Dave Franklin - Episode by Episode
Dave Franklin runs "Dancing About Architecture" magazine in England and is one of the most fluid, rhythmic and musical writers commenting on indie music ANYWHERE. Check out his magazine here.
I've known and loved Stuart Pearson's music for quite a while now, and it has always suggested something more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it is easy to listen to the lyrics and follow the dark, terror-tinged, Gothic Americana tales that he weaves, but there has always been more to the music for those who know where to look.
When taken as a body of work, his songs suggest that they are the product of their unique world, which is our world but not quite our world. An alternative timeline, perhaps, or revealing some hidden truths and unseen mysteries about the real world that most people choose not to notice. Well, he has now turned that music to a broader purpose. Welcome to Purgatory, Missouri!
With a goal of using his music to enhance the medium of radio theatre and, in return, using that much-loved form to help promote new musical releases, Stuart Pearson and Hunter Lowry have created a marriage made in heaven—or should that be hell?
“Purgatory, Missouri” stars Dave Foley (Fargo, Kids in the Hall) and Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers and much more), Crissy Guerrero (American Mariachi, In The Heights) and Alina Foley (The Spy Next Door, Shimmer and Shine) with a large cast of actors wandering through this strange world.
Right from the off, we are greeted with the sort of introduction that made the likes of The “Twilight Zone” so iconic, setting the tone perfectly, a tone echoing the golden days of radio plays, its blend of high drama and gentle humor and crackling with the dark aura of Hammer movies and even an updated trace of H.P. Lovecraft's otherworldly creations.
The opening narratives are laid out in various telephone calls, which become more relevant as the story unravels. Then we find ourselves in the company of Theresa (Alina Foley) and Blanca (Crissy Guerrero) as they try to work out what is going on. As Blanca imparts her knowledge garnered over the vague passing of time she has spent in the mad carnival that swirls about them, we slowly realize that it is perhaps far removed from the real world. The people stumbling, zombie-like, around the carnival are sometimes familiar; maybe friends, but they make no sense as they slip in and out of their dark reveries. Is this hell on earth, is this earth at all?
The snippets of music add tension and tone, but the short but crucial asides, telephone conversations from a hospital a world away, add even more intrigue. Is this a dream? Are these the thoughts of patients in a coma? Is this the afterlife? Is this, as the show's name suggests, actually Purgatory—the waiting room between this life and the next, the place where you wait to see if the elevator takes you up or down?
The fun of the show is that, for now, at least, we know only as much as the main characters, and it is only as they propose and postulate what is going on that we learn about the setting they find themselves in. And, of course, that is the joy of the medium of radio; the dialogue suggests the scene, and our imagination colors it in.
So, we leave Theresa heading off into the carnival rides, chasing threads of her own memories, and Blanca in search of answers from the carnival barkers. This first episode concludes with the worrying realization that this may not be the world they, and indeed we, know after all. Dun Dun Dahhhh!
It's a great opening episode that begs more questions than answers and makes us want to know more, as we, like the characters, try to work out what the HELL is going on.
So, having left our two protagonists in… well, we aren’t really sure where, but certainly not anywhere we would like to visit, Episode 2 opens with a new narrative thread. Marie (played by Julia Albert) is torn between her husband, the titular Tony (Gary Lamb), and the real love of her life, Leslie (Gina Elaine). Tensions rise, arguments ensue, shots are fired, two are down, and what seems to be the show’s theme song, the brooding Americana song “We Are The Falling Rain” closes the scene.
And, if you have been paying attention, you might have guessed that Marie and Tony wake up next to the phone booth in the strange fairground where we last encountered Theresa trying to make sense of everything in Episode 1. Roll up, roll up, the carnival music flutters, the crowd’s throng, the barker’s bark…and the hall of mirrors beckons tantalizingly. As is now an integral part of the plot, the music serves every bit of the story as the spoken words and Marie’s ghostlike voice and ethereal melodies beg Tony, no longer in charge of the situation, to follow her voice through this strange place.
