HELLUVA THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS CONOR MCPHERSON’S ST. NICHOLAS

When a jaded and cynical Dublin Drama critic comes under the spell of a beautiful young actress and pursues her into a coven of vampires in modern day London, storytelling at its spooky best comes to vivid life.

A WONDERFULLY SPOOKY TALE, ARRIVING JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN. Under the unobtrusive direction of Alex Dmitriev, John Martello plays the unnamed, self-loathing Dublin critic who regales us with the tale, beginning with a description of his bottomless pit of self-loathing. Though it deals with such themes as the quest for personal redemption and the nature of storytelling itself, THE PUNGENTLY WRITTEN PLAY IS FAR MORE ENTERTAINING THAN HEAVY-HANDED. The rotund Martello projects a well-fed decadence in the role, bringing animated life to the story. HE MASTERFULLY DRAWS IN THE AUDIENCE…. – New York Post

JOHN MARTELLO IS AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT IN HIS PORTRAYAL OF THE THEATRE CRITIC IN QUESTION. IT’S HIS SHOW ALONE AND HE CARRIES IT SPLENDIDLY. HIS PERFORMANCE IS CHARMING AND LIGHT, WITHOUT BEING WEIGHTLESS, AND HIS NATURAL JOVIALITY WORKS WELL TO CONTRAST THE HEAVIER MOMENTS THE PLOT GIVES HIM. Also, and I mean this as high praise, he doesn’t come across as some highly trained actor doing a one-man show—rather you can easily buy him as the man in the circumstances he purports to have gone through. ALEX DMITRIEV’S DIRECTION IS FLUID AND NATURAL—you get the sense that he’s wisely letting his actor and the script play, and the overall arc is very well etched. – NYTheatre.com

JOHN MARTELLO MASTERFULLY PORTRAYS A DISSOLUTE, JADED IRISH THEATER CRITIC …. Alex Dmitriev’s direction enhances the wry, spellbinding tale, as the disgraced critic deludes himself with the conceit that his work for the vampires was part of “a life of patronage. A thoughtful, diverting, tragicomedy about human weakness.” -Associated Press