Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Twin Cities Horror Festival XIII - Day Three: The Alchemist's Bargain, Gh0stChaser04, and The Wrench

It's been a weekend of fun at the Twin Cities Horror Festival. Check out our reviews of Day One and Day Two. We caught three shows today and it was another delightful horror theater fest!

First up was The Alchemist's Bargain by Phantom Chorus Theatre and we couldn't have asked for a better show to get us in the mood for a theater marathon. We fondly remember Phantom Chorus's take on Frankenstein, Victor Invictus, at the 2022 TCHF. 

This inventive production uses puppets and blacklight set pieces to tell the story of a Hero who seeks the help of a very creepy Alchemist to help bring their Beloved back to life. It's astonishing how well these simple elements convey great emotion, humor, and menace in turns. 

The story is clearly told and has a classic fairy-tale feeling, and the puppetry and vocal performances are perfection. The puppets designed by Marc Berg (who also wrote the piece and co-directed with Thalia Kostman) are amazing and range from tiny figures to larger-than-life creepy creatures. The performers are all wonderful: Josh Vogen as the Hero, Rhiannon Fiskradatz as the Witch, Thalia Kostman as the Sailor and Ghosts, Kristina Jansons as the Beloved, Aaron Fiskradatz as the King, Lindsey Oetken as the Narrator and Ghosts, and Marc Berg as the Alchemist and Ghosts. However, many of the characters involve multiple performers in really creative ways. The music, composed by Steven Zubich, is the perfect soundtrack to the story. There's no other word for this show but enchanting. Bring your families!

Gh0stChaser04
by A Murder of Crones is presented by the group that did Girls in Bins, which was one of our favorites from last year's festival. 

This year's entry is the story of a group of ghost hunters looking for ghosts rumored to haunt the Kennedy Warehouse - the building that houses the Crane Theater. I'm not sure if any of the history the play shares is true, but it's a fun element that adds a bit of creepiness to the play. As the story progresses, we have the ghost hunters and some of the ghosts inhabiting the same space, occasionally interacting. It can be tough in theater to delineate between ghosts and real people, but the play makes good use of this confusion with quick timing (and the odd Scooby-Doo reference.) Megan Kim is a standout as gothy and quick-witted ghost chaser NightRaven.

The Wrench
by Wheeler in the Sky is one of the subtler examples of horror in the festival. The script by Andrew Erskine Wheeler concerns a particularly cursed production of Macbeth. A troupe of performers with a long history together has gathered to to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Astor Place Riot of May 10, 1849 - a real event. Except for one newcomer, the players' lives were all changed by the events of that day. 

While waiting to hear the fate of an actress injured in the theater, newcomer Jossolean (Siri Hammond) is learning about the history around the riots from veteran actresses Marrista (Shanan Custer) and Kitty (Carolyn Pool), two performers with a long history of their own that it's lovely to see on stage together. The jaded veterans are protective of theater handyman Roscius (Andrew Erskine Wheeler), who was gravely injured in the riots. Their director, Elgin (Matt Sciple, who also directed this show), is heard about before he is seen, and turns out to have his own demons around the Riot. 

The play makes clever use of Shakespearean language, as Roscius maintained more memory of the dialogue of his past roles as an actor than daily speech. The horror in this piece is mostly psychological, with each character having their own demons. The show has a lovely old-style program (designed by Pedro Juan Fonseca) with historical context and a playwright's note, but sadly does not credit the lovely set and costume design that really set the historical scene. 

We have just one more show to see, one that is only playing the second week of the festival, starting October 30: Schaulust by Keith Hovis Productions. Hovis is a wonderful local musical theater creator, and we are always excited to see new work from him.