“The Willows” Supernatural Psychedelic Horror Story
Spencertown Academy Arts Center presents “The Willows,” a theatrical conjuring of Algernon Blackwood’s 1909 supernatural psychedelic horror story, on Saturday, November 23, 7:30pm at the Academy’s Blanche Grubin Auditorium. Performed by celebrated British actress and voiceover artist Victoria Finney and adapted and directed by Alex Harvey, this storytelling performance saturates audience members in an eerie odyssey to otherworldly realms guided only by the simple elements of sound, candlelight, and spoken word. General admission tickets ($20 public, $15 Academy members) are available via www.spencertownacademy.org.
“We are excited for this first collaboration with the ever creative Alex Harvey,” says Eve Zatt, Academy administrator. “The combination of classic literature, a talented performer, and a moody setting is sure to provide a memorable evening of theater.”
Born in 1869, Blackwood was the a pioneer of Supernatural Fiction and is renowned for his masterful atmospheric settings in his paranormal tales, which submerge readers in the experience of the story itself. A member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—a secret society devoted to the study of the occult and esoteric knowledge—he had an outsized, though often underappreciated, influence on the horror genre.
“The Willows” creates a narrative bridge that connects gothic horror of the 19th century to psychological horror of the modern age. Blackwood’s ability to evoke dread from natural settings and his use of the unseen to generate fear lays the groundwork for modern horror’s exploration of existential dread. He was a major influence on H.P. Lovecraft, who praised “The Willows” as “the finest supernatural tale in English literature.”
Finney performed all over the UK and Europe for many years with theater companies, including The English Shakespeare Company and Shared Experience, appeared in several TV drama series, and was a storyteller and Radio Rep actor for the BBC. Eventually, she moved to New York, where she has been part of the Lake Lucille Chekhov project, including the film “I am a Seagull,” and has performed at The Lincoln Center and off Broadway. She co-adapted/directed “All American Boys” (now published and available from Playscripts) and co-adapted “White Rose” by Kip Wilson supported by The New Victory Theater, NYC and The Alliance Theater, Atlanta. She is currently featured as the narrator and storyteller on two popular children’s podcasts and plays a bunch of instruments and sings with Brooklyn based band, The Retro Fits.
Harvey is a filmmaker, editor, producer, writer, theater director, musician, end-of-life doula, and currently the arts programmer at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, MA. He created, produced, and directed the feature film, “Walden: Life in the Woods,” starring Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir, which played at many domestic and international festivals and was picked up by Virgil Films and released on Amazon Prime. His other films include the pandemic-themed sci-fi feature, “space//space,” which premiered at NYC’s Anthology Film Archives; “The Unsilent Picture,” a black-and-white silent film starring the world famous clown, Bill Irwin; and “I Am A Seagull,” a documentary-narrative hybrid film made by the art collective Lake Lucille Chekhov Project, which was the first feature film to play at the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival in New York.
Founded in 1972, Spencertown Academy Arts Center is a cultural center and community resource serving Columbia County, the Berkshires, and the Capital region. Housed in a landmark 1847 Greek Revival schoolhouse, the Academy is located at 790 State Route 203 in Spencertown, New York. For more information, please contact info@spencertownacademy.org.