But it isn’t Marie who he finds, but Blanca (Crissy Guerrero), who helped (?) set the scene in the first chapter, and a philosophical debate ensues. Is this the titular Purgatory, the fevered thoughts of a coma patient, a drug fog or booze-infused nightmare, or a subconscious dream state, and if so, whose dream? Is Tony in Blanca’s dream? Is he a metaphorical stand-in for her violent ex, Carlo? We learn more about Blanca’s past life, and in doing so, we learn a lot about Tony’s attitude towards women, which is not good—not good at all.
Again, Blanca’s seemingly longer-standing presence here gives us more insight into what might be going on, but we always seem to come away with more questions than answers. We follow Tony to the Hall of Mirrors, which shows him a snapshot of his life, reflecting him in all his vengeful, violent, overbearing, alpha male glory. Again, not his finest hour.
And then, the whole place glitches out and pops back into existence, which is, in some people’s opinions, Blanca’s fault. Who is she? Why has she survived here longer than anyone else? Is she actually one of the visitors or part of the carnival? As Tony disappears to who knows where, we are left with questions, questions, and more, and the episode ends.
As the scene fades out, we know more about this strange, otherworldy carnival but also less. The conversations between the characters put forward their thoughts regarding where, what, when, and why this place exists, but none are really anything more than best guesses and worst-case scenarios.
Tune in next time for more strange goings and, for now at least, even fewer answers.
So, we left the various denizens of...well, wherever this carnival of horrors is - hell, the afterlife, the product of a vivid imagination, the last thoughts as we cross over - trying to make sense of where they now find themselves. All manner of explanations have been considered; none fit all of the characters we have met so far. Now, a new proposition is offered. Enter Roger, played by Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, Fargo), and his take is that this is a next-level video game or personal post-suicide simulation. Well, it is as good as anything we have heard.
And so a conversation ensues with the wonderfully belligerent Blanca (Crissy Guerrero), who seems to be our narrator, offering a sort of exposition (if she can be trusted) or at least a voice of reason, or as close to reason as we get to in this place. She is still taken with the idea that all of this is some dream, but so far, every proposed scenario and explanation is just as likely/unlikely as any other. Take your pick!
The questions we keep returning to are, of course, fundamental to our eventual understanding of the whole concept. Where is this place, what is its purpose, and who controls everything? Is it Blanca's dream, Roger's simulation, Tony's afterlife, or Theresa's vivid imagination?
Into the mix now comes a wave of new characters. Mindy Sterling's "Five," one of the resident carnival hustlers, sheds some light on how things work here and suggests that Blanca is more than just another unfortunate trapped here. And then Alina Foley and Tonnocus McLain as "Highstriker" and "Tunnel of Love," respectively, take us down a new narrative pathway, their conversational back and forth adding plenty of dark humor, something which is never far below the surface of the show as a whole.
As always, the flow of the story is punctuated by Stuart Pearson's brooding, Waitsian-infused Americana, adding just the right sonic backdrop to the eldritch events: a musical mood enhancer and the perfect way to slip from one scene to another.
Three shows in, and whilst we know more about the mechanics of the place, we still don't have any answers. At least not any that stand up to scrutiny; what is now clear is that this is a more complex place than it might have first seemed. A place with a strange social structure, where some people are residents, and some are from elsewhere. Some are looking for answers, while others are formulating a revolution. Some are pulling strings, others dancing to their tune. Some have accepted the situation; others are happy to suspend disbelief to try and make sense of the situation.
The more we know, the less we understand. But that is what keeps us coming back for more.
You get to a place in a radio show, say around episode four, where rather than putting more questions in the listener's head, you need to start answering some of the ones they already have. You need to start giving them the lay of the land, in this case, the lay of the otherworldly, terrifying "trash-can carnival," so that they can start understanding at least something about what is going on here.
With this need for the beginnings of clarity and understanding in mind, we are treated to a flashback courtesy of Alina Foley’s portrayal of "Highstriker" (many people here are named after the ride or stall they are in charge of) as she recounts to "Tunnel of Love" (Tonoccus McClain) her first encounter with the strange character known as "Five" (played by Mindy Sterling), who seems to be calling the shots, at least she is in the present...if time actually works the same way here.
The interesting perspective here is that before coming to this place, she was a Mayor, the Mayor of...well, I'm sure that will come back to her...someone who is used to giving orders. She is also someone from some earlier era, one where telephones and Ferris wheels were the stuff of science fiction if they even had the concept of science fiction in her time.
