The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy is the eerie, mostly true old time terror yarn of a grifter, the devil, and cursed Klondike Gold. It is told by a solo actor with puppets, con games, and dark parlour magic and set, with reasonable historical accuracy during the Klondike Goldrush. The play concerns our charming, but morally questionable narrator, Brimstone, who sells his soul to the Devil in order to become the greatest conman who ever lived. Like the futile pursuit of buried Yukon gold, Brimstone’s rise to power brings misery and misfortune to those around him, including those he loves the most. The play mixes an exciting, nation-defining moment in Canadian History, with the majesty of Robert Service, the pulpy horror of HP Lovecraft, and eye-popping slight of hand and puppetry, to form a unique theatrical experience which twas called “skillful and spooky” by the Toronto Star, and “spine-tingling” by NOW Magazine.
The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy received Dora Award nominations for both Outstanding New Play, and Outstanding Male Performance.
For almost 25 years, Eldritch Theatre has been the only company in the world to combine actors, puppets and parlour magic to explore stories of the creepy, ghoulish and uncanny. Eldritch Theatre was formed in 1886 after an impertinent Ouija board informed Randolph Pomeranski that his soul would be devoured by The Great Old Ones That Were And Shall Be Again unless he produced a series of puppets plays exploring the dark and foreboding mysteries of the Dread Necronomicon of Abdul-Alhazred. Unfortunately, none of these plays were ever performed, because when it came time to write grant applications, the Ouija Board would only spell gibberish. One hundred thirteen years after Pomeranski’s blood-sopped demise in the knotting room of an unlicensed wig factory, Eldritch Theatre reformed to create, develop and produce plays that deal in themes of the horrific, supernatural and uncanny, often with a darkly comedic bent, which seek to scare, entertain andenlighten audiences in equal measure. These plays explore innovations in staging, including extensive incorporation of puppetry, mask, and a post-Brechtian approach to staging the fantastic.
Eldritch Theatre’s Website: https://eldritchtheatre.ca/brimstone/
Eldritch’s principal creator and Director of the Uncanny, Eric Woolfe, is an actor, playwright, puppeteer and magician. His work for Eldritch Theatre includes Requiem for a Gumshoe, Space Opera Zero, The Dollhouse of Deadly Sins, The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy, House at Poe Corner, Frankenstein’s Boy, The Haunted Medicine Show, Madhouse Variations, The Babysitter, The Strange & Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom, Dear Boss, Grendelmaus, and Sideshow of the Damned. Some of his other credits include Old Man and the River (Theatre Direct), The Comedy of Errors (Humber River Shakespeare), The Glass Menagerie, Ghosts (Touchmark Theatre) Rocket and the Queen of Dreams, (Roseneath Theatre). Little Shop of Horrors (Canstage), Timon in Disney's The Lion King; Eric has been nominated for over twenty Dora Mavor Moore Awards and won zero.
His film and TV acting credits include Fatman, American Gods, Heroes Reborn, Defiance, Murdoch Mysteries, Haven, Hemlock Grove, The Listener, Transporter, Certain Prey, and most notably, George Romero’s modern zombie western masterpiece, Survival of the Dead.
Project Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjArv7bsH14
