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Military & Poets' Theater
Military & Poets' Theater
Gorey never really spoke about his brief time in the military much, but it is the known origins of his writing career. He started writing plays during this time, which he later described as “unpresentable—closet dramas”. The content of these plays are recounted as being clever but derivative, pretty high praise for a nineteen or twenty year old’s first hand at writing. While unpublished, they are examples of origins of the surrealist Anglophilic way that Gorey would go on to construct his written and theatrical work.
At Harvard, he further pursued creative writing and delved into performance. This would eventually lead to him becoming a founding member of the Poets’ Theater in Cambridge. It was a wanted escape from his illustrations and an opportunity to collaborate with a seemingly found family. He worked on a lot of the visual media associated with the performances; sets, logos, posters, handbills, and other promotional materials. He also wrote two plays, The Teddy Bear, a Sinister Play and Amabel, or the Partition of Poland. The Teddy Bear was a play featuring a couple arguing in the foreground while a murderous teddy bear is dragged slowly across stage, on its way to the nursery to strangle the (unknowing) couple’s baby. It was a haunting story that would be a telling precursor to his literary content later on. The premise is also notably not graphic, a trope that his illustrations usually follow despite horrific accompanying lines.
Edward Gorey, poster for "An Entertainment Somewhat in the Victorian Manner" by the Poets' Theatre. (Larry Osgood, private collection)
New York & Dracula
After moving to NYC, there was a long period where Gorey didn’t participate in creating any theater. In an interview in 1977, he reflected “I tend to drift my way through existence, and if I had decided to direct myself a little more than I ever did, I think I probably would have worked in the theater more." His true return to the theater would be in 1973 when he was invited by John Wulp to design the set and costumes for the summer production of Dracula on Nantucket island. In his signature Gothic style, he created drawings for the sets that would be blown up and painted by scenic artists. The set was strikingly black and white and this included some of the props and other set pieces. The monotone was however broken up by little bursts of red onstage like a glass of wine, a rose, or the silk lining of Dracula’s cape. The visual spectacle earned high praise from reviewers, so much so that the production was usually referred to as “Gorey’s Dracula”.
Edward Gorey, "A Dream of Dracula." For The New York Times Book Review. 1973.
Edward Gorey, "Lucy & Dracula" An Edward Gorey Laser Cel. 2008.
After all the praise, there were several attempts to bring it to Broadway with Gorey agreeing he would only design for Wulp’s Dracula. Once Wulp re-acquired the rights, it premiered on Broadway in October 1977, with Frank Langella joining the cast as the titular character. Gorey redid the drawings, making them more detailed for Broadway's bigger stage. Like the Nantucket production, the Broadway run would be most known for Gorey’s designs, earning himself Tony nominations for both set and costumes. While he didn’t attend the Tony-presentation ceremony, he won for costumes, which he recounts “There was somebody else who deserved the set design award much more than I did that year, so they didn’t feel like they could give that one to me. They gave me the costume award instead.”
It ran for almost three years, closing after 925 performances, with later touring productions further attesting to the very success of Gorey’s Dracula. However, Gorey wasn’t as enthused by its success, which his absence at the Tony's suggests. He didn’t like the grand scale that his drawings were translated into and would often divert the conversation away from Dracula in interviews, preferring to talk about what shows he would rather design for, often mentioning Gilbert and Sullivan shows. Regardless of Gorey’s feelings toward the project, Wulp had made sure that he would be paid accordingly, earning 10% of the profits, a notable amount for a set and costume designer. Gorey’s Dracula would also result in a toy theatre book, reminiscent of the popular toy theatre books of 19th century Europe, furthering his more antiquated aesthetic.
Gorey (center) and the cast of Gorey Stories at The Booth Theatre (Broadway), photo from Gorey Stories Playbill. 1978.
Edward Gorey, Poster for Gorey Stories at The Booth Theatre (Broadway). 1978.
Edward Gorey, Stephen Currens, David Aldrich, published script of Gorey Stories. 1983.
Gorey Stories
Gorey Stories
Mirroring a similar timeline to Dracula, Gorey Stories started as a much smaller production at the University of Kentucky in 1974. Originally a one-act play made up of a few different Gorey works, it evolved into a full-length production in the next year as a part of the University’s mainstage season. One of the creators, Stephen Currens, later went to New York hoping to find someone to produce it. After quite a few rejections, Howard Ashman (of later Little Shop of Horrors and Disney fame), the off-off Broadway WPA Theatre’s artistic director at the time, took interest and produced it for WPA’s 1977 season. The twelve performances received good enough reviews that a group, including Wulp, decided to try it on Broadway. It opened on Halloween 1978 and closed the same night. There is a list of possible reasons why Gorey Stories bombed so hard, one being that there was a newspaper strike happening at the time, killing possible promotion through lack of reviews. However, that newspaper strike only affected the New York Times, so other publications still had reviews on the production. Those reviews were very mixed, Television critics like Dennis Cunningham and the Post’s reviewer, Clive Barnes, both liked Gorey’s literary work, but disparaged the production with respective sentiments like, “[Gorey’s work] read[s] well, but sure don’t play well”, and “It has the style of Gorey’s unique sensibility. It also has the impact of a mildly dampened rag”. However, other critics like Martin Gottfried argued that the show was sophisticated and “too smart for Broadway”. Juxtaposing its failure with Dracula, an argument could be made that the differences in narrative structure and lackluster visuals impacted audiences.