There is also a telling aside about "Highstriker's'" startling encounter with a rather diabolical figure from history. This part of the story puts a tick, a big tick, in the box for the theory that this may be The Afterlife, or at least the sorting office for it, rather than a dream state, a living game, a coma dream, or whichever paradigm you have favored up until now.
Meanwhile, Blanca (Crissy Guerrero) and Roger (Dave Foley) make their way to the titular perimeter, where they meet "38" (played by Nathan Smythe). Only he's not "38" anymore; he's A Void, although even he doesn't really know what that means and can only try to make sense of it through the logical application of physics. I'm not sure if logic carries much weight here!
The dynamic between Roger and Blanca is interesting. It may be the one true friendship in the whole place. He is a man losing the last memories of what he was before, and she is subject to psychedelic glitch-outs as if she is a faulty program rather than a lost soul. It begs the question of who works in this hellish carnival and who is just passing through on their way to...wherever next.
As always, Stuart Pearson's music creates the perfect atmospheric backdrops and edgy interludes, dark Johhny Cash meets Tom Waits vibes in a dark Americana sonic collision. If any music was made to cast a show around it, this is certainly it.
So, do we now know more? Have we been given any answers? Perhaps not, but at least our questions have become more focused. Is this the afterlife, or at least a step towards it? If so, what sort of afterlife is this? And, if it is that, what comes next? And how do you access it?
All these questions will be revealed...eventually. For now, all we can do is follow the characters around and pick up clues and understanding as they do. It's almost as if we are there with them. Which is a frightening concept, but hey, isn't that the point of the show? Damn, another question!
So far, our journey towards understanding what the place known as Purgatory, Missouri, might actually be has thrown up more questions than answers—many more. Well, with this latest installment, we have come to a point where we are starting to fill in some of the gaps, starting to get some explanations. Note the word "some."
After the usual blend of Hammer House of Horror meets 50s radio play thriller, spoken introduction and the deliciously dystopian Americana theme tune, we find ourselves at a CCM, a "Compulsory Carnie Meeting," reminding us that whatever this place is, it seems to run on a sort of totalitarian regime meets corporate model meets AA meeting...which sounds like most people's idea of hell anyway!
"We are all trapped in amber" is how one Carnie describes the boredom of working this perpetual fairground of horrors. Confessions are made, and people struggle to remember who or what they were before. We get an insight into the various factions found here - the inner circle of Carnies, and their lower echelon fellow workers, the pinbots/bogeymen, and whatever "Blanca" (Crissy Guerrero) is. We also get an insight into acts of possible redemption on the part of the pinbots, a throwaway comment on the part of one of the Carnies, but something that feels as if it might be crucial to our whole understanding of the place. "38/Roger," (Dave Foley), although a newbie, inexplicably (for now) fast-tracked into those elite circles, makes it obvious that he isn't yet indoctrinated in the group's ways and says some things that don't go down too well with the powers-that-be.
Cut to "Blanca" and "Void" (Nathan Smythe) back at the Perimeter, the latter speaking the truth as he sees it (something that seems increasingly relevant to the world today, but that's for another time). We learn more about the nature of the Perimeter, the social order, the Voids, their throwaway (often literally) purpose, and the fracturing nature of the whole place. Viva La Revolution? It does feel like that might be in the cards. The upshot of it all is that whatever this place is, it seems to echo the real world in so many ways.
There seems to be more scene-setting music this time, maybe not more, but more impactful. Stuart Pearson's music is, as ever, the sonic backdrop that perfectly sets the tone, the essential musical colour for a non-visual performance.
We get answers, some more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit into place, but we still can't get a clear picture of the overall image. But we are getting there. It's a show high on tease, slowly offering clues and answers, or just the suggestions of answers, but answers that don't yet fit fully together, but you know that they will, it’s the direction of travel that we are on, Theseus' thread that we will follow to its logical conclusion.
There are people we know and people we have yet to fathom out, areas that we feel familiar with, and regions still marked "here be dragons," and, given the nature of the show, there just might be. There are many theories and still few solid facts.
Fun isn't it?
