By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
From Nov. 14 to 23, VOS Theatre brings you another chance to visit with The Addams Family at the Victoria Hall Concert Hall.
Director Jeff Halligan said it’s based on everything Addams – from Charles Addams’s single-panel comic strips that started it all to the 1960s television series and the 1990s movies that followed.
“I think the Addams brand became more well known and more iconic throughout the years,” Halligan said.
“When we heard they had done a Broadway musical based on it, we thought it would be a perfect kind of thing for us – all the quirky characters, all the great music, and it’s the right time of year.
“In the past, we have always done Christmasy-themed shows like White Christmas in November. I’ve always thought it’s a little early for me – why not do something a little more Halloweeny,” he figured.
“The timing fits. We associate the Addams Family with Halloween. And yet it’s such a funny show, the music is so wonderful and the message in the show is all about families and togetherness and love – and this kind of puts it all together. It’s a great show.”
Halligan singled out the song Move Toward the Darkness,which kind of exemplifies the family’s embrace of the macabre lifestyle.
“When another family comes in and is introduced to it – Wednesday’s fiance – everything gets turned on its head. Both the families have to come to an understanding of each other. One is what we would call normal, and what the Addams call normal – which is darkness,” he said.
“One of the things I remember from the old TV series, and I think is carried through the movies and the musical, is that they’re a very loving family who have been kind of social outcasts, so they had to come together even more. When Wednesday falls in love with a non-Addams, they all have to kind of come to terms with it, which is a little difficult to handle.”
Stephanie Adams (one of those one-D Adamses), who plays Wednesday, said that, in spite of the dark humour associated with them, “they are probably one of the closest high-functioning families emotionally.
“They look after each other – it’s family-first-and-family-last for them. They are trusting and open to all types of people which, I think, is a bit of a foil to the ‘normal’ family that comes into play in the show through Wednesday’s love interest Lucas. He has an all-American family, but they have a terrible family dynamic, emotionally unavailable.
“And the Addams Family are probably one of the most loving, open-minded families in spite of the veil of kookiness over top of them. They are accepting and see the best in others.”
Even on some of those older Addams Family properties, when Wednesday was younger, she had the quippy remarks and quotable lines that kept her from being a one-note character. And with the recent Netflix series Wednesday, Adams said, people have gotten to know her better and become more excited about her.
“You can tell that Wednesday certainly is the little Mini-Me version of Morticia that you see in the films, but now she’s older in this musical – the 18-to-20 range. And we were all at that point in our lives once.
We rebelled against our mothers, sons against their fathers, that inherent need to oppose before you can rekindle that relationship at some point.”
Christie Freeman found herself more drawn to play Wednesday’s mother Morticia.
“I am very excited. She’s such a strong woman. She really doesn’t compromise herself for anyone. She has very strong beliefs and values, and really doesn’t back down,” Freeman said.
“I love that about her. That, and her dark, twisted side. I never got to play that kind of role before.”
One challenge of playing Morticia is that the version seen in film and TV is a self-contained woman not given to big physical movements.
“The actor on stage needs to be a bit bigger for it to read well. In the TV shows, you can use a close-up of her eyes, and that’s all you need to go on. You can’t do that on a stage,” Freeman said.
“She’s a still somewhat reserved character, but needs to be a bit more expressive to portray what’s going on.
“And another element is, she’s a dancer. That’s a different dimension.”
As the mother, her role is important. But Wednesday and her father Gomez (Matthew Blundell) are the key roles in this family drama that centres around a beloved little girl having grown up. Still, with Morticia, “there’s always more going on with her than it appears.” Freeman said.
For Adams, no role mattered more than that of Wednesday.
“She has been one of my absolute favourite pop-culture icons since I was very, very small. I used to wake up early with my younger brother and watch the Addams Family 2000 version and the Munsters. This has been a bucket-list show I have wanted to do for a long time.” she said.
The stars aligned to make it possible, as she has been able to work remotely at her Toronto job and make herself free in the evenings. The result is not only the role she always wanted, but getting to know the VOS Theatre (which she had never heard of until she saw the casting announcement on Facebook).
Adams knew she had to audition, and was fully prepared to disappear in anonymity if she didn’t succeed. But she did.
“I’ve met a whole new group of people I am absolutely smitten with, and I am definitely attached to this company now. I wouldn’t hesitate to audition for them again – it’s a fantastic group of people.”
Cast members dressed up in character for an appearance at Cobourg’s recent Harvest Festival, and Adams worked a shift with Gomez. She wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction she inspired in young girls who are also fans of Wednesday – the character and the show.
“Little girls were coming up and giving me big hugs around the knees like I was a Disney princess and saying how much they love her. I’m getting hugs and photo ops – I felt like Cinderella at Disney World.” she recalled.
“We have an amazing cast, mostly from Northumberland County but also from Peterborough, Whitby, Oshawa and Bowmanville,” Halligan said.
“They’ve come together, and it’s really an amazing cast of brilliant characters who really kind of embrace the darkness. We have had a blast doing rehearsals.”
Halligan recounted visits to what he called the VOS barn, the rural space where they have room for storage and set construction, and he’s been excited to see the progress.
“Every time I go there, it’s mind-blowing how great these sets are looking and how inventive our set builders are in building this world of the Addamses.”
One example is the torture rack Wednesday uses on her brother Pugsley.
“He has a great time. This is what they do for fun – they torture each other, but it’s a very cartoony kind of fun. It’s a huge apparatus that’s going to give the illusion of stretching Pugsley’s arms to some extreme amount, but it’s all cartoony fun.”
“We are all having a really fun time, which is what’s most important at the end of the day – if you are really enthusiastic and committee and having a lot of fun, I think that generally translates into the audience having fun,” Freeman said.
“It’s everything you would love from the old TV show or movie all coming up at Victoria Hall, distilled into a couple of nights of family chaos,” Adams added.
Tickets are available now at the Victoria Hall Concert Hall box office (905-372-2210 or https://tickets.cobourg.ca)
