Requiem for a Gumshoe: SesayArts in conversation with award-winning creator and star Eric Woolfe

A warlock running from his past.  

A woman running from the End of the World. 

The Apocalypse Trilogy resumes! 

It began with the Dora-Award winning Space Opera Zero. Now Requiem for a Gumshoe, the second part of the Apocalypse Trilogy, makes its world premiere on November 24th, 2022 at Red Sandcastle Theatre. This weird-noir mix of hard-boiled mystery, Norse legend and Lovecraftian horror reunites director Dylan Trowbridge with Dora Award-winning designer Melanie McNeill and returning cast members Lisa Norton, Mairi Babb and playwright Eric Woolfe. 

Requiem for a Gumshoe springs full-blown from Woolfe’s fertile imagination and dry sense of humour. This weird and wonderful dramatic mashup re-tells the Norse legend of Ragnarok in the pulpy style of Raymond Chandler, infused with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft. The story follows Rick Fischmascher (Woolfe) as a rumpled private detective and warlock for hire who is haunted by the death of his son and is embroiled in the arcane murder of a troubled opera singer – for which he is also the chief suspect. 

The multidisciplinary Woolfe is an actor, a playwright, a puppeteer and a magician – not to mention the Artistic Director of Eldritch Theatre, a Toronto theatre company specializing in horror plays that feature live actors, puppetry and parlour magic. Over his career, he has been nominated for more than a dozen Dora Mavor Moore Awards as an actor and playwright.

Ahead of the play’s premiere, SesayArts Magazine had the pleasure of chatting with the forthcoming and funny Woolfe about his thespian origins, the genesis of Requiem for a Gumshoe, and the talented cast and creative team bringing this inventive production to vibrant life.

SM: Let’s start with you. Please tell us a bit about you and why you pursued a career in the theatre. Has it so far been what you hoped it would be?

EW: For my fifth birthday, my parents took me to see an outdoor production of Oliver! that was performed on a massive two story set in a park. And I was mesmerized. Bill Sykes killed Nancy by strangling her on a bridge and throwing the body off the side, where it crashed to the stage. It was the most frightening and wonderful thing I’d ever seen. And I turned to my mother at that moment and told her that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. And she was horrified, ’cause she wasn’t really sure if I meant I wanted to kill people and throw them off bridges, or be an actor. I suppose, when you think of it, neither one is a socially acceptable choice. And in some ways, I make my living doing both.

SM: Requiem for a Gumshoe has a unique and intriguing premise! How did you get the inspiration for it, and what has the developmental journey been like?

EW: All the Eldritch Theatre shows are ghoulish stews brewed from things I like. I’ve always loved the strange bleakness of Norse Mythology, film noir, Raymond Chandler stories, cosmic horror, 20s pulp fiction, and the work of HP Lovecraft. Plus magic and puppetry and actors playing a million different characters. So the inspiration all came rather easily!

SM: What can the audience expect to experience at Requiem for a Gumshoe? 

EW: The audience will begin by experiencing a reasonable facsimile of an old 1930s hardboiled detective story, and they will end their time with us by experiencing the illimitable horror of all of creation being swallowed by an apocalyptic, infinitely large, space worm. In between, they will vacillate between moments of hilarity and terror. There are a couple of good songs, too!

SM: This play is the second part of The Apocalypse Trilogy, which began with Space Opera Zero. Do you want to talk a little about how Requiem for a Gumshoe continues the story?

EW: The plays stand entirely on their own. Space Opera Zero was our version of Thomas Middleton’s The Changeling, only set as a 1930s science fiction story. And Requiem for a Gumshoe is the Norse Legend of Ragnarok, set as a 1930s hardboiled crime story. They have the same great cast and mad geniuses making up the creative team. But no knowledge of Part One is required to witness Part Two.

SM: What part of Requiem for a Gumshoe is especially compelling for you, personally?

EW: I really love the team we’ve assembled. Eldritch Theatre hires really great people! Mairi Babb and Lisa Norton are both wonderful actors who can step effortlessly between sincere emotion, high camp, melodrama, and terror – as well as both being experts at playing multiple characters and handling puppets and magic. 

Dylan Trowbridge, our director, has the wisdom to treat all the ridiculousness of the script as if it is a real, heartfelt play – a tragedy about grief and loss that also happens to be extremely funny and a little bit scary. As a result, there are some profound emotional moments that the audience will be moved by . . . hopefully. I mean, it’s all very silly too. But at the core, it’s a play about a man who’s grieving over the death of his child.

Melanie McNeill has been our costume and set designer for a million years, and she creates entire worlds that don’t exist anywhere else except on our tiny stage. And she does so with creativity and brilliance and a blessed ability to always come in under budget. She brought a new assistant, JB Nelles, with her this time, too. And they fit right in. And we’re joined for this one by lighting designer Gareth Crew and sound designer Verne Good, who both are amazing and bring their own understanding of the heightened tone and madness that is part of the story.

And we have one of the best stage managers in the business, Sandi Becker, holding it all together. So that’s really the best part: the team!

SM: What has been the biggest surprise to come out of working on Requiem for a Gumshoe? 

EW: Honestly, I’m always the most surprised when people come and they love the show as much as we do. It’s a miracle to me that anyone leaves their house to do anything, even see brilliant weird-noir, cosmic horror plays with puppets, live actors, and parlour magic.

Reserve tickets to Requiem for a Gumshow on eldritchtheatre.ca.

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022