Bloody Lies

Wrong title: Bloody Lies is Bloody Camp. I expected as much from a show billed as "Dracula Meets Monty Python," but was hoping that the release's reference to Joss Whedon would give Greg Machlin's script a little more substance than this. No; there's a great turn from Gabe Belyeu as the manic servant, Reinfield, and a nice, deeply enunciated, performance from his classically evil master, Count VonRichtenstein VII (Thomas Lash) but the emphasis of this show is on the twinned love stories of the "straight" guy Clem (Michael Buckley) and vampire Nina VonRichtensten (Elaine Matthews) and of Clem's mother, Elsie (Antonia Marrero), and her evil landlady Doris (Larry George). And I guess also on the bondage-based zombification of Clem's one-worded friend, Barney (Brian DeCaluwe) by the French Goth maid, Simparticus (Carrie Cimma), with a little bit of magic thrown in there by the phallic LSD (Liquid Sky Degenerator). When the plot finds time to focus, there are some comedic moments, but the whole thing is so overacted that it's little more than a series of shrill jokes and intermittent sound effects. To her credit, Samantha Shechtman does a fine job directing it, using repetitive, roundabout blocking to "stake" out familiar areas on the Workshop Theater's black-box stage.