Snoop’s Theatre Thoughts
A FASCINATING ACTING SHOWCASE AND AN EXPORATION OF CONSCIENCE AND HUMANITY
by Michelle Kenyon ("Snoop") /
October, 2025
The Midnight Company’s latest show is a familiar one in a few ways for Artistic Director/star Joe Hanrahan. Not only is it the format the Midnight is most well-known for, it’s also Hanrahan’s forte–the one-man show. Also, the show in question, St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson, is one Hanrahan has performed before on a few separate occasions, although this is my first experience with it. I may have avoided it before because it’s essentially about vampires, which I mentioned before are not among my favorite subjects for stories. Still, seeing Hanahan–under the direction of Bradley Rohlf–acting out McPherson’s quirky but insightful story makes me almost forget I don’t usually love vampire stories. Because this one is more than a simple vampire story. It’s also about theatre critics, about conscience, and about the experience of humanity itself.
As with a lot of one-person shows, and especially the ones Hanrahan chooses to perform, the tone is essentially conversational. A man–here an unnamed Dublin-based theatre critic–is telling his story. He’s up front about the fact that this story involves vampires, but he’s also careful to say that these vampires aren’t like the ones in the movies. Still, although the critic starts out with that announcement, it takes him a while to get to the “vampire” part of the story, at least in the literal sense. What becomes clear, though, as he gets into the first part of the story, is that this is a story about two kinds of “vampires”, it seems, as the critic himself tells about his job and his life, and his pursuit of notoriety at the expense of others, as well as his growing obsession with a young actress named Helen, who he first encounters while attending a show in which she stars. The way he talks about his life, and his regrets regarding his family, and his obsession with Helen and her company, to the point in which he lies about the nature of his review to impress them and eventually follows them to London, makes it clear that the critic himself is, in a way, a vampire, trying to satisfy his “hunger” at the expense of others.
That’s just Act One, however, which ends with the critic finally meeting his first “real” vampire, whose name is William. After first encountering William in a London park, he finds himself drawn to follow him, and to be employed by William and his vampire roommates as a procurer of young people to invite to their house parties, in which the vampires will indulge their own appetites. Meanwhile, the critic gets to know William better, and finds what he defines as the key difference between vampires and humans. He also starts to grow tired of the vampires as he continues his nightly missions to round up party guests, which eventually presents him with a personal dilemma as it inevitably brings his story full-circle, forcing him to come to a reckoning not only with the vampires, but with himself.
Hanrahan is an expert storyteller, and this show plays to his strengths, as it’s a somewhat talky show but never gets boring as Hanrahan keeps it compelling with his characterizations of the critic, and occasional other characters–especially William. Hanrahan’s energy and stage presence lends much drama and interest to this intriguing tale, even though his Irish accent is hit-or-miss, although that’s a minor quibble.
Charles Adams
October, 2025
October may be what McSweeney’s once dubbed “decorative gourd season, motherf***ers,” which makes it the right moment for The Midnight Company to unbox Conor McPherson’s “St. Nicholas.” Directed by Bradley Rohlf, this one-actor, 90-minute monologue is a dare as much as a play — part confession, part campfire yarn, staged in the intimate, story-driven style Midnight has long claimed as its signature.
This is Joe Hanrahan’s fourth go at “St. Nicholas,” and what unfolds is a sly, assured rendering of McPherson’s critic-narrator. Hanrahan doesn’t so much break the fourth wall (a hallmark of monologue plays) as slither through it, drawing the audience close like confidants in a corner booth. His delivery slides from sardonic wit to quiet melancholy to something stranger, with each pause or glance carrying the weight of unspoken confession. He shapes the words with a soft, Irish-inflected lilt that never calls attention to itself, nor tries to sound overly authentic — just enough to tint the character’s voice without distraction.
Earlier this year, the St. Louis Theater Circle honored Hanrahan with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his more than 40 years on local stages. It was a fitting accolade for an artist who has made a career of tackling demanding solo pieces, including McPherson’s “The Good Thief,” which he has performed twice.
McPherson’s “St. Nicholas” (1997) is more of a long, intoxicating yarn than a play: a jaded Dublin theater critic, fueled by booze and envy, recounts how he abandoned his family, chased an actress to London and fell in with vampires. Whether confession, tall tale or self-imposed purgatory, the story unfolds as a monologue — theater’s most unforgiving form. From Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” to Spalding Gray’s “Swimming to Cambodia” and Wallace Shawn’s “The Fever” (or his polarizing “My Dinner With Andre”), the tradition offers nowhere to hide. Just ask Louis Malle, who directed that “Dinner.”
“St. Nicholas” has drawn commanding actors — Brian Cox off Broadway in 1998, Brendan Coyle in London and later at the Goodman Theatre. Hanrahan now joins that lineage with a distinctly St. Louis entry. The play remains hypnotic and demanding, a showcase that lives or dies on its single performer, and like most monologues, it can divide audiences.
Director Bradley Rohlf keeps the staging stripped back, allowing Hanrahan to shoulder the weight of the tale. Greenfinch’s dive-bar intimacy proves an ideal setting, the audience listening as if to a late-night yarn. Subtle shifts in lighting and sound mark the play’s move from anecdote to something uncanny, but nothing distracts from the essential act of storytelling.
The themes resonate: obsession, envy, desire, the critic as vampire feeding off the work of others. In October, it feels particularly apt — a dark story told in a small room. One man, one tale, 90 minutes — a story told and a spell cast — and Hanrahan proves again that sometimes the most expansive theater happens in the smallest of rooms. “St. Nicholas” lingers like a whispered confession, fitting fare for October’s appetite for shadows.
