Verum Arts’ latest revival of Credulous transforms the stage into a haunting yet whimsical exploration of love, grief, and the supernatural. The story follows Aida and her partner Toby, who left to see a coworker about a work portfolio in the middle of the night. The next day Toby dies in a car crash and Aida starts seeing his ghost. Aida turns to Venus, a powerful spell-caster to bring Toby back from the dead; the fallout of this choice unravels in unexpected ways throughout the show.
I first experienced Credulous at the 2022 Fresh Blood Festival, where it debuted as a sharp, thirty-minute whirlwind of campy Disney villain energy, doomed romance, and a lively jazz band. As a fan of musicals, it was a delight to see new work. The feedback was that people wanted more plot, more songs, more Credulous and this remount certainly delivered on that request.
The problem is that sometimes, there’s too much of a good thing. At two hours and thirty minutes, this remount of Credulous overstays its welcome.
First let’s talk about the feature that saw the most expansion – the story.
Credulous moves between the tragic and comic, grieving over the loss of a loved one then dealing with cat ladies or camp supervillains. It is a story about grief and loss, and how one moves on. Whether it’s a recent passing or years down the road, the story did well to cover several examples of this unfortunately universal experience. I also enjoyed the B plot development of Venus and Lydia (Aida’s mother), practitioners of the occult and divine.
The introduction and conclusion felt rushed, crammed into the latter half of Act Two. I would have preferred to see this relationship unfold more organically throughout the story.
At the beginning of the show, Toby’s monogamy is put into question when he leaves for another co-worker’s house. This plot grows and develops to the point where true love will help bring him back. Aida could not bring him back; calling into question if Aida was Toby’s true love. Aida goes to purgatory to confront Toby, and it just doesn’t go anywhere. We find out it was Venus’ error, not Toby’s infidelity later in the story. That still doesn’t compensate for the lack of a powerful confrontation between the romantic lead, a will-they-won’t-they moment. Though we took the time to explore character relationships, these scenes seemed to linger past what was required.
Maddie Martin’s portrayal of Aida was entertaining. She handled moments of silence, grief, and conflict with characters deftly, and backed up these characterisations with strong vocals. Unfortunately, the chemistry between her character and her love interest lacked buy-in for us to invest and care for their trials and tribulations. Whether this was a failure of text or performance I’m not sure, but the product is still the same.
Isaac Ruthenbergs performance did justice to the great camp villains of the past. Often over-the-top gestures, reactions, a voice to fill the room tenfold, and demanding the spotlight whenever on stage. At some point I considered if he was being too much, but what is this character if not a bit much?
Ethan Irvine’s character Toby interacts with Aida, his love interest and practically no one else. And unfortunately, I found it to be a passionless relationship. When Ethan was doing disconnected ghost interactions with the space and singing of love lost, I found myself mourning that this character could not be saved. This role did not have the space for Ethan to demonstrate his capacity on stage and that is truly a tragedy.
Spooky has a real talent as a middle-aged Christian mother of a grieving daughter and I say that earnestly. Disapproving mannerisms, mothering, and advising her fellow characters, Spooky made this side character shine.
Ella Dickson’s character, Rosie, is someone I would like to be friends with. Ella captured the crazy cat coworker energy perfectly.
Tabitha Franklin’s role as Cari served more as an expositional narrative role than a character role and as such, held little space for much more than an in-world narrator and plot point for Venus. The role of whisper though was bountiful in characterisation and a genuine joy to watch.
Jasmine Muir’s choreography felt fun and fresh. Shoutouts to the personalised dance for the couple that when done in unison, communicates the strength of their relationship and when done just by one person is a jarring reminder of not moving on from the passing of a loved one. The Venus scenes where Aida and Lydia were forced to dance were also a fun characteristic of movements, with Spooky’s performance of a Christian mother being forced to dance to the occult a captivating watch.
Caleb Bartlett’s lighting was subtle and enriching. A supportive accompaniment builds the progression of the story.
A critical part of a musical is the sound, otherwise it’s a strange play with dance breaks. Walking into the audience and seeing a five-piece-band with Trumpet, Piano, Drums, Double Bass, and Saxophone galore did fill me with glee. A musical I believe is best enjoyed with live instruments and indeed the band lived up to expectations.
As with all live theatre some elements were askew and there were a few times that the balance of sound favoured the music over the voices.
In an interview, Co-Director Ernest Corbet made the comment that ‘this story doesn’t necessarily need jazz, but it definitely informs it.’ Which raises the question, if jazz isn’t essential, why not pop, rock, opera, or folk? A show’s musical style is positioned as a defining feature, yet in this case it feels more like a polished accessory than an integral part of the storytelling.
Hollie Pianta’s work for the set was well done. Each scene felt appropriately brought to life with featured set pieces that were rich with detail; Venus’ assortment of diverse witchy spell components in a cupboard for example. The party in Purgatory was brought to life through the actors’ costumes and movement. I would have liked to see the set have more of a role in establishing and developing that scene.
This version of Credulous still feels like a work in progress. The timeless core concept mixed with strong and interesting character relationships that are yet to be fully realised. This show did not earn its two and a half-run time and I must admit I considered leaving at interval. By no means does this show not have merit. Another round of developments and critical eye applied to elements of the show on how they build the work out would serve any future productions well; a production I’m excited to see.
