Charles Ludlam
(1943-1987)As founder of the ‘The Ridiculous Theatrical Company’, Ludlam wrote, directed and performed in nearly thirty plays in a small basement theatre in Greenwich Village. Inspired by Hollywood cinema and classic literature, these were erudite and highly camp affairs, in which he was nearly always the unrivalled, elaborately attired star.
Photo: NYPL Archive
Charles Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New Jersey, not far from the childhood home of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Deemed too effeminate by his mentors to make a career in acting, Ludlam decided to go his own way and founded the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in New York in 1967, where he began writing, directing and starring in plays that collaged gothic novels, Shakespeare, and old Hollywood movies.
Ludlam became known for his brand of erudite, high camp and often genuinely moving melodramas, in which he was nearly always the star. For the next two decades, he produced 29 plays in a small basement repertory theatre in Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village. He envisaged this as a ‘national comic theater company’, performing plays in repertory to dedicated and often starry audiences including Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev and Susan Sontag.
Critics compared him to Moliere and Shakespeare because, like them, Ludlam borrowed classical forms, explored grand themes, and wrote for, acted in, and directed his own theatrical troupe. Their work toured extensively around the U.S. and Europe and Ludlam received a Drama Desk award, six Obie awards, and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ford and Rockefeller foundations. He also made cameos in James Bidgood’s cult film Pink Narcissus (1971) and played the title role in the American Ibsen Theater’s Hedda Gabler (1984).
After watching one of his plays, a critic once said: “This isn’t farce. This isn’t absurd. This is absolutely ridiculous!” Delighted, Ludlam responded by explaining the genre of the ‘Theatre of the Ridiculous’ as such: ‘the outward appearance may be ridiculous, but the intention is serious.’
The origins of ‘Camille’ (1973)
Video: Lylani Devorah
The life of Marie Duplessis, a Parisian courtesan who died of tuberculosis aged 23, was first fictionalised by Alexandre Dumas fils in 1848. Her life was later adapted into Verdi’s opera La Traviata and a silent film starring the actors Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova. But it was George Cukor’s 1938 film, starring Greta Garbo, that inspired Ludlam’s hit play Camille in 1973.
The play was written and rehearsed quickly, with Ludlam writing his operatic deathbed scene just hours before it opened. He loved playing the part of the courtesan because of the operatic excesses of her devotion to Armand Duval and her self-sacrifice when she eventually gives up their relationship on the orders of Armand’s father.
Ludlam was a consummate drag performer. ‘Charles Ludlum was the greatest drag performer I've ever seen', Andrew Holleran wrote. ‘It ceased to be drag, in fact, or acting: it was art.’ He won an Obie for his performance as Marguerite Gautier, which is said to have reduced audiences to tears.
Though his ensemble included extraordinary actors and performers like Black-Eyed Susan, Bill Vehr and Ethyl Eichelberger, Ludlam was always the unequivocal star. ‘As if by flicking a switch, Charles could use his remarkably expressive gaze to appear demonic or angelic’, his biographer David Kaufman writes. ‘He also had a particular gift for mimicking and duplicating the voices of anyone who entered his orbit—even someone he had only met in passing.’
His many other hit plays include Bluebeard (1970), suspense thriller The Artificial Jungle (1986), the decadent erotic tragedy Salammbô (1985) and The Mystery of Irma Vep (1984), in which two actors play seven roles in a pastiche of Victorian melodrama gothic horror novels. Some 35 costume changes take place in the course of this two-hour show, which has been performed around the world.
Ludlam passed away from AIDS-related complications in May 1987 at the age of 44. Everett Quinton, his co-star and life partner, continued to lead The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in the years after his death and did an enormous amount of work to extend Ludlam’s legacy and inspire a younger generation of performers, including Taylor Mac, Charles Busch and Justin Vivian Bond.