THEATER REVIEW
“The Sleepy Hollow Experience”
Grade: C
Through Oct. 31. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays; 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. $20. The Stables at Serenbe, 9110 Selborne Lane in Chattahoochee Hills. 770-463-1110, www.serenbeplayhouse.com.
Bottom line: An intriguing concept disappointingly realized.
Serenbe Playhouse’s “The Sleepy Hollow Experience” rather aptly promises to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, but that’s not so much because it’s a particularly thrilling or chilling interpretation of the classic Washington Irving ghost story. It’s mostly because we’re constantly getting up and moving from place to place to follow the action. (Never mind that we stand around watching more of the show than we watch seated anyway.)
The 4-year-old company performs outdoors in the Chattahoochee Hills community of Serenbe (some 40 miles south of Atlanta), and its environmental technique can work beautifully in the case of something like the troupe’s recent production of “A Walk in the Woods.” In the case of its “Sleepy Hollow,” the Serenbe Stables become a glorified haunted house, and it features several appearances by a Headless Horseman atop a real horse.
While the premise is not uninteresting, the execution is problematic. Kathryn Schultz Miller’s adaptation reduces Irving’s gothic tale to bits and pieces. A lot of the narrative is delivered by a band of strolling minstrels, although isolated scenes use actors as the famous characters of Ichabod Crane, Bram Bones and Katrina Van Tassel, who are embroiled in a love triangle in murky 1790s New England.
The show doesn’t come with the usual theater program, so none of its cast is credited for their work (including any mention on the company’s website). Even done up in Helena Bonham Carter drag, the most recognizable face among them is probably that of Laura Floyd as one of those roving storytellers/musicians. Publicity photos identify the other ensemble members as Chris Mayers, Jessica Miesel, Brandon Partrick and Jacob Cooper.
Serenbe artistic director Brian Clowdus is billed for staging it — as are Jevares C. Myrick and Bobby Johnston (for their original music and sound design) and Seth Davis (as musical director) — but the crafty costume, makeup and lighting designers who contribute so well to evoking a suitably spooky atmosphere aren't as lucky. Take a bow, whoever you are.
This so-called “Experience” hardly qualifies as a bona fide theatrical production, and it doesn’t always function much better as a carnival exhibit, either, however highly stylized it is. Crowding into a half-dozen different locations in and around the Stables, you’re never sure where to position yourself for the best vantage point.
As fate would have it for me on opening night, crucial scenes involving a perilous bridge crossing or a vicious dog attack took place entirely out of my sight. When I didn’t miss a few of their cameos altogether, I was barely able to catch a fleeting glimpse of that Headless Horseman or the Lady in White.
The show runs only 50-odd minutes, and it feels overlong at that. Clowdus sets out to keep us on the go and then occasionally stops us cold for a silly singalong or an intermission of sorts in the form of a hokey hoedown.
Its Halloween spirit is unmistakable, but Serenbe’s “Sleepy Hollow” is finally more of a trick than a treat.
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