The second episode of “Interview with the Vampire” Season 2 launched what followers of the Vampire Chronicles have been ready for when Louis and Claudia lastly crossed the edge of the enduring Theatres des Vampires. The episode, titled “Do You Know What It Means To Be Cherished By Loss of life,” started with Louis and Armand co-narrating the reminiscence of their first-ever assembly on the streets of postwar Paris and ended with Louis and Claudia’s quest to search out extra vampires at an finish as not one, not two, however fourteen new vampires enter stage proper and take their locations in “Interview’s” story.
However who’re all of those vampires? The place did they arrive from? And why are they utilizing projection know-how to trick reside audiences into watching them drink individuals for actual? These are many questions and in true “Interview” trend, solely a few of them have solutions.
What’s the Theatres des Vampires?
It’s a theater of vampires, when you can consider it. It was based within the 18th century by Lestat himself, because the shock reveal of his portrait backstage suggests. The story of its founding will partially be advised by flashbacks in Season 2, so to keep away from spoilers it’s sufficient to say that Lestat has all the time been the type of vampire who creates drama wherever he goes. It’s simply this time the drama is tremendous literal.
The Theatres capabilities as each a home of leisure and a canopy for the vampires of the troupe to ritualistically kill and drink their victims in public. The twisted irony of performing these kills instage in entrance of a reside human viewers is a spark of cruelty that, of their minds, elevates their killing to a cynical expression of artwork.
Like many issues, “Interview With the Vampire” updates the Theatres des Vampires from the gothic, nineteenth century establishment it was in Anne Rice’s books. This new theater is extra in step with the beginnings of pop artwork in postwar Europe, a motion which centralized the method in creating artwork as part of the artwork itself, giving rise to “efficiency artwork “and the incorporation of recent mediums like display printing and projections.
And sure, the vampires are a number of many years early to be absolutely part of the pop artwork motion, however hey, whenever you’re 100 years previous perhaps predicting artwork developments comes naturally.
Who’re the actors of the Theatres des Vampires?
The 4 major stage actors are Santiago, Estelle, Celeste, and Gustav.
Santiago (Ben Daniels) is unimaginable to overlook, serving because the grasp of ceremonies at every efficiency, a task that additionally offers him the chance to taunt the viewers with, and ultimately painting, the spirit of Loss of life. Regardless of his affect within the troupe, Santiago is the youngest of the theatrical vampires, having been turned solely 25 years earlier than Louis arrives. Like the remainder of the present troupe besides Armand, Santiago by no means met Lestat, however the two spotlight-hugging, swaggering blondes have loads in frequent. That’s not a praise for both of them.
Estelle and Celeste are the 2 ladies vampires on stage. Their backgrounds are unknown, solely that they’re older than Santiago, they usually have a very cloying affection for Claudia.
Gustav is the taller, dark-haired vampire actor who performs many of the male roles onstage, since Santiago solely seems as both himself or as Loss of life throughout the efficiency.
What about everybody else?
Armand shortly runs down the record of the theater’s assist employees, however their names and occupations are simple to overlook. Louis and Claudia meet:
Eglee, the woman vampire who runs the theaters front-of-house operations.
Romaine, redheaded stage supervisor.
Luchenbaum, the forever-elderly costumer.
Samuel “Sam” Barclay, the playwright who updates the theater’s century-old playbook so the performances evolve with the tastes of whichever period they’re carried out. Regardless of his expertise he’s the latest addition to the troupe, making him the go-to vampire for grunt work across the theater. He is aware of the place the our bodies are buried as a result of he’s the one burying them.
Basilic the Afro-French vampire and his fellow musician Planche are members of the orchestra.
Trinh and Quan Pham are a Vietnamese father-and-son duo who deal with the technical aspect of the theater, together with the animated projections used to simulate units and motion onstage. Regardless of their appearances, Trinh the visibly youthful vampire is Quan the allegedly older vampire’s father, having been turned earlier in his life than his son was.
With these new characters, “Interview” tripled the quantity of immortals on the present and the query stays if there are extra to be discovered or made later in Season 2. For now, after going from 4 to 14 in a single episode, evidently when it rains within the Immortals universe, it actually does pour. Vampires.
“Interview with the Vampire” Season 2 is airing now on AMC.