What’s scarier, a world with ghosts or a world with out them?
I contemplated this query on the drive downtown to see “Paranormal Activity,” a stage play primarily based on the Paramount Footage film franchise of the identical title. I confess that I’ve not seen any of the seven movies within the sequence. But it surely’s not snobbery that has stored me away. I’m nonetheless recovering from my grandmother having taken me as a child to see “Damien — Omen II.”
I’m too previous for night time terrors. However at my age, medical insurance corporations are a very good deal extra scary than the satan. What‘s scarier, a world with demonic forces or a world with unforeseen medical bills? Give me Damien!
In short, I assumed “Paranormal Activity,” which just completed a run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, wasn’t for me. Boy, was I flawed. The manufacturing, which opened on the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday below the path of Felix Barrett, is brilliantly pulled off. I caught myself questioning in the course of the first act, “Is this the best staged production of the year?”
I yelped in my seat. I reached for my companion a number of occasions when panic overcame me. I closed my eyes once I knew one thing horrible was going to occur. The scenic and sound parts had been synchronized to provide most terror. The illusions and projections had me seeing issues I couldn’t consider I used to be seeing. And but what made the deepest impression on me was the lifelike scenario of the younger married couple on the heart of the play, written and restaged by Levi Holloway, the writer of the spooky Broadway play “Grey House.”
James (Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Cher Álvarez) have moved from Chicago to London for a recent begin. His firm has put them up in a spacious residence (by expensive London requirements) with a number of eerie quirks. The radiators make fairly the racket and the electrical energy appears to have a thoughts of its personal.
Lou has been struggling along with her psychological well being, although there’s extra occurring than psychiatry can clarify. James is doing his greatest to be a affected person and understanding husband, however when Lou tells him concerning the unusual issues which have occurred when she’s alone, he can’t assist questioning whether or not she’s been taking her meds.
Coming upon their one-year anniversary, they appear to be figuring tips on how to transfer ahead as a pair. They love one another, nevertheless it appears like a make or break second. One supply of rigidity rises above the remainder. James has constructed a nursery upstairs, however Lou isn’t certain that it’s the fitting time to attempt to have a child.
Carolanne (Shannon Cochran), James’ pious mom in Boca Raton who makes intrusive video calls, is decided to have a grandbaby earlier than she dies and worries that every one Lou’s psychiatric drugs could also be getting in the best way.
James grew up non secular, however misplaced his religion. (He too ponders whether or not a world with out ghosts is scarier than a world with them.) Lou assumes her husband is an atheist and doesn’t perceive when she discovers a Bible in the home. Mysterious issues maintain occurring — music all of the sudden blasts, doorways slam, the lights exit and the alarm system roars in the midst of the night time. However “Paranormal Activity” suggests — in a neo-Pinteresque vogue — that the unknowability of one other individual is extra terrifying than supernatural pyrotechnics.
In moments of battle, Lou withdraws whereas James feverishly tries to interact. It looks as if she’s the one who’s hiding one thing, however James’ veneer of normality will not be fairly what it appears. They’re each holding secrets and techniques, however how precisely are their marital issues associated to the inexplicable bumps within the night time?
I didn’t perceive at first why James and Lou didn’t flee the home the second shadows appeared out of nowhere. I’d have booked a lodge room as quickly as Alexa began taking cues from some unholy presence. But it surely’s not the home that’s haunted a lot because the couple. Lou assumes she’s in charge. A shadow, presumably associated to the demise of her mother and father in a home fireplace when she was a woman, has been tormenting her for ages.
The difficulty in Chicago has adopted them to London. There appears to be no escape. Etheline Cotgrave (Kate Fry), a medium along with her personal podcast, pays an emergency go to to the home and detects not solely harmful occult exercise however marital warning indicators. When all hell breaks free throughout her quasi-scientific seance, she acknowledges that the issue is past her capacities and that the home spells their doom.
Cher Álvarez in “Paranormal Activity” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
(Kyle Flubacker)
At this level, I had solely my bronchial asthma inhaler to consolation me. How can a stage play be so scary? “2:22 – A Ghost Story,” a spooky drama that got here to the Ahmanson in 2022, wasn’t practically as efficient.
Credit score goes not solely to the author however to the manufacturing group. Barrett (greatest identified for his immersive staging of Punchdrunk’s “ Sleep No More”) and his collaborators are masters of misdirection. Whereas audiences are targeted on one space of the stage, one thing furtive is occurring on one other.
The split-level home (dropped at life by scenic designer Fly Davis, who additionally did the costumes) offers the false safety of a complete view. But Anna Watson‘s ingenious lighting keeps certain areas plunged in darkness, and that disturbing nursery door is usually closed.
Gareth Fry’s sound design acknowledges that our ears are the gateways to our nervous methods. Luke Halls’ video design lends the occult eruptions sufficient believable deniability to maintain the characters (and the viewers) stupidly hoping that every thing will in some way be all proper. Chris Fisher’s illusions will make you suppose you’re seeing double. You’re!
Amid all this otherworldly craziness, Holloway’s dialogue is extra naturalistic than most home dramas. And the actors are unerringly genuine. Heusinger’s James has a seductive earnestness that conceals some stunning character developments. However there are cracks within the facade.
Álvarez‘s Lou is even harder to get a handle on. Her reticence is self-protective, but she can come off as cold. The warmth of the couple’s connection, nevertheless, is rarely unsure.
Cochran and Fry have showier supporting roles that permit them to play up the eccentricities of their characters. Fortunately, Cochran, a formidable realist who received an Obie for her efficiency in Tracy Letts’ “Bug,” isn’t consigned to video name appearances as James’ mom. I received’t give away how she turns up, however Cochran makes horror distressingly actual. As for Fry, when her Etheline loses her sangfroid, I used to be able to bolt.
Holloway’s character observations are faultless, however the decision of the story isn’t totally satisfying. Sure plot factors are overexplained; others are left to fall by the wayside. The play is extra spectacular mathematically than poetically. I’m a proponent of the Henry James college of ghost tales. In his novella “The Turn of the Screw,” the connection between the supernatural and the psychological is allowed to suggestively simmer.
Artists know that enigmas deliver us nearer to the reality. When that occurs in “Paranormal Activity,” the worry is eye-opening.
In fact the very unusual incident involving my automotive alarm after I returned residence from the present was purely coincidental. I imply, simply because it’s by no means gone off earlier than for no purpose after I parked outdoors my door isn’t any purpose to consider that something peculiar was occurring.
‘Paranormal Exercise’
The place: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and eight p.m. Saturdays, 1 and seven p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 7
Tickets: Begin at $40.25
Contact: (213) 628-2772 or CenterTheatreGroup.org
Working time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (together with one intermission)
