LONDON LOVECRAFT FESTIVAL 2023
One week of squamous horror theatre returns to the psyche and streets of London this February with the London Lovecraft Festival. Fifteen performances over seven days (with ten unique shows, including two world premieres) means there is much for the devotee of the mythos-making mind of H.P. Lovecraft!
Artistic director TL Wiswell says, “We’re excited to bring the festival back this year. Covid was the most cosmic horror I’ve ever lived through but it really made me miss all of the collaboration and creativity of making theatre. Hopefully this year our audiences will be thirsty for more and given the quality and variety of what we have on offer we think they’ll be enough to keep any Lovecraft fan holding their eyes open with toothpicks to keep from missing a moment of the creeping chaos. We’ve also added a Lovecraft games afternoon so there is even more fun to be had for closet cultists.”
Award-winning storyteller Jason Buck Storyteller brings two evenings of stories, one combining the minds of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and English occultist Aleister Crowley, another bringing Lovecraft’s classic gothic horror tale to life as a cold case investigation. “Weird and Unnatural Tales” opens the festival, and “Cthulhu, Cold Case” starts the second night.
See either of these with “Re-Animator, the Bloody Musical,” where Herbert West is many things: doctor, scientist, and bona-fide lunatic. Bear witness to his quest to raise people from the dead all told through the medium of musical theatre. It’s this show’s London debut after two successful outings in Glasgow.
“Podsothoth: A Lovecraft Book Club” is a delightful romp through Lovecraft fiction, hosted by recovering goth and internet D-lister celebrity, Tod Beardsley, and his attorney of questionable taste but unimpeachable wit and charm, Claire Reynolds. Usually available on your favourite podcast app, you can see it recorded live before your very eyes for one night only!
Screen Rebels bring “The Shroud of Charon,” where in 1930s London controversial psychic researcher Arthur Adam-Meyers comes into possession of an ancient Egyptian treasure which houses a mysterious woman and a message about an impossible boundary between dimensions and existence.
Tell No Tales bring together a traveler escaping an obelisk in the middle of the Ocean, a detective on the hunt of a dangerous madman, and a doctor discovering the mechanism of life. “The Atrocities at Arkham” follows these characters as their stories cross and blend in H.P Lovecraft’s Arkham County. This show is a world premiere.
Stewart Roche presents “Revenant,” starring Patrick O’Donnell as film-maker Carter whose lead actor drops out the day before his dream project starts filming. Pull the plug, or cast the mysterious Vardell, an actor of incendiary talent but a dark past? As events unfold on set, Carter soon suspects that he may have made a grave mistake…
“Gallery of Screams” pairs two of Lovecraft’s tales as adapted and performed by Nunkie (Robert Lloyd Parry), depicting artists at the edge of sanity. “Pickman’s Model” shows us the uncannily brilliant paintings of Richard Upton Pickman, a genius shunned by the artistic establishment because of the sickening realism of his canvases. It is performed with “The Music of Eric Zann,” an eerie tale of inspiration and possession ─ one that Lovecraft himself counted as a personal favourite.
Vulcanello Productions & Shivers bring the world premiere of “The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath,” a fusion of music, storytelling, and shadow puppetry, with a script by TL Wiswell. Randolph Carter dreams a dream of a glittering city on a mountain…but to visit it would mean to give up his sanity. Can he find the city of Unknown Kadath? Perhaps the Cats of Ulthar and Pickman’s army of ghouls can help him evade the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep. Or perhaps not.
Dolly Trolley caps off the festival and joins us for our 2023 journey to realms both eldritch and, dare we say it, camp with our Lovecraft Cabaret. Join her and a host of London burlesque and cabaret favorites, with a return visit from John Callaghan, who’s singalong stylings blend comedy and unspeakable horrors. You will gasp, you will gibber, you will wonder…where did he hide those eyeballs? Find out, on the Night of 1000 Tentacles!
This year also features a brand new gaming strand, letting you put yourself into the shoes of the hapless protagonists of our shows! If you’ve ever wondered how you’d react in the face of shrieking terror, you can play these tabletop roleplaying games and find out. There’ll be games of Trail of Cthulhu and Call of Cthulhu, and the former’s publisher Pelgrane Press will be present so you can meet some of the makers! Head to the socials to claim your place in one of the games, or come by for talks and boardgames too.
Links
Festival website: http://londonlovecraft.com/
Drayton Arms Theatre website (listings and tickets):
https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/
Games sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1O-WxM9FqB-gWL9KZrwmj9vnJWlVnq_9RUXHQJshDLK8/viewform?edit_requested=true
Socials
Facebook: https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/london-lovecraft-festival.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LondonLovecraft
Mastodon: https://mastodonapp.uk/@londonlovecraft
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/london.lovecraft.festival/
SCHEDULE
13th February 2023
Weird And Unnatural Tales @ 7PM (90m)
Re-animator, The Bloody Musical @ 9PM (60m)
14th February 2023
Cthulhu Cold Case @ 7PM (90m)
Re-animator, The Bloody Musical @ 9PM (60m)
15th February 2023
The Shroud Of Charon @ 7PM (60m)
Podsothoth Live! @ 9PM (60m)
16th February 2023
The Shroud Of Charon @ 7PM (60m)
Atrocities At Arkham @ 9PM (60m)
17th February 2023
Atrocities At Arkham @ 7PM (60m)
Revenant @ 9PM (60m)
18th February 2023
LLF Gaming Strand featuring Pelgrane Press @ 12PM (6h)
Atrocities At Arkham @ 7PM (60m)
Revenant @ 9PM (60m)
19th February 2023
Gallery Of Screams @ 5PM (80m)
The Dreamquest Of Unknown Kadath @ 7.30PM (50m)
Clocktopus Cabaret: Night Of 1000 Tentacles @ 9PM (60m)
