In the twenty-first century, most people that there is more than just physical reality, including ghosts. Times and consciousness have changed and continuing to evolve allow us to awakening to things that religion, fear and ignorance suppressed through the millennia. Every moment is juiced for its full measure of dramatic potential, and will leave the audience craving more, more, more, as the story plunges from the seemingly safe to the dangerously sinister and hyper-surreal.12 Days of Magic - Day 7 - Conjuring Up A Ghost Their character moments are tender and filled with forlorn longing. It’s this sensation of unease and maliciously delightful surprise that pervades the entirety of Conjure The Spirits, and extends to the host of absolutely thrilling performances by the cast.įrom deeply dramatic powerhouse monologues, to physically tortured manipulations of both body and soul - the actors assembled here play their twisted, archetypal characters with a vitality and spirit not oft seen in the theaters of Los Angeles. Writer-director Hiro Korsgaard, specifically wanted the audience to feel like their “heads were on a swivel.” And that if they were to survive the horrors depicted within the show they’d need to “be on their toes” for the duration of the performance. As the play progresses, we begin to realize that there is something truly sinister afoot - a fact that is at first subtly teased by flashes of visually arresting dream sequences, which eventually consume all else in a raw, violent, deeply disturbing nightmare vision straight out of the demented mind of a madman. While the comedy veers from tongue-in-cheek self-reference, to cap-gun-fire banter, to pitch black knife twists of irony, the dramatic tone is a much more steady beast. It enjoys lulling you into a false sense of security, then ripping the rug out from underneath you - exposing the black and blood-stained horrors that claw out from beneath. The story at play here is one that enjoys tricking you. One minute the characters are sparring with fast-paced, 4th wall-bending quips and the next a shiver shocks your spine as the tone takes a violent left-hand turn into lands that are dark and surreal. Conjure The Spirits is a play that cannot clearly be defined by genre, as - just like the characters flow throughout the audience - the story dances between perfectly contrasting moods and modes. This generates a delightfully immersive atmosphere, amplified three-hundredfold by the cinematic, scare-inducing quality of the storytelling. This semi-interactive theatrical experience sees the lines between the performer’s space and the audience’s become blurred and unclear - with characters springing out of the main play space to linger beside, behind, and in some cases below the theater goer. Conjure The Spirits immediately places itself outside of the norm by making the audience a distinct and intentional part of the performance. With the theater world just now getting back on its feet after the psychological and financial horror of 20, the folks at Zombie Joe’s Underground are not content to simply produce a by-the-numbers curtain raiser. This is a stipulation not often set in your average theater performance, and a hint towards the first concept that makes this show so special. Guided finally through the threshold with a small paper program in your hand, you are reminded by both the text and your host that from that moment forward you are a ghost and that you must “respect the veil between the physical and spirit realms” by playing the good guest and avoiding physical contact with the performers. As your white-faced and hollow-eyed proprietor takes your ticket, Zombie Joe may be liable to ‘WooooOOOOOooo’ in your general direction, or rib you with a slice of decidedly cheesy crowd work - all firmly under a theme of spooky stand-up - which appears to set a decided horror-comedy tone for the evening. U.’ emblazoned above the entrance, the mood is decidedly more whimsical, as guests are treated to a bit of Casper-the-friendly-host-inspired commentary from the one, the only Zombie Joe himself. In fact, as one stands at the door to this mischievously unassuming black box theater, distinguished from its neighboring storefronts by a few colorful flyers in the window and an imposing ‘Z. These are the sights and sensations one might expect to encounter in the infamous Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater as it presents the deliciously chilling Conjure The Spirits through February 18.īut don’t expect to be treated to such petrifying pleasures so early in the game. Moans of demonic madness elevated by the beat of a heavy and menacing soundtrack. Twisted forms that bend and gyrate in jerking, inhuman rhythms. – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Conjure The Spirits at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre through February 18.
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