Chatham Orpheum Theater To Conjure Up ‘Strange Magick’

What do British occultist, magician and writer Aleister Crowley and Providence, R.I. horror author H.P. Lovecraft have in common?

Director Bill Darmon reveals connections between the two controversial figures — including their ties to a third writer, Mary Alice Little — in his documentary “Strange

Magick,” which will screen at Chatham Orpheum Theater at 9 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 7 p.m. on Oct. 31.

Darmon, also credited as one of the film screenwriters, discussed the film in an email interview.

Q: What initially inspired you to explore the connections between Crowley, Lovecraft and Myrta Alice Little?

A: Around 10 years ago, a friend, my brother and I took road trips to these weirdo

curiosity spots around North America. We started in the Southwest (Roswell, Area 51, etc.) and moved around the country. I was capturing videos from the road as we visited

each site, and we had a YouTube channel for a few years.

One site that stuck out was the Mount Shaw entry for New Hampshire. There was a legend that Aleister Crowley performed ritual magic (he sacrificed a frog) on a “sacrificial slab” on the peak of Mount Shaw in the Ossipee Mountain range. The range rings the northern edge of Lake Winnipesaukee... It surprised me that something

so strange and wicked (on its surface) could occur in full view of a vastly popular vacation site.

We doubted the story until we started digging into it, and that’s when we turned up the connection with H.P. Lovecraft. The “slab” was supposed to be identical to the slab at America’s Stonehenge in Salem, N.H.…We visited and that’s where we met Dave

Goudsward, and the whole story began to blossom.

Q: Can you share some of the most surprising discoveries you made during your research?

A: Aleister Crowley working as a spy for British Intelligence in New Hampshire during World War I will definitely turn some heads, and that’s only the beginning. Rick Spence, former history department head at the University of Idaho and counterintelligence expert. has researched that story for decades. Although his book “Secret Agent 666” was published in 2008, his research never really stopped.

Our interest converged on the identity of a mysterious woman that Crowley mentions in the fiction he wrote about that summer in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire is a flashpoint for Crowley. It’s where his work on magic, his own religion, and his espionage work all combusted at once.

The story about Myrta Little and H.P. Lovecraft is fascinating because Lovecraft wrote volumes of letters and never mentioned Little, even though, as Dave Goudsward’s research unearths, his trips to see Myrta Little likely served as inspiration for his greatest works.

When discovering Little had [possible] connections to Mount Shaw and what Crowley was involved with, we knew this had to be something more than a road trip video.

Q: How did you approach the challenge of blending historical facts with the mystical elements associated with these figures?

A: I initially wrote it as a screenplay and approached it as if it were a movie I was developing for a studio. I plotted the scenes from Crowley’s diaries and Lovecraft’s correspondence as if I were structuring big movie moments. The selected epiphanous moments worked on the screen and needed to be recreated as simply as possible for an audience…Crowley and Lovecraft were very intense, larger-than-life figures who led remarkable lives. It’s impossible to avoid the mystical insanity.

When the pandemic hit, I realized there was a remote chance this would be a movie. As soon as restrictions were lifted, I started interviewing the researchers… I still needed the movie moments to help visualize the big moments — especially for someone who hadn’t

read Crowley and Lovecraft — to show their importance, and combined interviews with dramatic vignettes.

Q: What role do you think the landscape of New England plays in the narratives of Crowley and Lovecraft?

A: Lovecraft and New England are inseparable. He famously wrote “I am Providence,” but it would have been more accurate for Lovecraft to write “I am New England.” He was largely reclusive until his late 20s and stuck to College Hill in Providence, really until this period when he visits Haverhill in 1921, which is a focus of the documentary. In the second half of his life, he traveled constantly, especially exploring New England and all its strange corners. Lovecraft was the original paranormal road-tripper. As readers of Lovecraft know, these experiences would form the geography (and psychogeography) of his fiction.

Crowley’s relationship with New England is lesser known. Crowley loved America. According to his diaries and confessions, he felt New Hampshire rivaled his beloved Scotland and Switzerland for sheer beauty.

Q: In what ways do you believe World War I influenced the occult practices and ideas present in that era?

A: Americans were interested in spiritualism and the occult before and after the First Great War. That upheaval can create an outsized need for something to explain events beyond our control and our meaning in an otherwise seemingly meaningless war-torn

World.

Crowley and Lovecraft found themselves in the eye of that storm, Crowley probably profiting off it somewhat, even though he was at odds with most spiritualists and many occultists, and Lovecraft denying and refuting it to such a degree that begged the question: does he protest too much?

Q: Can you discuss the significance of Myrta Alice Little in the context of Crowley and Lovecraft’s work?

A: If some of Dave Goudsward’s theories are correct, she provided a spark. She was far more successful in life than Lovecraft. She was a Radcliffe graduate who had gone on to a career as a college professor, traveling the country, returning home after the war to become a professional writer. Lovecraft esteemed her opinion very highly during their visits. He would read her some of his early work and adopt her feedback. Something changed after 1921, and that’s what we tackle in the doc. As for Crowley and Little, that story is far more enigmatic.

Q: How do you envision the impact of “Strange Magick” on viewers’ understanding of these historical figures?

A: I hope it opens a broader and more nuanced conversation over figures like this. They created numerous imaginative works and inspired countless others to do so, influencing a sea of change in popular culture. It’s important to have an appreciation for their

impact and the secret stories that inspired them to work and create.

Q: Were there any challenges you faced in presenting a balanced view of Crowley, given his controversial reputation?

A: I’ve been interested in Crowley and Lovecraft since middle school. Crowley had a tabloid persona that made it difficult to parse truth from fiction. I don’t think of him as an evil or dark character... Lovecraft is the more problematic figure. He had what his friend

Frank Belknap Long would call a “disease of the intellect.” He was highly bigoted, classist, and misogynistic until later in life, when he expressed embarrassment over his views as a young man... They were opposite figures with nearly opposite reputations.

Q: What themes or messages do you hope audiences take away from the film?

A: I’m curious to see what people take away from it! The research from Goudsward and Spence and others is vast and incredible. I hope an audience that’s less familiar with Crowley, Lovecraft, and Little will have an appreciation for it.