This play presents a curious mix of genres and characters unusually embodied on stage by only two actors in its first performances, Robert Ludlam himself and Everett Quinton.
Divided into three acts, the first and third are set in Lord Edgar Hillcrest's mansion in Mandacrest during the inter-war period. The second act, meanwhile, takes place in Egypt, where the characters come to visit a tomb of an ancient princess (or so it seems).
From the first moments of the play, the owner of the mansion, Lord Edgar, is characterised as an aristocrat fond of antiquities. Some of these decorate the rooms of his house, such as African masks and an Egyptian sarcophagus. There is also mention of a treatise on Egyptian mythology, which Jane recommends that Lady Enid read to occupy her active hours during the night. It is not until later that it is reported that Lord Edgar is actually a highly respected and envied Egyptologist in the Egyptological community of the day.
As in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) the presence of Irma Vep in the memories of the residents of Mandacrest Manor disturbs the life of Lord Edgar's new wife, the actress Lady Enid. She is even the victim of a vampire attack, while we learn that a wolf or werewolf is roaming the grounds near the mansion. Lord Edgar then decides to go to Egypt to try to learn the secrets that lie beyond appearances and that could explain the strange events that have occurred in his house. He travels to Giza, Diospolis Magna and Luxor, among other unspecified places.
In a tomb in the Valley of the Kings he discovers, accompanied by an individual by the name of Alcazar, the mummy of a young woman of royal lineage. Thanks to Lord Edgar's knowledge of ancient Egyptian language, he proceeds to recite the formula inscribed on a papyrus found inside the sarcophagus of the princess, destined to bring her back to life. The princess does indeed come back to life after uttering the words, only to return to the appearance of an Egyptian mummy over 3,500 years old. In various places in the tomb, a royal cartouche identifies her with the name ‘She Who Sleeps But Will One Day Wake’. However, the play's dialogue identifies her as Pev Amri. Upon awakening, the princess addresses Lord Edgar in (supposedly) ancient Egyptian but in which everything is incomprehensible except certain well-known terms of the Nile civilisation, such as Ankh, Giza, Karnak, Amon, Memphis, Hatchepsut or Sphinx. The comic effect of the scene is evident.
Shocked by such an apparition, Lord Edgar returned to England some time later. In his mansion, the queen's sarcophagus now decorates one of the rooms, continuing the strange events that began before his departure for Egypt. It is discovered that the house vampire and the werewolf were residents of the house (I try not to be a spoiler) and that Lady Enid was the instigator of Lord Edgar's ‘spectral’ encounter with the mummy in Egypt. It is ultimately the story of a vendetta by her father, with the fictional name ‘Alcazar’ (actually a rival Egyptologist from Cambridge University) to Lord Edgar, to discredit him in the Egyptological world, as well as Lady Enid's attempt to win Lord Edgar's love and erase the ominous presence of Irma Vep, his first wife, from his mind.
In The Mystery of Irma Vep the presence of the Egyptian has to do with some of the usual leitmotifs of Egyptomania, such as treasure, tombs, mummies, secret passages and the afterlife. In the Egypt recreated by Ludlam we find a cocktail of these issues, set against a remarkable backdrop of haunted houses and a crossover of Victorian monsters, such as the werewolf, the mummy and vampires. In this sense, Irma Vep, Lord Edgar's late first wife is absent but present, at least visually, through her portrait in the parlour. But she is equally revived by Jane, who assumes the role of a vampire Irma brought back to life to attack Lady Enid. Irma Vep, dead but revived, thus takes on a new existence, which explains the anagram of the letters of her name ‘Irma Vep’ = ‘Vampire’.
Lady Enid also contributes to this characterisation of the deceased. As a fictitious mummy who seeks to attain the love Lord Edgar had for Irma, she assumes the name Pev Amri, once again an anagram of Irma Vep and Vampire.

Author: Abraham I. Fernández Pichel