Bruce Randolph Nelson Isn’t Done Playing Dress-Up in Irma Vep
For his 50th production at Everyman Theatre, company member Bruce Randolph Nelson revives his many roles in "Irma Vep"
“This kind of theater is what I live for,” says Bruce Randolph Nelson. “High comedy, high camp, ridiculous, outrageous, the more the better.”
Donning an assortment of wigs and frocks and false teeth to perform multiple roles, Nelson is currently starring alongside Zack Powell in Everyman Theatre’s vigorous and hilarious production of Charles Ludlam’s quick-change horror spoof The Mystery of Irma Vep. He starred in Everyman’s first go at the play, a hit 2009 production directed by Ludlam’s partner, Everett Quinton.
“Everett came to our process with, I think, a very clear idea in mind of what had worked in prior productions that he had done,” Nelson recalls. “I don’t know that we were given a long leash to be able to discover and find things. I think he was more about let’s get the blocking and all of the bits known, and let’s fine-tune and make sure our changes are as fast as possible.”
This time, under Joseph W. Ritsch’s direction, “and [with] me adding my two cents in as the [show’s] assistant director,” says Nelson, the company “had lots of time to play with the script and figure out how do we make it our own. In a lot of ways, the piece is a brand-new experience for me.”
Yet, the production also marks the award-winning actor’s 50th with Everyman, where he is a longstanding Resident Company Member. “I think my first show was back in ’90-something, and it was The Crucible,” he says. “I had originally been cast in the part of a court scribe, a smallish supporting role.” But when another actor couldn’t commit to his part, Nelson got bumped up to the role of Reverend Hale.
“A fabulous role,” he gushes. “He has to go to Elizabeth Proctor and ask her will she please recant because if she doesn’t, she will die. It’s a beautiful scene. In general, Hale’s effort to help a community that is falling apart holds it together. My first production. I think I knew then that being a part of the Everyman family was going to be very special.”
The former Army brat, who grew up moving between North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Jersey, before his family put down roots in Columbia, Maryland, found a home onstage in Baltimore. And fifty shows in, he’s still having the time of his life.
“It’s been a while since I have loved doing a piece of theater as much as I have with Irma Vep,” he says. “And it was a particularly scary prospect approaching it for a third time at almost 60.” But time doesn’t seem to have slowed Nelson a bit, and time certainly has not dimmed the play’s brilliance or its subversive spirit.
As Nelson points out, with a laugh, “Who knew that a man dressing up as a woman would be transgressive yet again? Here we are doing things that some people think should be verboten. We are leaning into the fact that we’re here, we’re men, we’re in drag. It’s not going to hurt anybody.”
The Mystery of Irma Vep runs through June 22 at Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette St. in Baltimore, Md. Tickets are $45 to $99, with accessible Pay-What-You-Choose seats available for every performance. Call 410-752-2208, or visit everymantheatre.org.
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