SEASON 33 | September 2021
Straitjacket: Variations on a Theme of Horror
Written, Directed, and Performed by Charles P. Stites
Presented by The VORTEX
Straitjacket: Variations on a Theme of Horror, a monodrama written, directed, and performed by Charles P. Stites, freely adapted from the novel The Star-Rover by Jack London.
Darrell Standing, prisoner in solitary confinement, spends days at a time bound up in a straitjacket by command of his sadistic warden. In order to escape the hell of his existence, Standing astral projects out of his body to visit his past lives. A story of madness and violence, and the terror of eternity.
Photography by Kenny Gall.
ABOUT THE PLAY, A NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT: The source for the play is a novel entitled The Star-Rover (1915) by Jack London, from which the drama was very freely adapted. (Mr. London wouldn't recognize most of the proceedings, however.) Other inspirations for the play include the following: the non-fiction works Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco's Chinatown by Richard H. Dillon and The Gods of Mexico by C.A. Burland; the novel The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney; a selection of Grimm's Fairy Tales, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, which was given to me by my maternal grandmother when I was nine years old; a copy of macabre tales by Edgar Allan Poe I got the same year from God knows where; The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning; the horror anthology films made by Amicus Productions in the 1970s, including Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and The House that Dripped Blood; all the Baptist church Sunday school classes I was dragged to as a child and the subsequent nightmares they inspired; and the "American Indian" social studies unit taught me in the 4th grade by Mrs. Dillingham at Norwood Elementary School in Burleson, Texas, where I first heard of the Aztecs.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Charles P. Stites is a graduate of the University of Texas, and a veteran of the Austin theatre scene, having appeared over three dozen local productions. He has been nominated for thirteen B. Iden Payne Awards for acting, writing, directing, and producing, winning the Best Featured Actor in a Comedy award in 2002.
Stites wrote, directed, and performed a previous monodrama, entitled The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Fever Dream Steeped in Blood. After its critically acclaimed premiere at the Fronterafest Long Fringe in 2014, for which the production was named one of ten best theatrical events of the year by the Austin Chronicle, the play was then presented at the Emerald Tablet Gallery in San Francisco, where it won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Solo Performance in 2015. The play was then presented at The VORTEX in 2017 and was nominated for B. Iden Payne Awards for Best Production, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Script.
The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Fever Dream Steeped in Blood and Straitjacket: Variations on a Theme of Horror represent the first two installments in Stites's proposed trilogy of monodramas, collectively entitled The Blasphemies.
Straitjacket: Variations on a Theme of Horror is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.