'The Legend'

 

[This post is about Washington Irving and the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  Before you get into the report on the centerpiece of that celebration, I want to point out some older posts on Rick On Theater that pertain to Irving (though they’re not all related the famous tale).

[In 2010, I posted six “Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle” (13-28 August) on the subject of New York theater, written in 1802 and 1803.  (Jonathan Oldstyle was one of the pseudonyms Irving used.)  On 25 November 2009, I posted “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Children’s Theater in America,” a report on theater for young audiences in which I used a production of a musical adaptation of the story by my friend Kirk Woodward as a model to discuss making theater for children.

[In “A Helluva Town, Part 3” (9 January 2012), I included a section on “‘Knickerbocker’ and Sleepy Hollow,” a short piece on the origins of the use of the name Knickerbocker in New York and a little history of the name Sleepy Hollow (which is retold below as well).]

Washington Irving (1783-1859), often called the Father of American Literature, published the second of his two most famous short stories, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” in 1820 (the first was “Rip Van Winkle,” published in 1819). 

Irving was born in New York City, but because of a yellow fever outbreak in the city in 1798, his family sent him 30 miles north to stay with friends in Tarrytown, where he first became familiar with the stories and legends around the nearby town that’s now called Sleepy Hollow.

In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving wrote:

There is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world.  A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose. . . .  From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow . . . .  The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions.

In 1835, he bought property in Tarrytown and he moved there from New York City.  During the early colonial period, place names were pretty much traditional: someone came up with a name for a settlement, a village, or a valley, and if it stuck, that’s what it was called. 

The village of Tarrytown seems to have been established under that name, based on an earlier Dutch appellation, in the 17th century.  (The English took over the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1674 and many Dutch names were either translated or anglicized.)  The village was incorporated as Tarrytown in 1870.

The little village seven miles north of Tarrytown, however, had a slightly different story.  When it was part of New Netherland, around 1655, the area around it was dubbed Slapershaven or, literally, Sleepers’ Haven.  After the English took control, the area and the village assumed several different informal names.  In 1874, the village incorporated as North Tarrytown.

Sleepy Hollow—derived, I imagine, from an English approximation of the traditional Dutch designation Slapershaven—was then only a made-up name created in the imagination of Washington Irving.  It seems to have existed as a common usage for places, such as the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (which Irving himself named) of the Old Dutch Church and Sleepy Hollow Manor, an upscale residential neighborhood with historic homes; but not the village of North Tarrytown. 

That is, until 1996, when the residents of North Tarrytown voted two to one to rename the village Sleepy Hollow to capitalize on the famous story and to differentiate it from Tarrytown.  Once the legalities (such as notifying the U.S. Postal Service) were completed, the town where Irving’s famous and popular story is set, was finally a real place, named on maps of the state and the county of Westchester.

(In an amusing sidebar, the football team of the former North Tarrytown high school is named The Horsemen.  That ranks right up there with the sports teams from the Key West school in Florida, whose name is The Fighting Conchs.)

Around this time of year, the New York area Irving christened “Sleepy Hollow Country,” which includes not only the village formerly known as North Tarrytown, but Tarrytown itself and the nearby village of Dearman, which in 1854 renamed itself Irvington in honor of the famous writer who was living in Tarrytown, bustles with visitors looking for a Halloween experience.

For most of the country, at least in the Northeast, Salem, Massachusetts, has claimed the title of Halloween capital of the world.  But Sleepy Hollow is putting up a challenge now.  Irving’s “Legend” is, after all, arguably the most iconic ghost story in the country’s literature.  Sleepy Hollow Country is a natural Halloween tourist destination.

Year round, there are sites related to “Legend,” starting with the Old Dutch Church, where the Headless Horseman started his ride.  It still stands in Sleepy Hollow since 1699, with the Old Dutch Burying Ground where the graves of Katrina Van Tassell and Abraham Martling (the model for Brom Bones), prominent characters in Irving’s tale, can be found.  (There are tours of the church and cemetery.)

Next to the burial ground in the churchyard is the contiguous, but separate Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where, aside from Washington Irving himself, a number of famous people are buried, including Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Chrysler, Brooke Astor, and Elizabeth Arden).

Also in Sleepy Hollow is a bridge over the Pocantico River with a historical marker that reads: “The Headless Horseman Bridge described by Irving in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow formerly spanned this stream at this spot.”  It’s not the actual bridge, which was replaced long ago, and the location of the span Irving knew was in reality further upstream within Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, but never mind . . . .

In Tarrytown is Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving from 1835 until his death in 1859 (of a heart attack at 76).  Before Irving bought the property and built Sunnyside, the land was owned until 1802 by the Van Tassel family.  There are events staged here relating to “Legend” and the house is open for tours as well.

“People want to believe in ghosts and things like that,” observed Mayor Ken Wray of Sleepy Hollow, “and it’s fun to do that.  And then you get here and you get into the woods, you get into the cemetery and go ‘Yeah, I could see this happening here.’“

There are other curious sights in Sleepy Hollow Country which aren’t associated with “Legend,” one of which is in Irvington (3 miles south of Tarrytown and another half mile further on to Sleepy Hollow).  Built in 1859-60, the Armour-Stiner House (aka: the Octagon House) is, aside from its architectural oddity, supposed to be haunted.  (It’s been featured in several horror films, such as 1981’s The Nesting.)

