Halloweird
THE SHOW: “Dreams in the Witch House, adapted by Welton Jones III from a 1932 story by HP Lovecraft, master of the gothic and the macabre. It’s a very spooky tale, about a young student of “non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics,” which he links to “the fantastic legends of elder magic.” Stressed-out from studying too much, and obsessed with the legend of a 17th century witch who disappeared mysteriously from Salem Gaol, Walter moves into the room the witch had inhabited. He begins having disconcerting dreams of the witch and her horrible familiar, a man-faced rat; soon, he can’t distinguish between his sleeping and waking states, between bizarre fantasy and hard-edged reality. Murder, mayhem and cosmic mystery ensue. Just in time for Halloween, DangerHouse Productions did an excellent job of making the piece truly terrifying, underscoring Lovecraft’s distressingly, depressingly cynical views on life, death and humankind.
Under the direction of Mark Stephan (whose fine work has been seen at New Village Arts), Michael Nieto was excellent as the increasingly crazed Walter, and James P. Darvas was solid as his no-nonsense, hyper-rational friend Frank (though leaving Walter alone in the middle of the baby-killing havoc seriously strained credulity). In the warped Lovecraft worldview, reason is no match for cosmic forces or the horror of ultimate reality.
Kelly Renee Potts was appropriately big-nosed, warty and witchy as the evil Keziah; and Harrison Myers made that rat puppet downright scary. Matthew Ryan and Mark Zweifach were convincing, though the heavy Russian accents were sometimes hard to decode. The lighting (Tristan Gates) featured demonic shapes, green-tinged smoke, spiraling lasers and other special effects (Lindsay Lawlor). But it was the sound design (Danger Dagda, AKA Charles Wallace IV) that really got under the skin. It started out with strains of a mournful, somewhat ominous cello, and moved on to a full-force thunderstorm, eerily banging shutters, creaking doors, animal grunts, and then, frighteningly unidentifiable, otherworldly noises that made my hair stand on end. Terrific work. DangerHouse is a company to watch; they’re obviously fearless. Can’t say the same for myself.