The set of Gorey Stories was very minimal, a choice that probably disappointed Broadway audiences, who either wanted a rehash of Dracula’s sets or expected some sort of Broadway-esque spectacle. Narrative-wise, Gorey Stories is made up of multiple little campy stories that usually don’t resolve happily. Meanwhile, Dracula is a relatively easy-to-follow narrative that has a satisfying happy ending. Nevertheless, Gorey enjoyed this production, going to see it four times. At the time he said it “was the only time I appreciated my own work, because it had nothing to do with me—somebody else did it”.
Edward Gorey, Poster advertising Tinned Lettuce. 1985.
Tinned Lettuce
Tinned Lettuce
Another similar production, Tinned Lettuce, is an anthology-like play that features multiple Gorey plots, including unpublished ones. In 1985, John Wulp now worked in the drama department of New York University and decided to put on a musical production of some of Gorey’s unpublished work. Gorey designed this production and he was consulted in the direction, even being asked to expand upon characters’ motivations which he would reply with quips resembling “Less acting”. Mark Dery states that “His works for the stage were about Victorian nonsense, mock moralizing, surrealism, silliness, absurdism—anything but psychological motivations and character development”. This, in hindsight, would be a precursor of his directorial attitudes that he would use to approach community theater in the Cape. Tinned Lettuce would later be changed and adapted into two other productions: Amphigorey: The Musical (1992-1994) and The Gorey Details (2000).
Edward Gorey, Drop curtain for Amphigorey. (Mrs. Frances Massey Dulaney, private collection)
Community Theatre
Brennan Cavanaugh, Gorey with two members of Le Théâtricule Stoïque.
Later in life, he moved to Cape Cod and started to regularly engage in community theatre. After going to a production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Gorey asked the director, Genie Stevens, if she would be interested in directing any of his work, in which she responded that she would. This would result in his first Cape Cod production, Lost Shoelaces. This first introduced staples in Gorey’s community productions, like his hand puppet troupe Le Théâtricule Stoïque, or actors like Eric Edwards, Vincent Myette, Joe Richards, and Cathy Smith, who would continue to be in Gorey’s entertainments. Stevens left before the premiere so this would also be the first and last time that Gorey would occupy the director position alone. His directing style overall was very hands-off, preferring the actors to choose their own parts and figure out how to perform his work. The critiques he had were usually about the assumed necessity for depth, favoring flat characters, almost like he wanted tableaus of people simulating his illustrations. His emphasis on the visual aspect might also be connected to his love of choreographic work like ballet. With him as director and writer, the production was much more influenced by his theatrical sensibilities, clearly reflecting his influences from Dada, Beckett, and Japanese art. It would be highly stylized, a clear departure from the more commercialized Dracula. His following productions and ‘entertainments’ would follow this pattern and like Tinned Lettuce, they would usually be compilations of his unpublished work. They were not really plays, nor were they revues, Gorey said, “they just sort of drivel[ed] along without interruption.”
Edward Gorey, credits inside the program for Lost Shoelaces. 1987.
Edward Gorey, the cover of the program for Lost Shoelaces. 1987.
A stuffed frog hand sewn by Gorey, sold at one of his entertainments.
English Soup
English Soup
Pages 4 & 5 of the program for English Soup. 1998.
While the public does not have access to any of the content of the plays or ‘entertainments’ he put on in Cape Cod as the scripts aren’t published, Anthony Gunn got access to the script of English Soup, one of the last plays he put on, for his dissertation. Gunn proposes that Gorey’s theatre work parallels his published literature through its usual camp aesthetic and his lack of adherence to an overarching narrative, preferring little snapshots of stories that fit together through theme, characters, or place. So as expected, English Soup is a collection of vignettes with overtures at the front of the two acts. Just looking at the program, one can see the surrealism that the productions would favor in the section that credits the music for the evening. Amongst famous composers like Vivaldi, Muller, and Mozart, there is ‘frogs’ listed, which one can only guess what that meant. Gunn notes that most of the play is narrated by a sole actor while others are physically acting the story out onstage. It seems like this approach to storytelling reflects his extreme partiality to silent films, divorcing voices from the action. It could also possibly be connected to his tendencies to write for/about the youth, narration being an effective device in these settings. The only section that wasn’t narrated was a scene titled “The Lawn Party”, featuring a series of conversations between seven cast members that can’t seem to escape the social awkwardness of the get together. It has nineteen script pages full of neverending social missteps and mix ups with some added abstract surrealist language resulting in it being the most critiqued portion of the production. Reviewers hated how long it kept droning on for, however Gunn argues that Gorey’s intent was to steep the audience in that same awkwardness, truly make them as uncomfortable as the actors, which of course would lead to people’s dislike of that scene. In contrast, the other narrated portions were well liked, especially the three scenes that featured Le Théâtricule Stoïque. Reportedly, theater-goers were so fond of the puppets that they began to applaud before the third puppet skit even began.
A scene from one of his entertainments, photo from Edward Gorey Plays Cape Cod by Carol Verburg. 2011.
Edward Gorey, Poster advertising Heads Will Roll. 1985.
It’s clear that his community theatre work was very stylized, confrontational in a way that would only attract a cult-like audience similar to his literature. His positionality on the Cape probably didn’t lend well to selling complete full houses filled with that audience, however his shows still sold well, enough for the venue to make a nice profit. Productions would usually run for around a month, shows being limited to Thursday through Sunday nights. Verburg, a frequent collaborator with Gorey, recounts, “some audiences, and some reviewers loved the plays; some were baffled, a few repelled”. Actors would note that some of the audience would eventually leave during intermission, but despite the varying reception, Gorey kept doing theatre until his death. The last production he worked on was The White Canoe, a puppet musical that was performed after his passing.
A scene featuring puppetry from one of his entertainments, photo from Edward Gorey Plays Cape Cod by Carol Verburg. 2011.
A look into his directing and his puppets
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