The story itself is well-paced and fits well in the simple space at Greenfinch Theater & Dive. There’s no set to speak of–just a chair that Hanrahan pulls out of the audience at one point, and he’s dressed in a simple suit that fits his character. The mood and suspense are maintained by means of Hanrahan’s characterization coupled with effective sound and lighting design by director Rohlf.
The story is not as spooky as I had been expecting, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing. It’s something of a “grounded” vampire tale that never makes it clear if the story is real or a fantasy. What it does do, quite successfully, is present the vampires as an effective contrast to the initially amoral and guilt-ridden theatre critic. The idea of theatre criticism as a form of “power” is also brought up, and that presents a valid source of reflection for critics in the real world who seek to do their jobs with enthusiasm and integrity.
It’s an entertaining show, if not very long, although it provides a lot to think about. With another fine performance from Hanrahan, St. Nicholas also works as a fitting “Halloween” show for the season, although not exactly in the conventional sense. It’s about humanity, and also about theatre, which is always an intriguing subject for critics and non-critics alike.
Broadway World
by James Lindhorst / October, 2025
October brings Halloween and the season of spooky storytelling in St. Louis theater. This month several companies are opening shows with macabre, eerie, ghostly, and ghastly themes.
Last night The Midnight Company opened their weekend run of Conor McPherson’s vampire story St. Nicholas. In addition to Midnight Company’s offering, New Line Theatre will open Bat Boy this weekend, next week The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis opens the stage adaptation of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and later this month Albion Theatre opens J.B. Priestley’s mysterious I Have Been Here Before.
St. Nicholas, starring Joe Hanrahan with direction, lighting, and sound design by Bradley Rohlf, tells the story of a hard drinking, acerbic, late in career theatre critic who is obsessed with a stage ingenue. The pursuit of the actress while in a drunken state leads him from Dublin to London and into a vampire’s lair in McPherson’s supernatural story of obsession and desire.
Originally performed in 1997, St. Nicholas is performed as a monologue by a single actor. Hanrahan, The Midnight Company’s founder and artistic director, takes on the role of the unnamed critic. The well-prepared Hanrahan meanders about the stage, executing Rohlf’s intentional blocking, in a meticulously paced recitation of the Irish playwright’s story. It was clear from Hanrahan’s fluent delivery that he, and Rohlf, had spent an immense amount of time with the script in development and rehearsal.
Hanrahan is a good storyteller. He establishes presence, selectively and appropriately breaks the fourth wall, emotes, projects, articulates and engages his audience directly. Many critics were present for opening night and Hanrahan milked a few laughs early on with McPherson’s scripted words about a critic who is never entertained and rarely satisfied. It was a choice by an experience actor to connect to his audience to earn a few laughs.
Hanrahan peppered his dialogue with a handful of words flavored with an Irish English accent. His delivery included some of the distinct vowel sounds commonly heard with an Irish brogue. He accented and articulated the “th’’ words consistently, changing words like mother to “Mudder,” other became “Udder,” and numerical word like thirty became “turdy.” The pronunciations of the words he accented had a distinct and recognizable Irish sound. As an audience member it is a personal preference for an actor to choose one accent or the other and deliver the dialogue with consistency versus slipping between different dialects.
Rohlf’s imaginative artistry as a lighting and sound designer was on full display. Often the technical contributions in a less busy production become a more obvious part of the storytelling. Intentionality is critical. Rohlf’s lighting shifts and his soundscape are deliberate and purposeful while remaining unobtrusive. His instinctive choices shift mood, create eerie tension, and enhance McPherson’s narrative. It’s quality work that illustrates a director’s vision enhanced by a designer’s effort, taste, and skill. In this case the director and designer are one and the same.
The Midnight Company’s production of St. Nicholas is built for fans of vampire stories. The story of obsession leads a man to walk down a dark path with irreversible consequence. The script and Hanrahan’s delivery never quite reach a level of creepy macabre, but it is a fascinating story that’s suited to the Halloween season.
Two On The Aisle
by Gerry Kowarsky / October, 2025
The Midnight Company’s recent staging of St. Nicholas was the fourth time Joe Hanrahan has performed Conor McPherson’s one-actor play. Hanrahan’s facility with monologues and affection for this script were much in evidence in the production at the Greenfinch Theatre & Dive.
The play is about vampires. The storyteller is an unscrupulous theater critic who exploits others as shamelessly as a vampire. He is a clever writer who makes his living expressing opinions he never bothers to think through. He enjoys the fear he inspires as a critic, but he has no passion for the work itself. Being a critic takes little effort and leaves him plenty of time to drink.
His life changes when he becomes infatuated with an actress he sees in a staging of Salome. He follows her when that production moves to a theater in London. There he is approached by an irresistibly charming man. He turns out to be the leader of a pack of vampires who feed off their victims but do not kill them.
The critic becomes the vampires’ procurer, going out to clubs and bars and bringing potential victims back to the vampires’ home. He fulfills this role until circumstances prod him into taking a redemptive action.
The Greenfinch is a taxing environment for a one-actor show because the theater is much wider than it is deep. The solo performer must engage with viewers in a half-circle around him. Under Bradley Rohl’s direction, Hanrahan easily met this challenge. He was an engrossing storyteller throughout. Rohlf added to the occasion’s eeriness with his lighting and sound designs.
Two of Hanrahan’s other productions of St. Nicholas were at McGurk’s and Herbie’s. Like the Greenfinch, these venues have bars. It was thoughtful of Hanrahan to ensure drinks were at hand for anyone who wanted them at the end of this spooky show.
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