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crafty_packratI went to see Syntetic Theater's Sleepy Hollow last night with greenygal, pleasance and A Pseudonym.
All in all, it was a very loose adaptation of Washington Irving's classic story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but mostly the differences came from making Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones into soldiers recently returned from the Revolutionary War, instead of a schoolmaster and a local tough in the 1790s. They kept the Headless Horseman as the ghost of a Hessian solider, but had him out for revenge because Ichabod and others had killed him during the war, and unnecessarily slaughtered his beloved horse as well.
Which mean there were several fairly terrifying scenes of the Horseman and the horse spirit chasing through the woods after various characters. Yet again, Synetic made one fairly static set piece into several terrifying different things. They also had strips of a Hessian flag (well, an approximation of the actual Hessian flag of the period, anyway) that the Horseman left on the bodies of victims for just that perfect ominous touch.
The scene where the Horseman comes out of the woods on his horse to confront Ichabod and is surrounded by the decapitated ghosts of his victims (played by the ensemble, dressed all in black, wearing identical masks, and carrying their heads) was incredible spooky. The horse at that point was the dancer who'd been playing the horse's spirit throughout, a member of the ensemble working the front legs, and another ensemble member with the Horseman on his shoulders to give him the illusion of being mounted on horseback. It worked really well and was really creepy.
The next play in this season is an adaptation of My Father's Dragon, which should be much more family-friendly.
greenygal, pleasance and A Pseudonym.All in all, it was a very loose adaptation of Washington Irving's classic story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but mostly the differences came from making Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones into soldiers recently returned from the Revolutionary War, instead of a schoolmaster and a local tough in the 1790s. They kept the Headless Horseman as the ghost of a Hessian solider, but had him out for revenge because Ichabod and others had killed him during the war, and unnecessarily slaughtered his beloved horse as well.
Which mean there were several fairly terrifying scenes of the Horseman and the horse spirit chasing through the woods after various characters. Yet again, Synetic made one fairly static set piece into several terrifying different things. They also had strips of a Hessian flag (well, an approximation of the actual Hessian flag of the period, anyway) that the Horseman left on the bodies of victims for just that perfect ominous touch.
The scene where the Horseman comes out of the woods on his horse to confront Ichabod and is surrounded by the decapitated ghosts of his victims (played by the ensemble, dressed all in black, wearing identical masks, and carrying their heads) was incredible spooky. The horse at that point was the dancer who'd been playing the horse's spirit throughout, a member of the ensemble working the front legs, and another ensemble member with the Horseman on his shoulders to give him the illusion of being mounted on horseback. It worked really well and was really creepy.
The next play in this season is an adaptation of My Father's Dragon, which should be much more family-friendly.
