Tales of the Macabre

Longshot Projects—Dalnavert Museum

Outdoors, in the garden of Dalnavert Museum, is the ideal location for this hour of grim, sometimes sinister tales.

Animated by a death-like figure, Charlie Creeps, our storyteller, launches into seven disturbing stories. With the exception of “The Pear Refused To Fall”, which is a patter poem reminiscent of the bump on the log, the frog on the bump etc., they all deal with some iteration of love. But not love as we would like to envision it. The loves that Charlie describes are rooted in psychosis, marginalization or revenge. A few of the tales left me squirming.

Between each story, the death-like figure came forward to tease, tempt, and tame Charlie. These transitions became an interesting and necessary secondary storyline and served to neatly conclude the evening’s performance.

That being said, I think that the overall tension in the show could have been heightened by a review by the company of the order in which the stories were presented. I also wanted the transitions to be somehow more reflective of the stories. With certainty I would have moved one transition that involved a gift box passed around the audience, from before a story about a gift, to after the story about the gift.

Two talented musicians provided an appropriate ambience for the tales, using a variety of instruments, distorted to create haunting and uncomfortable effects, without interfering with Charlie’s eerie delivery of the tales.

The show does not come with a programme, and that’s okay. But I wish that after their bows, the performers would have at least introduced themselves to the audience.

Dalnavert is a small venue (about 50 seats), so I recommend being there in good time to get a ticket. Also, the company does have a contingency plan in the event of rain.

Michelle Cook