By Kai Bisby

High Wire Hilarity

photo by Lillian Lavalle

There is nothing like a live homage to campy 1960s slasher flicks where drama is high and the leading lady's face is beaten to an inch of it's life with two inches of makeup -- not to mention murder, mayhem, and hysterics that even Joan Crawford would curtsy to. That's what awaits audiences in the world premiere of Haywire, a live B-movie tribute in the vain of Crawford's psychotic circus movie, Berserk, opening Oct. 28 at the art/works Theatre in Hollywood (6569 Santa Monica Blvd.). If you have never seen the film (what kind of homosexual are you?), this play will surely get you up to speed on the tale of a double ax murderess who returns to her failing circus (after being incarcerated) to find circus performers dying in the center ring. "We are both big huge fans of trashy old movies, and it basically started out as a 'what if' exercise. 'What if' we took this movie and that movie and did this on stage," explains director Kevin Remington, who co-wrote Haywire with Tim Wilkins, who is also doing double duty by starring as the madam of the circus, Miranda Towers. "It's a fun show," says Remington. "It's Berserk, it's Straight Jacket, it's Mommie Dearest, it's House on Haunted Hill, it's all those 1960s psycho-drama-slasher-horror movies. So there are little homages to a lot of our favorite things in there." Remington goes on to explain what both bad B-movies and B-theater often times forget: the importance of sincerity and truth in even the most absurd of stories. "It's like a cartoon and it has it's own sense of logic, but if it is not rooted in some kind of reality, It's not going to be funny." As we all know, a man playing a Joan Crawfordesque character based on a B-movie is, while a bit over done, usually going to be funny. But Wilkins is not portraying your everyday drag queen playing Mommie Dearest. "I don't do gender illusion. We do a little bit of a Rocky Horror kind of twist on it." But that's not to say that Wilkins isn't going all out for the flamboyant insanity that we expect from the camp classic contessas. "The crazy thing about this character is that she is all over the map. I pulled from all different sources," states Wilkins on his approach to the character. "There's a lot of Joan Crawford in there, but also some of the other greats like Nancy Kelly, who was a huge inspiration from The Bad Seed -- that mother was completely insane." Complete hilarious insanity is exactly what Remington and Wilkins want audiences to experience. According to Remington: "We want audiences to laugh until they pee their pants. We don't want a dry seat in the house."

For tickets and information, call (323) 960-7744.