Blog: Lesbian vampires and imaginary friends
Colm McCarthy
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Even for obvious camp, Vamp’s setup raises an eyebrow at its overly quirky contrivances. Chloe (Molly Vanderlin) is a chronically depressed divorcee whose home is inhabited by a bathroom choir that sings about the Irish potato famine, as well as two imaginary sidekicks: a wise-cracking, bathrobe-wearing Jesus (Bruce Wheeler), and a character named Spunky Old Gal (Katy Conley). If that’s not enough, Chloe spends her days as a theater slush-pile reader, which presents more than a few opportunities for wink-wink, meta in-jokes. But all of this setup is essentially background for playwright Ry Herman's main story arc: Chloe’s romantic relationship with Angela (Kristin Forde), who just so happens to be a goth vampire. And an astrophysicist.
It would seem nearly impossible for all of this goofiness not to implode under its own weight like some massive black hole of farce. Vamp (a co-production of Mercury Players Theatre and StageQ, running through March 28 at the Bartell Theatre) actually works quite well as a believable and often touching romance. The jokes, though, tend to be a little more hit-and-miss.
Chloe and Angela are particularly amusing, and it’s a direct result of these characters being played self-deprecatingly straight in spite of all their absurd baggage. As with most good comedy, the funniest moments in Vamp are those that ring truest to the characters. One occurs when Angela tries to kill herself and can’t because she’s undead, and another when she has a moment of weakness and bites Chloe, revealing her true identity. She looks down at her vinyl bustier and elbow-length velvet gloves, bemoans the fact that she’s been dropping hints, and says, “How could you not know? Who dresses like this?”
Jesus and Spunky Old Gal rarely do anything that’s not full-volume and over-the-top, and as a result, they’re a whole lot less satisfying laugh-wise. There’s little either could have done to tone down a song-and-dance number featuring a blow-up guitar and a feather boa (possibly save for Jesus not holding the instrument between his legs like a giant phallus). Each had introspective moments late in the play where they were truly funny. Instead of trying to load up their lines by calling attention to the fact they were imaginary constructs, they let the silliness of the situations stand on its own.
Maybe most interestingly, Vamp has a definite undercurrent of darkness that has nothing to do with mental illness or vampires. At its core, the story is about how difficult it is for two people to connect despite the circumstances, and because it nails those universal notes so well, its obvious improbabilities don’t overpower its message.
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