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<\/a>Patrick Grant, Isabella DiBernadino, and Danny Minshall. Photo by Eric Keitel, as is the one above.<\/p><\/div>\n
Was it successful as such? That answer is also \u201csort-of.\u201d I\u2019ll explain in a minute.<\/p>\n
But first, the main positives. This was my friend Gigi\u2019s first visit to Theatre 40, and she enjoyed the experience as much as I<\/em> always do. She said that my glowing description of the theatre is spot-on\u2014the ease of location, the free parking right outside the door, and the comfort of the theatre itself. She told me that she \u201cloved the ambiance of the theater as an intimate setting,\u201d and she can’t wait to go back!<\/p>\n Secondly, I always appreciate an entertainment that inspires me to do some research on it, and that\u2019s just what I did. I was amazed at how prolific Edgar Allen Poe was! I had been familiar with only two poems of his, and could have answered Jeopardy<\/em> questions about \u201cthe writer of\u201d a couple of his tales. And that\u2019s it. So reading about his many accomplishments once I got home boggled my mind.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s get to this production of The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin<\/em>. It\u2019s something you have not seen anywhere else because it\u2019s Poe\u2019s three tales featuring detective C. Auguste Dupin melded into the one show. The first half consists of the famous The Murders in<\/em> the Rue Morgue<\/em> along with The Mystery of Marie Rog\u00eat<\/em>, and The Purloined Letter<\/em> is by itself in the second.<\/p>\n The main problem with this Theatre 40 offering is that the whole thing is presented as more of a post-solve lecture with re-enactments, rather than an actual play<\/em>. (I learned in High School Acting 101 to not<\/em> do that\u2014after getting the highest mark for my first assignment, a friend and I failed the next one because we tried to make a play<\/em> scene out of one we saw in a movie<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Patrick Grant, Randall Craig, and Michael Mullen. Photo by Eric Keitel.<\/p><\/div>\n So, to learn of the content<\/em> of Poe’s \u201ctales,\u201d (as they\u2019re classified,) was somewhat interesting. But that\u2019s where the interest in this one stopped for me. I had no idea what was occurring\u2014I kept waiting for something to happen instead of people just talking<\/em> about what happened. (My first note when I saw The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin<\/em> was actually, \u201cA bit too talky for me.\u201d)<\/p>\n Gigi, who is a high school English teacher and dedicated Poe aficionado, told me that she \u201cloves the way Poe writes horror,\u201d and that her students are big fans of his The Raven <\/em>and The Tell-Tale Heart<\/em>.\u00a0 But she was unfamiliar with these<\/em> three stories, so she would have been interested in discovering them. But even she<\/em>, one of my most intelligent friends, was confused about what was going on with them.<\/p>\n And the show is soooo slow. My gosh. It was like watching a 1-0 baseball game. For you non-sports fans, that means that it\u2019s boring, (but the best to take a nap to! So, if you\u2019re having trouble sleeping at home, this may be the destination for you!)<\/p>\n On top of all that, there\u2019s a really weird ending. This is how that went when Gigi and I saw it: the show was over, the actors took their bow, we applauded and got up to leave, and then\u2026they started talking to the audience, speaking as themselves<\/em>! As Gigi explains, \u201cThey wanted us to know that the criminal and detective minds eventually become one.\u201d No one cared at that point. (And even with my<\/em> mega-memory, I had forgotten the purpose of that announcement by the time I got home! Gigi had to remind me.)<\/p>\n Michael Mullin and Todd Andrew Ball. Photo by Eric Keitel.<\/p><\/div>\n Speaking of the actors, I\u2019ve seen Michael Mullins, who plays Dupin in this one, in several previous productions, and I must say that this is the best he\u2019s ever been-\u2013he\u2019s very suited to that lead role. It is<\/em> a bit perplexing that the members of the cast are all doing different accents, (we didn\u2019t know what half of the accents are supposed to be,) but that was also done in many old movies, so we just went with it. The strange thing is that although all the stories take place in France, there was none of that<\/em> one! But it is<\/em> always a tad hard to discern words spoken in a French accent, so I was fine with that omission. I want to stress that the six actors are fine otherwise. So I blame the pacing and weirdness on the director, John Strysik, who also put these stories together and wrote the script.<\/p>\n However, there is some humor to The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin<\/em>. I love the line, \u201cThat’s quite a pastry,\u201d which I can\u2019t wait to use on someone. I learned of some good hiding places, as well.<\/p>\n As much as this part of the review pains me, I have to be honest and say that this is the first time I have ever been even slightly disappointed in a Jeff G. Rack set. I had been singing the praises of his sets to Gigi on the way over, so I was a bit shocked when I saw this bare-ish one. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s supposed to be artistic, but it just doesn\u2019t mean anything nor enhance the experience. (And the actors really need to put those silencers\u2014such as moleskin or gaffer tape\u2014on their shoe soles!)<\/p>\n The set before the show. It looks much better with these colored lights than it does when the show is going! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Worse than anything, though, is the stage lighting\u2014once again for recent Theatre 40 productions, it\u2019s awful. It\u2019s just waaaay too dark when they do period pieces. I keep reminding them that we\u2019re there to see a play\u2014not live in the era\u2014so we want to be able to actually see<\/em> it! I had been looking forward to seeing The Heiress<\/em> there next, but I\u2019m afraid that they\u2019ll hire Derrick McDaniel again, and his lighting is always sooo dark that it\u2019s actually painful. It not only makes my eyes hurt, but\u2014I hate to admit it\u2014I fight to keep them open! At least three of my pals have told me they go through the same thing with the lighting at these shows, but I was shocked to hear that it happened to Gigi, too, because\u2026she\u2019s really young! It\u2019s not like she needs<\/em> the siesta; it just happened, she says, due to the dark lighting.<\/p>\n Since I\u2019ve just set low expectations, and you all now know how the narrative goes, you might like The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin<\/em> more than we did. I was expecting a show that\u2019s the caliber of most of Theatre 40\u2019s usual productions, and done as a real play, with action, as opposed to what is basically a discussion; hence my disappointment. If you\u2019re an Edgar Allen Poe fan, I think you\u2019ll be happy to see a few of his tales told here, because since he wrote only one<\/em> play, it\u2019s a rarity to see any works of his dramatized.<\/p>\n The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin<\/em> running through October 18, 2026<\/strong> THE CASE-BOOK OF C. AUGUSTE DUPIN This is a different sort-of presentation for Beverly Hills\u2019 Theatre 40. Rather than being an actual play, it\u2019s a trio of Edgar Allen Poe stories strung together. Was it successful as such? That answer is also \u201csort-of.\u201d I\u2019ll explain in a minute. But first, the main positives. This was<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\nTheatre 40 \u00a0241 S. Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills<\/strong>
\n310-364-0535 \u00a0www.theatre40.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"