Sleepy Hollow Country has also built up its catalogue of Halloween events, including many that aren’t related to Irving’s scary tale.  The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson displays over 7,000 elaborately carved, illuminated pumpkins.

Sleepy Hollow itself, however, was the scene of a new attraction this fall that was very specifically planned to relate to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  It’s creators had been working on it for two years.

Since the reason for adopting the name Sleepy Hollow was largely to increase focus on the town’s connection to Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and the association with Irving himself, who lived in Tarrytown and died there, but is buried in Sleepy Hollow, what could be more natural than to host a big celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of the story’s publication?

But that was going to be in 2020, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic.  So the celebration was postponed (twice) and this fall, the town mounted a special, 90-minute performance called The Legend that ran weekends from Friday, 23 September, through Sunday, 23 October.  (The production had originally been scheduled to close on 16 October, but its popularity resulted in a week’s extension.)

The Legend, in the words of its own promotional material, was “created and performed by Westchester Circus Arts” and presented by the Village of Sleepy Hollow (with a grant from New York State).  It makes “groundbreaking use of holograms of Washington Irving and the Headless Horseman, combined with live action circus performers to tell the story” of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” to commemorate its 200th anniversary.  (The actors whose images were digitized for the holograms weren’t identified.)

Performances were mounted in a large blue-and-yellow circus tent on the banks of the Hudson River in Sleepy Hollow’s East Parcel, the former parking lot of the now-closed General Motors automobile assembly plant on the west side of the village. 

(The plant, known as North Tarrytown Assembly, was closed by GM and transferred to the Village of Sleepy Hollow in 1996.  The 90 acres is split into two parcels by New York State’s Metro-North commuter railroad tracks.  The west side of the tracks is dedicated to mostly residential development; the East Parcel, as the other half is called, is used for public works facilities and amenities for public recreation.)

On the production’s own website (The Legend (sleepyhollowlegend.com)), Westchester Circus Arts describes The Legend as “a simmering adaptation of Washington Irving’s iconic ghost story, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’  Audiences will be treated to a cirque/theatre noir production with narration by Washington Irving himself—in hologram form.”  (The Legend was recommended for viewers ages 10 and up, but younger children attended the performances and cheered and gasped right along with their older peers.)

(Cirque, contemporary circus, new circus, or nouveau cirque is a genre of performing arts developed in the early 1970s to the mid-1980s in which a story or theme is conveyed through traditional circus skills.  Theatre noir, as far as I can determine, is, in this usage, to theater what film noir is to cinema.)

For those who don’t already know Irving’s “Legend,” the WCA retelling, created, produced, and written by Carlo Pellegrini of Westchester Circus Arts and directed by Hilary Sweeney, WCA’s founder, is set in Sleepy Hollow and “Tarry Town” (as Irving styled it) in the early 1800s.  Irving, in the form of a hologram (created by the Montreal-based Neweb Labs), returns in the present day to tell us what he really meant by “the legend.”  

The story follows schoolteacher Ichabod Crane (played by Justin Durham, hand balancer and straps artist) who has, of late, been down on his luck but finds adventure when he accepts an invitation to teach the children of Sleepy Hollow.

Everything changes when the beautiful heiress of the Van Tassel fortune, Katrina Van Tassel (Zoë Isadora, third generation circus artist—a member of the famous “Flying Wallendas” family), enters the ballroom of her father’s (Carlo Pellegrini) holiday party by performing a seductive aerial ballet on silks.  Ichabod is stricken by his good fortune and believes he has the savoir faire to win Katrina’s hand—and her father’s money.

When Katrina’s presumed beau, Brom Bones (Mickey Lonsdale, comedic actor and acrobatic dancer), sees Katrina’s interest in Ichabod, the game’s afoot!  Ichabod finds himself involved in what may become a deadly love triangle, spurred by Brom’s practical—and perhaps fatal—jokes.  

What neither suitor realizes is that Katrina possesses a “very particular set of skills” and can summon “the Haunting Spirit” (Doug Stewart of Cirque Us) with incantations reminiscent of The Exorcist.  The intrigue mounts: is the “Haunting Spirit” the ghostly and ghastly Headless Horseman villagers see at night in pursuit of his prey?  Or is it something else that causes Ichabod to vanish suddenly one night in an epic battle between Light and Dark?

In addition to the cirque theatricalization of the storytelling, the WCA presentation is modernized for 21st-century audiences.  Katrina is “much more than the pretty face” that encourages the competition between Ichabod and Brom Bones.

“We figured, let’s bring it up to contemporary times and make Katrina that powerful woman who almost becomes the leader of the story,” revealed director Sweeney.

