Sleepy Hollow: The Curse of the Headless Horseman

The original love triangle between Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel and Brom Bones is perfectly intact.  I’ve added a second family-friendly supernatural plotline involving Katrina’s kid sister, Ida, discovering the root of the Horseman’s curse.

In a 1775 war-torn flashback we meet the horseman, WIlliam Van Tassel, his wife, Rose, and their friend Andre Van Brunt (Brom Bone’s great-grandfather) both men are AWOL Hessian soliders during the American Revolution.  We witness what makes him the headless horseman. 

On Halloween in1820. Ida and her schoolyard friends meet the wItch of Raven Rock who turns out to be, Rose,  Ida’s great-grandmother. Because the Horseman has no head, he cannot see or hear Rose and she cannot tell him where his head is buried. It’s up to Ida to solve the mystery and reunite the Horseman with his head, thus breaking the curse, ultimately reuniting WIliam and Rose.

The entire play is humorously narrated by the very dead Diedrech Kinckerbocker who crawls out of his grave at the top of the show. Before the final curtain he reveals that in life he had been Ichabod Crane, dead now for over a hundred years, and the tale he narrated was his own history. His mysterious disappearance from Sleepy Hollow was a cagey ruse to change identities.

The play provides an evening with colorful characters, compelling language, an intriguing and not-quite-familiar story line, with enough action and a dash of humor to charm any audience.