The 2022 Dennis Wheatley Convention

A Review of an October 2022 Performance

A small group of DW enthusiasts from across the country and their friends made their way to The Empty Space Theatre in Manchester on 28th October to see one of the latest performances of Colin McCourt’s musical masterpiece.

The Empty Space Theatre

Colin had talked about the show at the 2016 Convention, and we were eager to see it. I myself was already familiar with the music because the late Bob Rothwell had sent it to me on disc, and in the early days we sometimes played samples at the start of our Conventions.

Listening to the music - excellent as it is - and seeing the performance give quite different experiences, and a visit to a live performance of the play offers a much more intense experience.

The theatre sat 130, and the performance was sold out. Furthermore, the play held the audience’s full attention. I always make a point, when I am at a play or in a cinema, of looking around the audience half-way through to see how many people have fallen asleep. And here the answer was - none. Even my wife, who had driven for eight hours to get us there, and who is normally an early dozer, was wide awake, a smile on her face and enjoying it.

Inside pages from the Programme

In terms of plot, the play followed in large part the storyline of the cult 1968 Hammer film production. Where the film deviated from the novel in some sections - omitting the final dream-trip to the Greek mountains, and in having a rather tame denouement - the play was more faithful to the original novel. This improved the storyline, and was to be welcomed.

When meeting up beforehand, we wondered how Colin would have managed with the casting. Could anyone measure up to Christopher Lee as the Duke de Richleau, or to Charles Gray as Mocata?


The Duke	Mocata

We need not have concerned ourselves. My wife and I were both impressed with the casting of Ryan Ireland as the Duke and of Michael Diamond as Mocata, with the former having an elegant bearing and a suitably piercing gaze, and with the latter being suitably sinister and lugubrious; and they could both sing as well!

Rex and Tanith

The Duke and his friends sing of triumph

Other cast members also performed creditably. Here I must single out Ella Shaw (Tanith) who achieved celebrity status with Britain’s Got Talent, and Tom Loughlin (Rex). Whereas the man cast as Rex in the Hammer film (Leon Greene) had his voice replaced with that of another actor (Patrick Allen), there was no need for such devices in this case; Tom’s voice was powerful and true. And none of the others was unconvincing, even if Fleur had to be played (perhaps in part because it was way past bedtime) by someone quite considerably older.

An idea of how the play was structured can be seen from the programme, but it would with be a mistake to think that the success of this play was solely down to the music, the lyrics and the performers.

What enabled these to work at their best were some extremely clever (if minimalist) sets and some inspired stage directions.

How, one might wonder, can a limited budget play reproduce the special effects that are integral to such a story, and that are to be found in any modern film or on a computer screen? The answer is that it can’t, and it shouldn’t try to, and just as the ancient Greeks made do with masks and the audience’s imagination, so the set designer and the stage director (and here I understand Ron Redshaw deserves an accolade) made do - and made do very well indeed - with little.

De Richleau’s opulent library was hinted at with the likes of a table, a dodgy reproduction of a Van Dyke portrait of a cavalier and a brace of cheap imitation pistols over the mantelpiece, and when a pentacle was needed (I had wondered how it would be done), it was brought in by the stage hands pre-assembled. Very clever. When Tanith was tempted to the left or right hand path she was physically pulled in the appropriate directions, and when the Duke and Rex gate-crashed the sabbat in their mock Hispano (registration number DUKE1), it pretty much brought the house down. Best of all perhaps was the way the final plane journey to the Greek mountains was handled. Hammer notoriously ducked it, but Colin and his team came up with a solution - a stage hand circled the stage with a spot-lit model airplane of the period, to the accompaniment of recorded engine noises. Very atmospheric.

All in all, it was a performance not to be missed. Colin had cleverly prepared the groundwork (his music, the lyrics, the set and the stage directions) but all would have come to nothing without some extremely good performances - and we were given them. It is clear that Christopher Lee is not the only person who can act a convincing Duke de Richleau.

The applause at the end showed the play was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience, and it was fitting that the cast made its architect, Colin, join the final curtain call.

Wherever the play is next staged, and however far away it is, (Broadway would be nice) I will certainly try to go and see it, and if it’s with the same cast, all the better.

The Dennis Wheatley contingent

Our thanks go to Colin for giving us such an enjoyable performance and Nat and my thanks go to those who joined us for their very pleasurable company.

C.T.H.B.
December 2022