| Warp! | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Broadway, art byNeal Adams. | |
| Written by | Stuart Gordon Lenny Kleinfeld (as Bury St. Edmund) |
| Characters | David Carson/Lord Cumulus Prince Chaos Sargon Lugulbanda Symax |
| Date premiered | February 14, 1973 (1973-02-14) |
| Place premiered | Ambassador Theatre, New York City |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Setting | Earth; Fen-Ra |
Warp!, also spelledWarp, was a trilogy of Americanscience fiction plays created by theOrganic Theatre Company ofChicago,Illinois, in 1971 by co-authorsStuart Gordon and Lenny Kleinfeld, the latter under thepseudonym Bury St. Edmund.[1] The three parts wereMy Battlefield My Body,Unleashed! Unchained! andTo Die Alive!.
The play of Part I (My Battlefield My Body) moved toBroadway under the nameWarp! for an unsuccessful short run in February 1973.
In 1979, the Organic Theatre Company mounted productions of all three plays, each part requiring separate admission, and each with its ownPlaybill program.
These plays were then performed in 1980 at the Mixed Blood Theater inMinneapolis, MN, where, on closing night all three parts were performed in succession, and props and other items from the play were offered for sale, including a few signed copies of the script.
The plays and theirbackstories became the basis forspinoffcomic books and other media.
David Carson, an everyday bank teller, learns that he is Lord Cumulus, "avenger of the universe".[2] Suddenly transported from an annual employee-awards dinner to the mystical realm Fen-Ra, he finds himself battling for the destiny of the universe[3] againstantagonist Prince Chaos. In this world, he encounters the sage Lugulbanda, who sends him on his quest aided by the leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon. They battle Valaria the insect sorceress and Chaos' henchman, the purple ape Symax.[4]
Chicago'sOrganic Theater Company opened the original playWarp! in 1971.[2] Co-author Stuart Gordon in 2002 recalled its original inspiration: "It was three full-length plays that were inspired by Marvel Comics. ... Well, we weren't able to get the rights to any of the characters from Marvel, so we created our own. But I would say that Warp was very influenced by comic books likeDr. Strange andThor".[2] Billed by the company as "the world's firstscience fiction epic-adventure play in serial form", it was performed for over a year before moving toBroadway.[5]
The Chicago cast includedJohn Heard,[6]André De Shields,[7] Cecil O'Neal,[8] J. Pat Miller,[9] andBruce A. Young.[10] Thecostume designer was first-timer Cookie Gluck, a former art major at theUniversity of Wisconsin who was married to actor O'Neal.[5] Thelighting designer was David K. H. Elliott.[11]
The Chicagonon-profit organization Videopolisvideotaped the original production.[12]
The production moved toNew York City'sAmbassador Theatre onBroadway, where part one of the trilogy,My Battlefield, My Body, ran seven previews beginning January 31, 1973, and eight performances from February 14–18, 1973.[13] It marked the Broadway debut ofJohn Heard, who played David Carson/Lord Cumulus.[13] Other cast-members includedTom Towles as Prince Chaos, andKeith Szarabajka as the young David.
The Broadway production was produced byAnthony D'Amato in association with the Organic Theatre Company, and directed by co-writerStuart Gordon.Comic-book and commercial artistNeal Adams wasart director, withscenic design byRobert Guerra, costume design by Laura Crow and Cookie Gluck; lighting design byJane Reisman andNeil Peter Jampolis; and visuals by Khamphalous Lightshow. William J. Norris and Richard Fire providedincidental music, with the latter also providing vocalsound effects. Frank Marino and Lynne Guerra were stage managers.[13]
The opening-night cast:[13]
Clive Barnes ofThe New York Times said in terms of fidelity comics: "The look of the show is extremely accurate. The costumes — minimal and exotic — the outlandish props and the serviceably suggestive permanent setting are all perfectly in accord. The language is heightened melodrama having the same fleeting relationship to literature that bubble gum has to food". Although he criticized the show having no story but only action, he admired the acting. He allowed that "for comic-book addicts ...Warp might well be a lot of fun. Others are warned that, while it is undeniably cleverly done, it is at heart a one-joke evening".[4]
Thealternative comics companyFirst Comics published thespin-offcomic-book seriesWarp, which ran 19 issues cover-dated March 1983 to February 1985,[14]and 3 specials.[15]
The premiere issue featured a 20-page Lord Cumulus story by writerPeter B. Gillis,penciler and cover artistFrank Brunner, andinker Bob Smith; and an eight-page story starring Sargon, Mistress of War, by writerJohn Ostrander, penciler Lenin Delsol, and inkerJoe Staton. Brunner would continue as penciler through issue #9, after which he was succeeded byJerry Bingham except for two issues, #16 (penciled byBill Willingham) and #19 (penciled and inked byMike Gustovich, the regular inker for most of the series' run). The backup features rotated among "Sargon, Mistress of War" by Ostrander, Delsol and Staton; "The Faceless Ones", by writerJack C. Harris and artistSteve Ditko; "Valaria, Insect Sorceress", by writer Gillis, penciler Willingham, and inker Bruce Patterson; and "Outrider", by Gillis and various artists.[14]
First Comics additionally publishedWarp Special #1-3 (July 1983, January and June 1984), by writer Gillis and pencilersHoward Chaykin,Marc Silvestri, andGeorge Freeman, respectively.[15]
Previous to these, the Organic Theater Company and Mike Gold Media Services published aone-shot, 16-page promotional-giveaway comic book,Weird Organic Tales #1 (1981), that included scenes from several of the theater company's works, includingWarp!.[16][17]
In a 2007 history of Chicago'sVictory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, theChicago Reader said the "science-fantasy trilogyWarp! anticipated theStar Wars phenom by several years" (six to be precise).[18]