horror – The Beat Magazine 2025

Leave Your Halloween Worries In The Hands of Orlac – A Gothic Experience!

October 29, 2025 by Richard Young

by Daina Janitis

Admit it. Halloween is not your favourite holiday. But what worries you most about it?

That the neighbours in your suburb have decorated their housefronts with draperies, gravestones, witches that move and cackle – while rolling their eyes at your miserable single pumpkin on the porch?
That you’ll run out of candy early- and some irrepressible toddler will peer through a crack in your drapes and yell, “They’re in there!!! I can see them!” to the horde following?
That your teenage children claim they’re just going out for nostalgic fun- but their goodie bags clink oddly when they return home … late …

The solution to every Halloween worry has been provided this year by the talent and imagination of Scott Good! Scott is the local genius who dispenses music as the Composer-in-Residence of London Symphonia.

(Pictured: Dr. Scott Good, Composer-in-Residence of London Symphonia.)

I hope you’ve met Scott- and even heard some of his compositions, but he keeps pretty modest about being “a composer, conductor, concert designer and trombonist whose music is driven by the desire to create beauty, evoke emotion, and play with groove. With a belief in the power of art to enable cathartic events, he has worked with a rich community of musicians, orchestras, ensembles, choreographers, actors, and artists to create intense, emotional, live performance experiences.” I Googled that

And his latest stroke of genius? Creating a score for a 1924 silent movie, the classic The Hands of Orlac. The “creepy movie” leaves ample space for the composer to utilize dissonant and esoteric sounds. With soloists Greg Oh and Stacie Dunlop, and strings from the incredible YAPCA school, our composer’s imagination has run wild! Scott has mixed in local and Toronto artists who play accordion, saxophones, trumpet, trombone, and harp – as he calls it, a dream band of over fifty live musicians!

Scott Good invites you to attend The Hands of Orlac – A Gothic Experience in this video clip https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17J1QPqK4h/

And the movie that’s on the screen at The Met? Movie buffs praise it as a psychological tour de force. Paul Orlac, a concert pianist, loses his hands in a dreadful train accident, but a clever surgeon replaces them with the hands of an executed murderer (Oh, how I wish Marty Feldman could have done the fetching.). Director Robert Wiene, after the success of his The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), created this masterpiece of “body horror” just waiting for London’s composer and musicians to make this silent film scream again.

Watch the Official DVD Trailer for The Hands of Orlac here https://youtu.be/6RwYXaTN_CY?si=9zOeaWaCLqbOWmr0

Underscoring – see, I did a “music” there – the actions are groundbreaking ideas familiar today. Body identity, medical transplant science, expressive and unsettling visuals that prefigure psychological thrillers on Netflix.

So, how could attending this cathartic experience on October 31^st be perfect? Why not unleash your own creativity and bring a Goth element to the audience? You may be too old to go trick-or-treating, but why not trick yourself out to make the event totally immersive?

Remember the basic canon of Goth fashion –

BLACK is essential.
Layer on the textures- lace, leather, velvet
Chokers, heavy necklaces, an abundance of bats…yes, bats
Chains wherever you can tuck them.
Dramatic makeup – eyeliner, dark shadow, bold, deep lipstick
Hair that’s dyed or streaked, backcombed from roots to ends.

The Globe and Mail has described Scott Good’s music as having “a kind of majestic bestial reality.” When will you ever get a chance to be part of a really majestic and bestial concert experience like THIS, again?

If You Go:

What: Forest City Film Festival presents The Hands of Orlac – A Gothic Experience

When: Friday, October 31, at 8:30pm

Where: Metropolitan Church, 468 Wellington St, London, ON

Tickets: $35 – $80. https://fcff.ca/hands-of-orlac/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNu0JxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFWVU9ueXVOMXlIMXVUNFE1AR5vhjEdvgdoHLDhGaEb2MThzvf5qZn1nUDnkQZEpWYjhXpE5mq6A3-gkDXWDQ_aem_wFG3mBxB1pzcvLmreHV8tQ#buynow

For more information about London Symphonia, visit https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/

For more information about the Forest City Film Festival, visit https://fcff.ca/

An Informal Chat with Odesa Company’s Scott Smalley during Intermission at Misery, Oct. 25/25

October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by Richard Young

by Richard Young, Publisher & Content Manager, The Beat Magazine

If you were one of the fortunate people who took time off from watching the Blue Jays World Series games to attend Odesa Company’s all too short four-day run of Misery at the Princess Ave Playhouse in St. Thomas, lucky you. If you didn’t, pity.

Produced by Laura Williams and co-directed by Chris and Scott Smalley, the tautly staged thriller based on the Stephen King novel was a delight and filled with tension from beginning to end.

