Tuesday of this week saw the start of the London Lovecraft Festival - a six day event of Lovecaftian theatrics hosted at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden. Tonight’s offering was The Thing on the Doorstep: Asenath’s Tale - a more sympathetic and subversive retelling of Lovecraft’s classic tale from the perspective of the much-maligned Asenath Waite (virtually the only female character of significance in the entirety of Lovecraft’s work).
Overall this was a really engaging piece, which effectively problematised the gendered assumptions informing Lovecraft’s tale, with very strong and convincing performances from the two female leads (whose gender I make a point of mentioning because the play itself involves an element of gender-reversal different from that found in the original story). Definitely worth catching this original take on The Thing on the Doorstep the next time it plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment