CRABBE & GOYLE ARE DEAD to Premiere at Hollywood Fringe
By: Julie Musbach May. 20, 2019
During a rehearsal for another Potterverse-themed show last year, Fringe veteran Graydon Schlichter wondered aloud what would happen if one tried to explore the complexities of life through the lens of Harry Potter. A friend then asked who would be the victims...or the protagonists.
The result is Crabbe and Goyle Are Dead, making its world premiere at studio/stage this June as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Crabbe and Goyle Are Dead is an absurd comedy exploring the existential crises happening off-stage during a very famous, and equally tumultuous, seven-year span at everyone's favorite school of witchcraft and wizardry.
"With the larger Potter universe moving both to the past and to the future in new films and on stage, I think there is an opening to dig deeper into the original story and explore the lesser thought about characters," said Writer Kitty Keim. "(J.K.) Rowling introduced so many characters that it would be impossible for her to have given them all closure. That invites the fandom to fill in the blanks, which is what we do in this show."
Keim took Schlichter's seed of an idea and turned it into this show. An experienced Shakespearian artist with a BA in English and Theatre from CSU and an MLitt and MFA from Mary Baldwin University, Keim has not only performed in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (on which, this play is loosely based), but she has developed Potter-themed role-playing games, taken classes at Hogwarts is Here and co-captained a team for Harry Potter Day at Disneyland. She's a fan. The team also brought in experienced director Andy Justus, a theatre grad from UC-Santa Cruz with experience acting and directing in the Seattle Fringe community as well as in local indy theaters, with some "peculiar" works under his belt, including some inspired by Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka.
True to its name, Crabbe and Goyle Are Dead is not a piece of happy, fantasy fluff. The point was always to hold a mirror up to some of the bigger life issues and that's what they do in this piece. While other shows look past those questions, this one goes directly at them, meaning it doesn't all tie up with a delightful Disney bow. There are also quite a few surprises, including a new take on a particular Hogwarts house that has always been portrayed in an evil light.
"Fringe is such a fun, experimental, frenetic atmosphere...it's a great place for a show to premiere to an eclectic audience of theatre lovers who are there to have fun and see something new," Keim said. "As for why a dark, existential comedy in 2019, well, I would be hard-pressed to find anyone these days that can't identify with having less control over their circumstances than they'd like. It's best to laugh at it."
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6134
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