Monday 22 September 2014

21st Century Poe: Falling For The Ushers at Lee Rosy's, Nottingham, this Halloween!

Just pasting in the press release for my next storytelling show....

21st. CENTURY POE: FALLING FOR THE USHERS
Lee Rosy's Tea Shop, 17 Broad Street, Nottingham NG1 3AJ.
31st. October 2014, 20.00. Tickets £3.50 (pay on door)

Descend into the basement at Lee Rosy's to spend Halloween with Edgar Allan Poe -- as celebrated Scottish storyteller & playwright Marty Ross (BBC Radio horror; Doctor Who audio) drags The Fall Of The House Of Usher kicking & screaming into the modern world, in a show already a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe & London Horror Festivals!

Halloween is fast approaching, and what better way to celebrate the creepiest night of the year than with the art of the terror tale in its oldest, purest, most 'unplugged' form, that of live storytelling? Descend into a cosy basement with a modern master of the art of the storyteller's art, as he gives his unique modern retelling of the most famous tale of the greatest horror writer of all - and with a good bracing cuppa within easy reach!

Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher is long-established as a classic horror tale, but Marty Ross is a ‘modernist’ on the live storytelling scene, keen to rescue this resurgent form from backward looking quaintness. Thus, in his version, Falling For The Ushers, haunted, incestuous twins Roderick and Madeline Usher have left behind the misty gothic manor of the original story to become superstars of Glasgow's contemporary art world, thanks to their macabre conceptual installations in the manner of Damien Hirst and the Chapman Bros. But when Madeline’s old art school admirer Ed shows up, their tragic downfall is as inescapable as ever. And Marty Ross's unique performing style, combining evocative language with expressionistic mime and gesture, makes full-blown theatre out of the story as he embodies a whole cast list of larger than life characters.

FALLING FOR THE USHERS has already been a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and London Horror Festivals, as testified by the reviews it received:

Insanely good storytelling… a master craftsman who never turns down the pressure… Ross’ violently impressive performance make this a heart-pounding triumph… Trainspotting meets gothic horror….” – Broadway Baby *****

“…What Marty Ross does with literature’s most mystical and macabre works is make them sing with new energy and beguile an audience all over again…. poetically re-worked ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ manages, in its modernisation, to preserve and revere the original, even intensifying its impact… a bewitchingly good story that leaves a haunting reminder long after the lights have gone down.” - 3 Weeks ****

Ross has a great aptitude for suspense and terror, and he hurls himself into his tale with energy and passion, in words which ring with Glasgow rhythm. An accomplished piece of work… a chilling conclusion.” – The Scotsman

Visceral. A compelling narrator and onstage presence. … left you thinking as well as reeling… theatre that kept you on edge… an immensely entertaining ride that scared and shocked in equal measure – a fair ground ghost ride for the 21st Century….” – Fringe Review


Well established as a playwright, particularly with dark drama for BBC radio (Ghost Zone, Catch My Breath, Darker Side Of The Border, Rough Magick & Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk; another Poe show, Moyamensing, is to be BBC Radio Scotland's big Halloween show this year, with another new play, The Dead Of Fenwick Moor, to be broadcast in the new year), plus Doctor Who & award-nominated Dark Shadows audio drama, as well as Blood And Stone, nominated for a 2012 Rondo Award (horror fandom’s Oscars), Ross also regularly performs as a live storyteller, particularly in Scotland, his native country, and in the East Midlands, where he currently lives, this year having already seen him perform The Blackwater Bride in Nottingham and Derbyshire, and 21st Century Poe: Moyamensing at this year's Edinburgh Festival. Two plays of his have been commissioned for the last two Buxton Festivals – Redder Than Roses: A Glimpse Of Mary, Queen Of Scots & The Woman On The Bridge.