma Vep"

August 25, 2010 — The Barnstormers Summer Theatre in Tamworth, New Hampshire is wrapping up its 80th anniversary season with "The Mystery of Irma Vep," a hilariously funny play by avant-garde playwright Charles Ludlam. Two of the Barnstormers' best actors, Scott Severance and Billy Butler, play seven, or maybe eight, male and female roles. A non-stop barrage of puns, double entendres and lots of sexual innuendo, some of it subtle, some blatant, and outrageously campy over-acting, keep the play moving at a manic pace.

The many costume changes took place with amazing speed, and the actors, sometimes undergoing two or three role changes in minutes, slipped into their various impersonations without a hitch. With locales from the English moors to Egypt, then back to the moors, the two-hour play needed two intermissions to facilitate its set changes.

This was a great season-ender for the Barnstormers. After driving to Weirs Beach just the day before, and leaving for a trip to the North Country for the annual Moose Festival in two days, I didn't really feel like driving to Tamworth and was regretting having made the reservation on this date. However, I had no regrets at all once this outlandishly funny play got underway. It was definitely an evening well-spent.