Pulp is a “must see” comical whodunit with a supernatural twist.
Picture it, Los Angeles 1933, it’s hot and dirty and the smog is so thick it’s like breathing through styrofoam. Nerves are jangling for the four Pulp Fiction writers, as there has been a gruesome murder of their literary agent and they are all suspects. The baggy PI Frank Ellery, a washed-up, drunken illustrator turned detective, must use his sleuthing skills to determine what is fiction and what is real, no matter how surreal each story seems. The author, Joseph Zettelmeier is an American playwright and four-time nominee for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Award and teaches Dramatic Composition at Eastern Michigan University.
The Centenary Theatre Group’s production of Pulp is a fantastic edgy and surreal black comedy whodunnit viewed through the eyes of four Pulp fiction authors. Desiree St Clair, played by Megan Bennett in the voluptuous style of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, is a Mills and Boon-style romance writer who hires and then manipulates PI Ellery using her womanly wiles. But PI Ellery (Michael Citivano), is more wary than his dishevelled appearance portrays as he too weaves his own story, manipulating the four suspects to reveal the true murderer. The PI’s name is derived from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, an American digest size fiction magazine specialising in detective crime fiction.
However, the fiction writers are determined to confuse him as they weave their own fiction styles into reality. The hilarious Jason Nash playing Walter Kingston Smith, embraces his role as a superhero crime writer becoming the vigilante “The Cloak” at night, dashing across stage his arm raised under a black cloak, like the infamous hooded claw. His double-life is balanced with the persona of an effeminate playboy injecting gossip, cattiness and suspicion into the writer’s cocktail. Bradley Rayburn (Erik de Wit) is a take on the sci-fi/horror writer Ray Bradbury, a reclusive inventor who further confuses PI Ellery by inventing a time machine to tamper with the evidence. Andrew Wallace is an unnerving character, as R. A. Lyncroft neé H. P. Lovecraft, who injects not only horror into the situation but a strange supernatural twist through his knowledge of the occult and a penchant for the macabre. His demure slowly evolves throughout the play, from an aloof and pompous writer, to a much more terrifying figure worshipping the demonic deity Zal ’n’ Thok.
The casting for the play was excellent, with each actor fulfilling the role to perfection. Michael Citivano as PI Ellery managed his dialogue-laden role with an LA accent convincingly throughout, as I attended with an LA citizen, helped by Citivano having lived in LA for 13 years. His drunkeness and slovenly attitude were well counterbalanced by his laconic humour and amusing wry asides. Cam Castles, the Director and Set Designer ,and the Stage manager Margaret Bell, are veteran CTG contributors, having produced many shows over the years. Their attention to detail in relation to set design, sound and lighting and their effective use of multimedia always raises each production from community theatre to professional standards.
The set design was innovative, beginning with a montage of images from the covers of hundreds of Pulp Fiction comics such as You’ll Die Laughing and Donovan’s Brain, which was enthralling as the audience took their seats. A video of a swing jazz band playing “Chandelier,” gradually fading back through time from modern day to the 1930’s, was an original tool to aid transport the audience into the era at the beginning of the play. The set was also fascinating, recreating a standard room with a desk and sofa, but the back wall had a live projection of the backdrop of each room, whether Ellery’s messy apartment, the library of Lyncroft or a street scene. Ellery’s apartment scene was enthralling, as the view from the window changed each scene, allowing the eagle-eyed audience to see vistas not commonly outside an apartment in central LA.
The backdrop was crafted by Thomas Swanborough, who constructed an intricate diorama of the office for close-up filming. The artist Nicholas Swanborough also created the rather suggestive Sleeping Deity, Zal ’n' Thok used in the background. A short amusing promotional video created by Jason Nash’s (who plays The Cloak) own filmmaking business is available to watch from the Centenary Theatre Group website and is further evidence of the professional approach of the group to their community theatre productions.
Pulp is an absolute “must see” comical whodunit with a supernatural twist.
Centenary Theatre, Chelmer Community Centre
9th - 30th November 2019
Dr Gemma Regan