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Culture Theatre

Fringe review: Carmilla

CARMILLA by Adam Steel (Pointed Cap Playhouse). The Painted Lady (218 Ossington). July 7-8 and 14-15 at 1 pm, July 9-12 at 7 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN

If only the performers in Carmilla spoke their lines as well as they take off their clothes the show would be a real pleasure.

The play is Adam Steels adaptation of the 1872 novella by Sheridan Le Fanu about the lesbian vampire of the title. Director Kay Brattan has had the brilliant idea of using burlesque to represent the dream life and later the real life of the storys lonely teenaged narrator Laura (Stella Kulagowski), who suffers from the Victorian repression of women and non-heterosexual desire.

Laura is happy when Carmilla (Heath V. Salazar) comes to stay with her and her father (Shawn Lall). Soon the girls become friends and gradually secret lovers. Meanwhile, Lauras fathers friend General Spielsdorf (Sebastian Marziali) is investigating an outbreak of vampirism and is close to tracing it to Carmilla.

Steel keeps the antiquated formal style of the original, which is amusing in itself when spoken clearly and with full earnestness by Kulagowski and Lall.

Unfortunately the rest of the cast either overplay or underplay their roles. Salazar looks and moves perfectly as the feline Carmilla, but their uninflected mumbling undermines their characters power.

The various male and female stripteases incorporated into the action are tightly and imaginatively choreographed and appear to be the most fully rehearsed elements of the show.

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