How did you first learn your ABCs?
Was it Sesame Street? An indulgent parent? Or was it a gruesomely giggly tale of children meeting their demise through meticulously illustrated storybook pages and one-sentence kisses of death? (“A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs/B is for Basil, assaulted by bears.”) If the latter, then local horror-theater troupe Phantasmagoria have a show for you as they dive deep into the works of prolific artist and storyteller Edward Gorey.
Phantasmagoria founder Byron (known in the light of day as John DiDonna, but firmly in character for our interview) discovered his lifelong love for Gorey’s works from a young age, and when it came time to craft the renowned local repertory’s 16th season, he believed Gorey’s stories would be the perfect fit for their fantastical world.
“I have a childhood love for Edward Gorey. I saw Dracula on Broadway [the 1977 production for which Gorey designed sets and costumes] when I was about 12 years old, and absolutely fell in love with it,” Byron tells Orlando Weekly. “I still have the poster hanging on my wall. My aunt, every year, would bring books to me for the holidays, so I would have all these Edward Gorey books. I fell in love with him very early on. He writes in a style that’s very similar to the kind of style we play; he writes these sort of whimsically charming, hauntingly sinister penny dreadfuls.”
Phantasmagoria XVI: Hauntingly Whimsical Tales invites audiences into the “eerie yet whimsical worlds” of Edward Gorey, honoring the prolific artist and storyteller in celebration of what would have been his 100th birthday year.
Gorey is instantly recognizable for his distinctive pen-and-ink illustrations and accompanying short stories depicting creatively gruesome tales with a humorous, playful twist. Phantasmagoria’s one-act performance includes more than a dozen theatrical adaptations of Gorey’s tales, including “The Gilded Bat,” “The Wuggly Ump” and “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.”
“We’re finding with the whole show that we’re running that tightrope of balance between the whimsical and sometimes even slapstick, all the way to the sinister and dark and dreadful,” Byron says.
Phantasmagoria first began as a brainchild of Byron’s while teaching theater in Atlanta. After garnering enough inspiration and interested players, the troupe put on a single “horror circus”-inspired performance that debuted in front of an audience 16 years ago. Buoyed by (g)rave reviews, Phantasmagoria went on to become what it is today — a rapidly expanding, ever-changing theatrical phenomenon, weaving storytelling, dance, puppetry, visuals and movement together into an eccentrically haunting tapestry.
The Phantasmagoria players have skillfully reinterpreted a variety of horror icons over the years, including the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Dickens’ holiday haunts. As the ensemble has expanded (with some members still present from the very first production!), the dynamics of the company have morphed to better encompass all of the unique talents and specialties now on display.
“The troupe itself has evolved with Phantasmagoria, and it concretely changes year after year. I think that’s why a lot of us are still involved, because it challenges us and amuses us and excites us to try something new every year,” says Byron.
Byron, also serving as Phantasmagoria’s scriptwriter, said that creating a theatrical work based on Gorey’s couplet-writing style provided a bit of a challenge, but one the troupe was thrilled to take on. Rather than focusing heavily on dialogue, the Gorey show is based on movement, which can also be seen as an homage to Gorey’s own love for choreography and ballet.
“My scripts usually are 7/8 dialogue and 1/8 movement notes. I would say this is the reverse, that I had to actually visualize it as I was writing it. I would sit there with his books, and I would look at how he pictured the image, and then I would say, ‘How did these characters get there?’,” he explains. “Everything we have done has been informed by his story, then more informed by his pictures, and then us having to devise together as a troupe what that world is.”
“It’s very exciting as a storyteller to be able to step into each author’s different world,” Carlotta, another Phantasmagoria mainstay, shares. “In Phantasmagoria, when you are one of the storytellers, you are living each of the stories. So not only are we narrating these tales, but we are becoming these people and these characters that are in these stories. I’m a very physical actor, I like to use physicalization to internalize emotion. So this show, with all the movement, is awesome for me.”
Byron highlights some unique aspects of the Gorey tribute that audiences may want to keep an eye (or ear) open for, including the original compositions of Phantasmagoria composer Josh Solomon as well as the intricately designed works of the troupe’s costume and puppet designers.
“Our puppet designer showed up with the Wuggly Ump and we were all in amazement,” Byron says. “The thing is going to be about 10 to 12 feet high, and it’s got this twitching tail and these wonderful claws to grab the children. We saw it and we were dancing with joy.”
The idea to create a theatrical tribute to Gorey was one that Byron was originally unsure that they could get off the ground. The collaboration began with a single cold call and email to the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, which responded with great interest to the idea of sharing the illustrator’s stories in a new way.
“A love of the stories, that was our first mission, and it will always remain our mission. We like to say that in our mythology,” Byron explains. “When no one wants stories anymore, Phantasmagoria, as these entities, will cease to exist. Supposedly, we’ve been telling stories for 2000 years. We are immortals who are conjured up when the stories need to be told.”
“He [Gorey] was never there to terrify people,” he adds. “He was never there to go, ‘Oh my god, life is gruesome.’ He was there to say, ‘This is all part of life. Let’s look at it in a unique way.’”
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This article appears in Oct. 1-7, 2025.