‘Garden State Gothic’: See the Jersey Devil in a new light
The Devil & Daisy Dirt is equal parts theater and spoken word, with a backdrop of live bluegrass numbers.
On a blustery spring night, up in a barn loft in the New Jersey Pinelands, Alex Dawson’s deep, raspy voice conjures up the devil.
Dawson’s show, The Devil & Daisy Dirt, is equal parts theater and spoken word, with a backdrop of live bluegrass numbers. The show’s been described as a “Garden State Gothic,” and Dawson, a professor in Rutgers University’s creative writing program, infuses classic elements of good horror into his work: questionable men, a heroine in distress, the supernatural, a monster, and a bit of humor.
Dawson, 54, acts as a narrator, standing to the side of the stage in cutoff sleeves, swilling moonshine, his voice as rough as pine bark.
“There was a diner deep in the wood, with brisket that tasted real good. A waitress named Daisy, a hunter named Tasty, and a witch with a bullet that could … kill anything … in this world or the next," Dawson bellows to a rapt audience.
The star of the show is Daisy Dirt, a downtrodden waitress at a Pine Barrens greasy spoon where boorish regulars cackle and harass her to no end. When Daisy discovers the mythical “Jersey Devil” out back by the garbage, injured, her life changes forever.
Dawson, who teaches classes on horror, folklore, science fiction, and what he describes as the “dark fantastic,” grew up on a ranch in rural Alabama, riding dirt bikes and listening to old-timers make up tall tales. Discovering New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, Dawson said, was a bit like going home again.
“If you get deep enough in the woods down here, it’s not that much different,” he said.
The show began as an elaborate, backyard Halloween haunt, and the full production debuted last year. Dawson has brought the production to various venues in New Jersey and New York, and longs to play Levon Helm’s barn in Woodstock.
There’s a slew of dates scheduled at venues in New Jersey this year and, on May 17, Dawson will bring the production to Doylestown’s Vampa Museum.
On a recent weekend, Dawson put on several sold-out shows at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s barn in Southampton, Burlington County. It’s a venue he’s been eyeballing since the show’s inception, and its dark, wood-planked walls added to the show’s spooky vibes.
“That barn is just a dream venue for me,” he said.
The latest iteration of the show gives Daisy, played by Jackie Fogel, a new song to express her frustrations and fantasies, like sticking knives in the worst customers, particularly Tasty Murder, a slovenly local who aims to kill the devil.
Women in the audience cheered.
In this show, the creature is more mythical than monstrous. “The monsters are human,” Dawson said. “It took on stronger feminist themes as we workshopped it. Daisy becomes an instrument to save the devil, and she’s empowered by the experience.”
The creature in question punches up for a small production, an 8-foot puppet suit that combines classic elements of the Jersey Devil in a jarring way. It was created and manned by Dawson’s friend Dan Diana, who works in special effects. It’s not for children.
Country and Americana musician Arlan Feiles is barely visible, off to the side of the stage during the production, but his haunting music is the backbone of the show.
“The Devil & Daisy Dirt” will be performed on Saturday, April 26, in Boonton, N.J. and Sunday, April 27, in Basking Ridge, N.J. For tickets and more information about upcoming shows, click here.