Can you imagine an America without Halloween and the movie industry without scary movies? That's a fate too horrible to imagine for some who enjoy the thrills and chills and the candy and costumes. Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company addresses such a scenario with its production, Ray Bradbury's Autumn People. The homey, familiar quality of both one-acts on this bill fit in well with the cozy confines of the Fremont Centre Theatre, where Bradbury's company has begun a six-month residency, this being the first of three projected productions.
The first one-act on the Autumn People bill is a revival, Pillar of Fire. In the year 2274, a man named Lantry (Simon Russell) awakes, and on his murderous journey investigating this new world, he finds people don't mourn the dead, they don't fear meeting strangers on dark streets, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe have been burned in favor of non-fiction. Is he the living undead? Or is he just a man awakening from suspended animation? Reminiscent of old horror movies one might see on a Sunday afternoon, Pillar of Fire isn't so much frightening as thought provoking, particularly this month as we look forward to the celebration of all things scary. Russell is commanding as the out of place and slightly bewildered Lantry, while Patrick Skelton as the technocrat well-equipped to handle this situation gives us a man who doesn't fear zombies as much as disorder.
Touched with Fire is lighter fare, in which two retired insurance agents, Foxe (Michael Morrison) and Shaw (Jay Gerber), observe people waiting for an accident and even attempt to prevent a murder of an unpleasant shrew of a housewife (Dale Manolakas). Under the direction of Alan Neal Hubbs, both one-acts have a comfortable rhythm of older fantasy stories, which didn't depend so much upon special effects as characterization.
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1 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus today, October 30th.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor