In campy version of 'Carrie,' heroine is a bloody guy

CARRIE WHITE is a dude.

The heroine of Stephen King's novel is decidedly female, as was Sissy Spacek, who most famously portrayed the telekinetic teen in "Carrie," Brian De Palma's 1976 film. But in Erik Jackson's comedic reimagining, which is being staged by Brat Productions this Halloween season, Carrie is played by New Brunswick, N.J.-based performer Erik Ransom. While Ransom's olive complexion, deep voice and, well, gender separate him from Spacek, both actors share piercing, almost menacing eyes.

"The characters don't see a guy," says director Michael Alltop. "They see a lumpy, awkward girl." Albeit, with a couple of winks and nods thrown the audience's way.

"This is not a traditional drag role," Ransom says in his deep voice, which transforms into a Dorothy Gale-like cadence when playing Carrie. "It's not finger snapping and neck rolling."

Alltop, who also serves as Brat's producing artistic director and had never read or seen "Carrie" until he became interested in Jackson's script, views the sex-switch as twofold: First, it heightens Carrie's status as an outcast. But, more importantly, it's funny.

"As soon as you put a man in a dress, it opens it up to humor," he says.

Jackson's method was to take King's novel and enhance the camp, which Alltop sees as inherent to "Carrie." "The '70s are funny," says Alltop. "The music is cheesy; the hairstyles are crazy." To get into the groove, BRAT suggests that patrons should come decked out in vintage prom attire.

But Alltop concedes that the source material isn't light fare. Carrie is the ultimate teen outsider: She endures brutal bullying at school and abuse from her fundamentalist momma at home. Finally, she snaps. Maybe those kids should have rethought messing with the girl who can move things with her mind.

Like the book, Jackson's play is framed by an investigation into the "tragedy at Ewen High School," caused by Carrie in the play's climax. "This is definitely a comedy," Alltop says, assuredly. "A comedy with a lot of blood." (So much blood, in fact, that Gary Reuben, the owner of the Wolf Building, where the show is being performed, installed a washer and dryer for Brat.)

Alltop posits the reason King gave Jackson his blessing to adapt his debut novel is that it deviates from the norm. "We're not trying to be the movie; we're not trying to be Broadway," Alltop says, referring to the 1988 musical that lasted only five performances on the Great White Way.

But, as Ransom says, Jackson's script reveres the movie and the book, and Brat isn't skimping on the special effects, hiring a three-man team to recreate Carrie's telekinesis, including bursting lightbulbs, flying scissors and an exploding car.

In addition to the F/X, "Carrie's" set is full of moving parts. Jackson has 20 locations written into his script, and Brat is doing its best to produce all of them. Each set moves and flips to reveal entirely new locations, such as shower stalls that transform into a principal's office.

This transformative quality is akin to Carrie herself, who starts out a wounded outsider and becomes something entirely more evil. But that doesn't mean she can't elicit a few giggles. "There's always an element of camp in horror," says Ransom. "But I've never looked at 'Carrie' as horror. It's just a sad story to me."

Brat Productions presents "Carrie," Underground Arts @ the Wolf Building, 340 N. 12th St., preview 7 p.m. Wednesday, opening night 8 p.m. Thursday-Nov. 7, $15-$29, 215-627-2577, bratproductions.org.