In July I posted about the one-man, one-act play written and performed by John Burns, Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil, which is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August.

LAShTAL.com hosts an in-depth review written by Frater FS, which is largely favourable:

Condensing any life, never mind Crowley’s into less than an hour requires some remarkably tight editing and Burns wisely chooses some key vignettes to give the broad strokes of the Crowley biography. Burns does this with remarkable intensity and effect, slipping into various characters on a minimal stage with nothing but a writing desk, a phone, a dagger and a wine glass for company (Burns plays Crowley in his 50s, balding and in bow tie and frock coat).

Check out the full review on LAShTAL.com, it sounds like Burns has done an excellent job – wish I was in Edinburgh!

I haven’t been able to locate many other reviews of the show, and none go as deep into it as Frater FS. (For example, EdinburghSpotlite.com gave it three stars in a review by Keith D, but without much analysis.)

The show is still on, and will be until August 28th, 2010. If you see it, I’d love to know what you think.

John Burns has written Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil, a new one-man, one-act play which will be showing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.

The 55 minute play is set in the 1930s, with Crowley trying to make his living as a performer. He relives the important stages of his life in a “very human way”.

A short extract of the play is available on PodOmatic, along with several other related podcasts.

In Disinformation: the Podcast, Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall interview Burns, discussing Crowley’s biography and Burns’ sources of inspiration for the play.

Burns  first became interested in Crowley via mountain climbing, and living near Boleskine and as such, his portrayal of Crowley is largely informed by him as a man, rather than the mythic figure so often seen. Continue reading »

Seattle’s Open Circle Theater is putting on a show of H.P. Lovecraft’s Madness Out of Time: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, as adapted by local playwrights Dustin Engstrom and Ron Sandahl.

From the show summary:

Something is desperately wrong with Charles Dexter Ward. Always a delver into the past, his search for info about an ancestor lead ultimately to madness, horror, and perhaps the extermination of all life on the earth.

The show will run from October 9th to November 14th, Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 pm, and on  Sundays at 4 pm.

Apparently they do this sort of thing every year. Nifty. I so want to hear how this turns out.

Spotted on John Griogair Bell’s blog.