A few weeks back I got to spend an afternoon with a magical troupe of magical people about to put on a magically macabre production... This troupe is Happenstance Theater Company and their show is the Cabaret Macabre.
Happenstance Theater was born in 2006 as a
collaboration between Sabrina Mandell and Mark Jaster who met and fell
in love in a Clown workshop. Sabrina invited Mark to be part of a show
that she was working on and they then decided to establish the company
as the producing organization for all of their work.
What kind of theater does the company perform?
We
are part of a long tradition in world theater in which the performers
themselves create the material. Academically, it is currently referred
to as "Devised Theatre," but long before that term was coined, European
Jongleurs, the players of the Commedia Dell'Arte, Circus clowns, and
even Vaudevillians have created their own material. We begin a new
project with a set of ideas, rather than a script, and we gather images
and generate or appropriate text as needed. We aim for a poetry of
images, a heightened physicality, and an elevated encounter with the
audience.
What inspired the Macabre Cabaret?
Three years ago we had a booking at the Round House Theatre Silver Spring
that coincided with Hallowe'en so we decided to indulge our love of the
comic, dark illustrations of Edward Gorey and our passion for the
Victorian aesthetic and created the first Cabaret Macabre. It was a huge
hit so Round House invited us back and now it has become a regular
autumnal event in their black box.
What is the most exciting thing about this new production?
For
us it working with our new Company members and the delight of delving
even deeper into the material of the turn of the century. For the
audience it might be the all-new slow motion croquet battle, the
physical stylization of riding the rails, or encountering over 25
characters played by six people beautifully costumed in period clothes.
Make sure to buy your tickets early {the show has a high likelihood of selling out}, it is bound to be a marvel!
