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195.194.51.129) - 24 October 2006:

South London Theatre's 'The Fall of the House of Usher' review Any auditorium greeting its audience with a doorway festooned with fake cobwebs and providing a shock haired, black suited compere who welcomes the audience in suitably doomed tones, is probably an Edgar Allan Poe play. It will certainly have its fair share of gothic drama, unhinged heroes and cobwebby secrets. The South London Theatre's staging of The Fall of the House of Usher had all of these and would delight any Poe fan. Intelligently adapted from a short story, the play revolves around an unnamed narrator who responds to an old friend's appeal to visit him and his twin sister in the family home (the title house). Edward Cartwright is excellent as the Ushers' guest. He is the Everyman trapped in a deranged setup, bewildered, then horrified by the siblings' increasingly bizarre behaviour. Nervously questioning the family servant (Jeanette Hoile) about the situation, plays well against his former schoolfriend Roderick Usher (James Hough) whose decent into madness is portrayed in best Renfield-esque Victorian-melodrama fashion (plenty of shaking hands, rolling eyes and brandy-gulping). Madeline Usher (Deirdre Jackson) makes the most of her short appearance, doing her best Banquo-at-the-feast reappearance from the family crypt (emerging dramatically in blood-boltered deathrobe). It's not entirely clear why the decision was made to give her a Virginian accent (perhaps like Poe's) rather than RP English like the rest of the cast. There's some intelligent directing from Mark Davies who uses a few nods to other Poe stories, such as the sounds effects of pounding heartbeats both demonstrating the characters' growing fears as well as riffing The Tell-Tale Heart. The play's last and most dramatic scene, where story being read aloud to Roderick starts to echo Madeline's final deathly appearance, could have been played up more strongly as the finale. Still, an excellent, solid performance which all Poe fans are going to want to see again - perhaps in a special Halloween performance? ...

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