The story is familiar. Paul Sheldon, a well-known author of a series of highly successful Misery romance novels, wakes up to find himself severely injured and confined to a bed with no recollection of how he got there. He discovers he was badly hurt in a car accident and is now convalescing in the remote home of Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who claims to be his biggest fan. Grateful and flattered at first, Paul gradually realizes that he is being held prisoner by his menacing and increasingly violent caregiver.

To be sure, the Princess Ave Playhouse was the ideal venue for the Odesa Company’s production. Small and intimate, it gave audience members a front-row seat to the action on stage and made them feel that they were in the cramped cabin with the play’s protagonists.

The play’s leads were both outstanding.

(Pictured: Helen Wrack-Adams as Annie. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)

Helen Wrack-Adams shone as the physically dominating and sadistic Annie who turned on a dime throughout the play. One moment she was affectionate and fawning, the next minute she was taking a mallet to Paul’s ankles. Her increasing menace was definitely felt by the audience who, like Paul, dreaded each time she entered the bedroom.

As Paul, Andrew Dodd spent much of his time on stage in bed or in a wheelchair. He deftly conveyed his character’s gradual realization that he was being held captive by a seriously deranged God-fearing, moral absolutist. The scene in which he cast himself out of bed and crawled across the floor in an attempt to escape was so convincing that members of the audience were wincing in pain, including this writer!

(Pictured: Andrew Dodd as Paul. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)

Patrick Hoffer, as Buster, the small-town sheriff and Paul’s would-be rescuer, breaks up the tension with his brief appearances on stage. Unfortunately, he ended up being shot by Annie for his efforts.

(Pictured: Patrick Hoffer as Sheriff Buster. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)

The final physical altercation between Paul and Annie was startingly realistic, thanks no doubt to the contributions of London’s Shrew’d Business.

(Pictured: Annie (Helen Wrack-Adams) and Paul (Andrew Dodd). Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)

*********************

I had the good fortune to buttonhole Scott Smalley during the Intermission for a brief impromptu interview about the play and Odesa Company. Here’s an edited summary of that chat.

Q. How has the play’s run been so far?

The run’s been really good. Sales have been really good. I’m a Blue Jays fan, and I’m really grateful that they’re in the World Series, but we have found ourselves competing with their success. Our matinees have been selling well, and audiences have been really enjoying the production.

Q. Could you have extended the play to a second week?

We could have. It’s one of those things where we look at our sales data. We picked up momentum thanks to good word of mouth. Unfortunately, it’s one of the drawbacks of doing a one-week run. You don’t have as many opportunities to build interest and momentum in your production.

Q. Is there any particular reason why you chose Princess Ave Playhouse as the venue for Misery?

It’s well-suited for this show. A more intimate space is really helpful for the type of story we’re telling, especially in the second act when things get a little bit crazier on stage. After we did The Elephant Man here, it became very obvious that St. Thomas audiences are interested in great theatre, and they’ve been very supportive of our efforts. We’ve had people come from London who said they didn’t know this place even existed, so that’s pretty cool.

Q. Any comments you would like to make about your Cast?

They’re wonderful! When it came to auditions, we had a lot of options. They were all excellent, and they all brought different things to the roles, but the chemistry that we’ve developed during the rehearsal process was really amazing, and the on-stage product reflects that. I’d like to point out that our Techs have been just as much of the play’s process and success

Q. One final question. What’s up next for Odesa Company?

We were going to do StageQuest next, but we’ve bumped it to next year. We’ve got a few irons in the fire, and we’ve had folks who have pitched various shows. We’re kinda navigating those things, and we look forward to having a very full 2026 season.

For more information about Odesa Company, visit https://odesa.company/

Follow Odesa Company on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/odesa.company

Follow Odesa Company on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/odesa.company/

Mavis Productions returns with London’s favorite annual Rocky Horror Show tradition.

October 9, 2025 by Richard Young

The Rocky Horror Show LIVE musical returns to London to celebrate 50 years of the film you love, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

The show opens on Thursday, October 9, and runs through October 18 at the Wolf Performance Hall.

For four incredible years, Mavis Productions has made this moment an October tradition — a night when audiences throw the rules out the window, shout every line, and become part of something bigger than a show.

It’s not just a performance — it’s a celebration.

The music. The madness. The magic.

Every beat, every laugh, every sparkle of glitter is pure Rocky Horror energy. This is your call to let go, dress up, and feel alive.

Because this isn’t just theatre… this is Rocky Horror. Don’t dream it — BE IT.

In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.”

Filled with all the classic songs and audience participation that made the film so much fun for over 50 years, all of it comes to life on the stage. So bring your costumes and all your scripts and be ready for a night of absolute pleasure. Whether you come out for our new 2 pm afternoon shows, our classic 7 pm shows, or midnight shows, we know you will shiver with antici…pation!!