‘The Impaler’s Progress’ at Courthouse Center for the Arts

Posted 9/25/14

The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) in collaboration with The Courthouse Center for the Arts is presenting a new play for the fall, “The Impaler’s Progress,” written by Rhode Island …

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‘The Impaler’s Progress’ at Courthouse Center for the Arts

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The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) in collaboration with The Courthouse Center for the Arts is presenting a new play for the fall, “The Impaler’s Progress,” written by Rhode Island playwright Mark Carter and directed by TRIST founder and Artistic Director Bob Colonna.

The subject of the play is Vlad Tepes, called Vlad the Impaler, a ferocious historical personage and the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s famous Count Dracula.  Tepes was not, of course, a vampire, but he was a horrific warrior who earned his nickname by impaling captured enemies (usually, but not always, the Ottoman Turks) on tall stakes and watching them die, often while he ate his dinner.

Playwright Carter takes up the story after Vlad’s death, tracking his journey through the nether regions as he wrestles with his old Turkish enemy, flirts with Mary Magdalene and Lucrezia Borgia, enjoys the battlefields of Valhalla and receives a sort of therapy from, of all people, Grigor Rasputin. It’s a wild ride, sometimes violent, sometimes outrageous, often hilarious and never dull, culminating in Vlad’s purgatorial trial, where he must face the Seven Deadly Sins as his accusers.

Rudy Sanda will play the Impaler, ably assisted by a versatile company of some of Rhode Island’s favorite actors. Some of the players are Justin Paige as the Ottoman Turk Mehmed Chelebe and Gluttony, Corinne Southern as Mary Magdalene, Amage the Viking and Lust, Vanessa Blanchette as Lucrezia Borgia and Covetousness, Anthony Madeiros as Rasputin and Pride, Elizabeth Hallenbeck as Envy, and Mark Carter as Brother Hans and Satan.

The play contains mature themes and language and is not recommended as family entertainment.

“The Impaler’s Progress” will play Thursday through Sunday nights for two weeks beginning Oct. 9 at The Courthouse Center For The Arts, 3481 Kingstown Road in West Kingston.  Curtain at 8 p.m.  For reservations and directions call 782-1018.

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  • BobCee

    CORRECTION: Curtain is at 7:P.M., not 8:P.M.

    Tuesday, September 30, 2014 Report this

  • anthonymedeiros

    Nice article, but you misspelled my name. It is Medeiros not Madeiros.

    Thursday, October 2, 2014 Report this