A Dark Collection of Canvases, Just In Time for Halloween
By Bonnie Priever
The Tolucan Times, October 27th, 2010
The Visceral Company explores the dark, strange, and macabre, fully living up to its namesake, providing its audience with an emotional, vicarious attachment to the drama onstage. Like its predecessors, brilliant “horror-meisters” including Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock, Tales To Die For brings a Halloween aura of the insanity- the crazy masks lurking beneath the surface of the human psyche. For those eager to get a jumpstart on the Thanksgiving Twilight Zone marathon, this six one-act show is just the ticket.
Lara Fisher, the glamour-goth gleeful, yet ghoulish hostess of the night, sets the tone with creative anecdotes before each vignette. The Monster Seated Next To Me takes us on a wild ride through a modern day teenage Twilight fan’s (Jordan Jude) infatuation with vampires and how the man seated near her may well be from the dark side himself. Routine Procedure is a payback/revenge driven spoof of a phlebotomist (Victoria Rabitcheff) ferociously drawing blood from a CEO who recently fired the phlebotomist’s husband, sucking the life blood out of the family’s savings, a too timely look at today’s dismal economy.
It’s a “piercingly” painstaking irony, in the same “vein” as Serling’s underdog/victim vanquishing the conquistador.
From childhood fears of old fashioned monsters under the bed, to family skeletons in the closet, Tales to Die For brings surreal, yet totally visceral performances to the stage, with mood-inspiring sets, costumes, music and make-up.
Since real life is horrific at times, this genre works. Viewers can plumb beneath the surface, escape to outer realms, and visualize the horrors, rather than experience it themselves.