‘Irma Vep’ at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Vampires, detectives and lots of laughs

Mummies and vampires and werewolves, oh my! The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival scores another summer hit with a wickedly funny revival of Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep, which the company first staged in 2007 with the same director and cast.

Ludlam’s now-classic play spoofs, among other sources, the “penny dreadfuls,” Victorian-era English serials that spun seedy tales of vampires, detectives and the supernatural. Irma Vep takes place at Mandecrest Manor, where Egyptologist Edgar (Christopher Patrick Mullen) still mourns the mysterious death of his wife (by vampires), much to the annoyance of his new bride, Enid (Brad DePlanche). He still vows to avenge the murder of his son Victor, at the hands of the family wolf (also Victor), and travels to ancient Egypt in Act Two to remove a curse.

Yes, it’s a bit much, but that’s the point of Ludlam’s comedy. Under director Jim Helsinger’s guidance, every line, costume, entrance and sound effect pokes at some reference across the span of the last 150 years. William Neal’s sound design equally spoofs silent films as much as Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Lisa Zinni’s costumes revel in riffing on the Scream movies (and poke at Elizabeth Taylor’s ostentatiousness in Cleopatra).

Between them, Mullen and DePlanche play eight actors, most in drag, and the quick pacing requires 35 costume changes to enable the comedic effects. The superb backstage crew speeds the pair through their shifts in character; half the joy in seeing it again is marveling at the skill involved by the stagehands. Three of them gleefully revive the Mummy Thriller entr’acte from 2007, reenacting the choreography from Michael Jackson’s video during a set change from Egypt back to England.

I saw PSF’s original staging in 2007 and can’t argue that the play bears repeated viewings. But Mullen and DePlanche have only improved as comedians with time. This production marks DePlanche’s seventh casting as Enid; his every mannerism bursts with exaggeration, from his dopey peg-legged walk as the servant Nicodemus to his finger twitching, scheming Alcazar (reminding of Signor Ferrari in Casablanca). Mullen drenches every line in insincerity, with his eyebrows alone delivering a handful of laughs.

The pair blitz through a script filled with double entendres, Monty Pythonesque rejoinders and the kind of one-liners that would make Henny Youngman blush. Helsinger opts for a straightforward revival, taking no risks that would detract from the success achieved not only by his original staging, but by a play so eagerly enjoyed for three decades now.

The Mystery of Irma Vep

Through July 14 at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, Pa. Tickets: from $25. Information: 610-282-9455 or pashakespeare.org.