Atmospheric is the word for this production. Not that it’s a poignant and harrowing portrayal of the underworld that will raise goose pimples upon your arm, but in that it’s an utterly endearing tongue-in-cheek tribute to Ed Wood and all the horror movies ever filed under the letter B.
You enter a smoke shrouded auditorium and fumble for your seat, then notice the stage—drenched in purple—sports a white picket fence, a dolls house, mannequins, a bench and a graveyard. As the first song explains, sending up all notions of suspension of disbelief, this is Hell in ‘Hypnovision.’
Three actors, Nick Helm, Rob Stott and Rachel Boulton, and one guitarist, George Mitton, take the audience on a brief journey through the bizarre depths of the psychopathic psyche...through song. Highlights include ‘Tesco Chainstore Manager’ which tells the tale of the everyman turned mass-murderer, and ‘The Most Popular Ghoul in School’ which sees a popularity-hungry cheerleader reduced to haunting her uglier enemies.
Though a musical, the songs are technically quite simple, but what they lack in sophistication they easily make up for in sheer silliness. This is a trippy Rocky Horror-Lite, complete with weird props, soap bubbles and eighties dance moves. Don’t take it seriously, but do watch out for those zombies.
[Natasha Long]
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