DOC WUTHERGLOOM’S HAUNTED MEDICINE SHOW by Eric Woolfe (Eldritch Theatre). At a secret location (revealed when you book tickets). To November 6. $20-$35. See Continuing. Rating: NNN
In Doc Wuthergloom’s Haunted Medicine Show, Eric Woolfe’s eponymous alter ego makes a suitably creepy companion during Halloween season, even if this mix of gruesome tales and small-scale magic lacks the weight of his larger-scale shows like last season’s multi-Dora-nominated Madhouse Variations.
Made up like a zombified carnival performer and sporting a faint British accent, the Doc recounts his eventful life, which includes being locked up by an evil apothecary, plotting with the man’s daughter to commit patricide and then moving to Canada and getting involved in more murderous mayhem.
Between autobiographical sections, he regales us with other dark tales and – most fun of all – brings audience members onstage for some magic tricks, which all lead to his hawking his $3 Home Exorcism Almanac so viewers can ward off curses and spells.
Woolfe relishes his script’s antiquated vocabulary, and he’s very good on his feet in the intimate, playful space designed by Melanie McNeill and lit by Gareth Crew. He’s almost upstaged by his puppets and props, which range from an oversized ghoul of a woman to a festering hand.
Under Christine Brubaker’s direction, however, the show’s pace often slackens, and some storylines – an intriguing potato that contains the soul of a woman, for instance – aren’t sufficiently developed. It’s never really established why the Doc’s putting on the show in the first place or why it’s being mounted in a secret location, which we enter after delivering a specific knock and reciting a password.
Still, that part’s lots of fun.