Producing The Legend had been a years-long effort by the Village of Sleepy Hollow’s administrator and grant writer, Anthony Giaccio and Fiona Matthew.  They re-engaged longtime collaborators Westchester Circus Arts to create a show that would celebrate the bicentennial of the publication of Irving’s story.  WCA had begun exploring the concept of holograms as part of the cirque performance with Neweb Labs to find out if the idea was possible for the bicentennial’s true date, two years ago. 

Westchester Circus Arts is a 10-year-old, woman-owned business, founded by circus artist Hilary Sweeney.  An aerialist for over 15 years, she’s performed in Cirque le Masque’s Carnivale, Above the Belt Off-Broadway at the Zipper Theater, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, ImaginAerial, Grounded Aerial, and more.  Prior to her circus career she trained from the age of 5 in ballet.

Sweeney’s co-director, Carlo Pellegrini, is a veteran circus performer with over 40 years of professional circus experience who traveled the world with Lichtenstein Circus, Big Apple Circus, and Nikolais Dance Theater.  He’s a social circus educator and founder of Amazing Grace Circus, a community circus with a social purpose.

(According to the American Circus Educators Association, “Social Circus refers to the use of circus arts as a medium for social justice and individual wellness and uplifts the role of art and culture as powerful agents for change.  Social Circus practitioners support participants as creative change makers through the collective development of self-esteem, solidarity, and trust.”)

The tale is told by Irving, who’s the only character in The Legend who speaks.  “I came back 200 years later to explain what I really meant by the legend,” says the virtual Irving . . . and the show begins.

The five live performers interpret the spirit and emotional content of the story with acrobatics and circus arts.  Most of the action is center stage, but some of the performances are aerial work above the audience’s heads.

“Thanks to a pulley system stage-right,” reported John Soltes of Hollywood Soapbox, “the performers swing about from various rigs, always amazing the crowd below.”  The pulleys are operated in full view of the spectators, schooling them in the theatrical magic that goes on behind the scenes of such flying circus acts.  (It’s a peek behind the Wizard’s curtain in Oz!)

Among the more grounded work included performers balancing on their hands on wooden poles and juggling—using apples to match the spirit of the season.  The duel between Ichabod and Brom Bones, showing off Durham’s and Lonsdale’s acrobatic skills, consisted of jumping and rolling on a barrel that served as a platform.

Soltes proclaimed the presentation “a marvel to behold” on Hollywood Soapbox replete with “Gothic romance, . . . fearful trepidation, . . . dastardly villainy.”  Durham and Isadora “dazzle as would-be lovers” as they “couple obvious physical strength with touching artistry.” 

Describing the virtual recreation of Iriving as “exquisite hologram technology,” which “allows the performers to focus on their physical work and not have to remember any lines of dialogue,” Soltes advised that “audience members should strap in for a wild ride.”

He admonished ticket-holders, however, “not [to] go in expecting the death-defying feats that larger circus companies employ; instead, they should sit back and enjoy the stunning singularity and intimacy of the one-on-one cirque experience.” 

Soltes concluded by affirming that “The Legend is an enjoyable entry in the Halloween season of Sleepy Hollow Country,” adding, “One hopes that Westchester Circus Arts and the Village of Sleepy Hollow make this legendary Legend an annual tradition.”  (He wasn’t the only reviewer to express such a wish.)

On Woman Around Town, a website that offers guides for women to New York City and Washington, D.C., MJ Hanley-Goff began by describing the start of her Legend experience: “The flaps of the circus tent whipping from the winds coming over the Hudson River was a perfect, though most likely unintended, special effect during a preview performance.” 

Hanley-Goff went on to give a general run-down of the show:

With a “cirque theatre performance,” three of the main characters swing about the stage in an “aerial ballet” telling the story about an innocent schoolteacher who falls under the spell of the seductress, Katrina, and is out to win her hand.  Standing in his way is another suitor, Brom Bones, and the two end up in a battle that is more a gymnastic dance than street brawl, as a dark spirit spirals his way across the flowing drapes hanging from the circus top.  

News 12 Connecticut, an outlet of a group of regional cable news channels in the New York metropolitan area that provides news coverage 24 hours a day, labeled The Legend a “horrifying and thrilling entertainment experience.”

Debra C. Argen and Edward F. Nesta proclaimed The Legend “spectacular and mesmerizing” on the website Luxury Experience, an online consumer resource.  They found that “its gravity-defying aerial work . . . had our hearts pounding with excitement, and the acrobatic groundwork . . . added another essential element of surprise and daring to the nuanced performance.”

The writers found the holographic Irving’s description “[h]auntingly narrated” and “[d]eftly and creatively told,” and reported that the performance “had us on the edge of our seats with the hairs on the back of our necks sticking up as we watched the legendary tale unfold above and around us.”

Because “the performers are well-versed in their disciplines,” the writers deemed “their performances . . . engaging and dynamic.”  They affirmed, “We love the contemporary cirques, and Westchester Circus Arts was truly brilliant,” singling out “the exhilarating aerial work performed by Justin Durham, Doug Stewart, and Zoë Isadora.”

Argen and Nesta declared that attending The Legend was “the perfect way to get a jump start on Halloween!”  The production provided “a sensational . . . experience,” the writers asserted, adding, “If you love Halloween, you must see The LEGEND.”