One of our highlights of 2016’s London Horror Festival was Vulcanello Production’s gender switched Mountains of Madness so we were really looking forward to seeing their latest show The Thing on the Doorstep: Asenath’s Tale take to the Etcetera Theatre’s blackroom at the London Lovecraft Festival.
Reimagined from Lovecraft’s original tale by TL Wiswell the two woman show tells the story of intergenerational possession from the perspective of Viola Danforth (Erin Wilson) a childhood friend of Asenath Waite (Natalie Morgan) rather than from that of Daniel Upton. With a clever combination of basic props and a projection screen we are taken from the eerie graveyards of old Innsmouth to Viola’s boarding home at the Miskatonic University as Asenath’s dreams of snaring a husband to become the receptacle of her father’s soul turn into something all the more terrifying when said husband turns out to have a debilitating disease.
Viola finally faces a tough choice, after all what’s a girl to do when a corpse takes possession of his daughter’s mortal self?
Riveting performances by Morgan and Wilson held my attention throughout the production and it was really fabulous to get a strong female perspective of the old misogynist’s classic tale as it slowly ramped up the creeping dread towards its chilling conclusion. The props and costumes give the show a nice 40s/50s sense of period and the rear projection really did add a whole new dimension to the stage especially on the car journeys when the Noirish images of small town America perfectly matched the stage actions of Wilson and Morgan with their imaginary steering wheels.
So it’s another 666/666 for TL Wiswell and Vulcanello Productions can’t wait to see what next they have up their sleeves.
The Horror Hothouse 