Review: Geeky SHOGGOTHS ON THE VELDT From Rogues Gallery Suffers Pacing Issues

Attention nerds! There's now a theater company in town for us! And I don't mean musical theater nerds or drama nerds but good old fashioned Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerds. Fledgling company The Rogues Gallery has come onto the scene and promises Geek Theater. And their inaugural production, "Shoggoths on the Veldt: A Cthulhu Adventure Comedy" certainly delivers on that promise. But as fun as it was and as much as I long for more geeky fare in general, this production certainly was in need of some tightening, both in pace and in script.

Cameron McNary's play begins with British explorer Lord Melford Pumbleshire (Cody Smith) as he sends his last goodbyes to his dearest love Lady Euphonia Riggstone (Jennifer Crooks) as he is about to be disemboweled by a dreaded Shoggoth whilst in deepest, darkest Africa. Euphonia, of course, does not heed Melford's warnings to not come look for him and hires famed explorer Welton Mountcrag (Curtis Eastwood) to lead the expedition to find out what has happened to Melford. But she kind of already knows what has happened as Melford's spirit constantly appears to her with the annoying habit of forgetting everything following his death every half an hour or so. So the adventurers set off along with Mountcrag's man-servant Crompit (Cole Hornaday) to discover the truth and along the way they pick up the proper Lady Phillipa Bickleford-Smith-Jones (Meredith Armstrong) who had her own secret reasons for wanting to tag along.

The show has its moments both funny and touching. The problem is that McNary's script feels the need to beat those moments into the ground by repeating them over and over in multiple scenes. And while the joke may be funny the first time or even the second, the sixth time it just lands with a thud. That coupled with some very unnecessary scenes that move nothing along and some amazingly overly wordy exposition causes the show to drag. Director Daniel Wood does what he can with trying to keep the pace clipping along but even he succumbs to the need for the story to take its own sweet time.

The ensemble also has their moments to shine and each take on their characters with glee. Eastwood makes for a wonderful faux Indiana Jones but after awhile I didn't really see the need for the character but that has more to do with the script than Eastwood. Smith manages a loveable sweetness with the amnesiac phantasm Melford. And Hornaday turns in some a couple of fun roles in the evening as the designated sidekicks. But it's the ladies who take on the lion's share of the show as McNary definitely wanted the show to be a twist on the typical adventure serial and have the women be in charge. Crooks is strong and determined and manages some wonderful sly entendres but her delivery gets a little static after awhile. And Armstrong gives several hilarious accents throughout and makes for the perfect foil to Lady Riggstone.

All told while I love me some nerdy fare on stage and the show did manage a few good guffaws it could have been about half an hour shorter with some tightening. And so with my three letter rating system I give it a MEH+. Shoggoths may be terrifying but there's nothing scarier than a play that doesn't know it has made its point and that it's time to move on.

"Shoggoths on the Veldt: A Cthulhu Adventure Comedy" from The Rogues Gallery performs at Inscape Arts through December 5th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.theroguesgallery.tv.

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