Photo via Capital Fringe.

By DCist contributor Seth Rose

Reminds us of: A symphonic metal album, Hieronymous Bosch painting and pulp fantasy novel, all shuffled into a deck of Tarot cards

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tastic? Flop

As might be expected from a show with this title and based on a “psychedelic rock prose poem”, An Apocalypse of Darkness does not have time for subtlety. Not much seems to have changed from the source text (Clark A. Smith’s The Hashish Eater: An Apocalypse of Evil) in the transition to the stage, and the action — such as it is — becomes nearly incomprehensible within minutes, buried under the hyper-stylized stanzas of the poem. Meanwhile, the sights and sounds attempt to bridge this gap with a presence as dramatic and overbearing as the words themselves.

At least, that’s the intention. It isn’t so much that the show is rough around the edges as it is composed entirely of edges, all of which are rough. The swords are plastic, the accents are silly and imprecise, and even the ever present projections are often blocked by the actors onstage. These weaknesses are partially unavoidable in a small library basement, but even accounting for the space limitations, so much here feels sloppy. This might not be such a crippling problem, except that the technical side of the show is asked to pull so much weight. Without that aspect rising to the challenge, all that’s left is an extended monologue that gets lost in its own grandiosity.

It’s a novel idea and the producers deserve a lot of credit for trying something that really couldn’t be done anywhere else, but the show as it exists only seems to represent a tiny fraction of their vision.

An Apocalypse of Darkness is playing at the MLK Jr. Library on July 16th at 1:30 p.m., July 20 at 5:30 p.m., and July 23 at 12:15 p.m.