Since the public is not usually permitted indoors, this is a rare treat indeed, and I envy anyone in that area who attends.
It absolutely was a treat for me to view the interior of Greystone. I visited the grounds once before with MB and Nancybe but hadn't even been inside the courtyard until yesterday. And knowing now that it costs $13,000 per day to film there, I’d say I feel pretty darn privileged. And wow, this is one highly organized event!
I’m frankly surprised that more local fans haven't seen a performance of “The Manor,” and its similarities to
DS may make it attractive to them besides the chance to see the rooms up close. At the play’s open, the characters are roving specters that seem trapped in our present, yet when the story begins (on the day the patriarch gives the house to his only son as a wedding present, hmm) we are transformed into spectators to their history, just as the inhabitants of Collinwood were silent witnesses to the action inside the Parallel Time room. This becomes even more apparent as the actors stay in character while the audience is moved from room to room. What really upped the creep factor was that some of us had to pass closely by the victims and their mourners when exiting the area after the exciting climax; I nearly had to step over a foot of one of the “bodies” as I headed back to the sitting room for the last scene. That finale, which righted the transgression in time, was both satisfying and a little unsettling.
By making the wealthy McAlisters (the author did not have permission to use the Doheny name) sympathetic and somewhat naive, yet also powerful enough to pull off the cover-up of a murder/suicide, the family appeared more cursed than culpable, thus not all that different from the Collins family.
The current run is sold out, btw, but the play will return in the Fall.
I noticed that one of the actors in the play is named Quentin.
A couple of things about the British actor Quentin Jones: First, check out his IMDb photos. ‘Nuff said? Second, his Gregory Pugh (a re-imagining of real-life Hugh Plunkett)—a dangerous and brooding alcoholic who turned the corner into madness—is reminiscent of a certain other Quentin.
P.S., one of the pictures in the little slide show of the mansion interior on their homepage feaures the new Alec Newman/Barnabas portrait that would have been used in the 2004 DS.
I knew the house sat empty but was surprised to see the walls stripped bare. Unlike the images in the slideshow, the walls are empty above the grand staircase (prominent in the ’91 series, the stairs were beyond the Old House foyer). And, unfortunately, that Barnabas portrait—the full-length painting of Alec Newman seen above the fireplace in Theatre 40’s slideshow—was removed from the mansion and has been replaced by a godawful painting of a male subject, his servant, and a pack animal.
![[cryb]](http://www.dsboards.com/SMF/Smileys/classic/cryb.gif "Cry(Blue)")
What really kills me is that the placement of the Newman/Barnabas portrait seems all the more appropriate to me now that I've realized how central that same fireplace was to the events of the 90s remake. (Remember the intimate dinner before the fire when Barnabas first showed Vicki the music box? Or when Julia presented her idea to cure the vampire?) That would have been the logical location for Barnabas to hang his
ancestor’s portrait in his own home.
How intriguing. Have any other photographs of this Barnabas portrait been published?
Sorry, I meant to answer this sooner. Fans first saw the portrait (in B&W) in ShadowGram around the time the pilot was filming.
