Tom Orr's comments about Elagabalus!

Imagine if you will the history of theatre imploding upon itself in a fin de cycle sort of fashion, with ancient Roman comedy, Shakespearean tragedy, commedia dell'arte clowning, Grand Guignol and postmodern irony melding together into a single seamless story that is timely, timeless, provocative and, most of all, very very funny in a truly dark, macabre, grisly way.

Playwright Shawn Ferreyra and director-costumer Amy Louise Cole are friends & colleagues I respect and admire for their cleverness, sheer theatricality and expert sense of stagecraft.

Here they've found a little-known historical figure in Elagabolus, preening queeny teenage boy-emperor, and the decadent debauchery that led to his demise at the hand of his own men: treachery, lechery, animal and human sacrifice, phallic worship, assassinations etc., presented with ambitious small-scale pageantry that somehow has an underlying sweetness to it. It's like Caligula as performed by the cast of Pippin, and I mean that in a flattering way.

The ensemble is consistently wonderful as they take on a dizzying number of characters, from Roman senators to vestal virgins to gladiators and servants (Lily Balsen as the slave Gemina is particularly arresting, with a wild desperation in her eyes alternating with total resignation at her lowly lot in life, especially her mistress' nonchalant suicide pact orders).

The two standouts -- and only because they have the showiest roles -- are Norman Munoz as Elagabolus and Kathryn Wood as his grandmother, the lady Julia. Munoz has a feline quality that brings a sensuality to what could have been a one-note caricature, and though he is utterly despicable throughout, there is something playful and lovable to the monster.

Wood is in full battleaxe mode, with a character that is equal parts Lady Macbeth, Lady Bracknell, Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate and Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate: deliciously evil and patently amoral, she's like a vivacious, voracious Barbara Bush as she plots to keep the men in her family in power no matter what the ugly cost.

With Amy Louise Cole at the helm as both director and costumer, the pacing is calibrated and the costumes are phenomenal, especially all the trick pieces that reveal the carnage. Shawn Ferreyra has a great way with words -- blending a classical formality with modern vernacular -- and a clear understanding of dramatic structure and tragic inevitability. They make quite a team and their theatre company is one to watch. Catch this one if you can.