Twin Cities Horror Festival XIII Day One Reviews: The Wrench, Let’s Summon a Demon at Debbie’s, The Alchemist’s Bargain, and Doctor Clown

TCHF XIII actually launched a day early this year on Wednesday night with the sold out, one night only, Leslie Vincent Presents: A Monster and Mayhem Cabaret. I think everyone in the audience that night is of the firm belief that this is the way to open every TCHF going forward. Here’s hoping that is in the works for next year. The Festival shows of which there are 11, began on Thursday, each will have 5 performances throughout the 11 days of the festival. To see the schedule and purchase tickets to any of the shows go to https://www.tchorrorfestival.com/tchf-xiii.html . But don’t wait to long, shows have already sold out performances.

The Wrench is a play written by Andrew Erskine Wheeler Who’s Whoosh!… remains in my memory as a highlight of my very first Minnesota Fringe Festival. Here again he dives into a real life event, but this time there is a dark side. A group of actors, most of whom were present at the 1849 Astor Place Riot, have been hired for a new production of Macbeth. The story of their experience with the riot and how it left one of them with a traumatic brain injury is recounted to the young understudy who will have to go on as Lady Macbeth after the leading lady met with an accident. Interesting how often the Scottish Play and it’s curse has been coming up lately, just Sunday it was a very fun antidote in Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here at the Guthrie and those of us on the theater beat know of the series of accidents that have plagued Theater Latte Da’s production of Scotland, PA. Wheeler is great as Roscius Denue, who was trampled by horses during the riot and now speaks gibberish most of the time, but has perfect recall of the Shakespearean roles he played before the accident. There is also nice work from Carolyn Pool and Shanan Custer as two actresses that have aged out of the Lady Macbeth role and into the three witches.

Let’s Summon a Demon at Debbie’s is this years breakout hit, and it was so even before anyone saw it. By the time of the first performance four of its five performance slots have sold out. So if you are interested get online and get your tickets tonight, they will be sold out in the next day I’ve little doubt. Is it worthy of all the advance hype, yeah I think it is. The show opens on the home of Debbie, who lives with her menagerie of dolls whom she thinks of as her children. When her doorbell rings for the first time in 10 years and 27 days she is on her guard, but it turns out to be her old friend Cara, that she hasn’t seen in 25 years. Not since the day they and their friend Lucy tried to summon a demon in Debbie’s house during their senior year of high school. Is it scary? not really but it certainly has horrific elements. It’s really a pitch black comedy with some messed up stuff in it. Reagan Kay James is perfect as the uptight and slightly off her rocker doll loving Debbie. Julia Weiss as Cara wows us first by downing and entire bottle of wine in one drink, then with a story about catching her husband cheating on her that becomes more and more outrageous as it goes on and on, none of which can be repeated here for fear on violating some obscenity laws. Ashley Rose Wellman is Lucy whose entrance provides what is probably the plays one genuine moment of fright.

The Alchemist’s Bargain is a charming puppet show performed using blacklights, which really brought me back to my childhood, when you could get a blacklight bulb and blacklight posters at Spencers Gifts in the mall. I even had blacklight crayons that I used to color with and than look at using the blacklight. The story follows a man who seeks out a Alchemist who he hopes will be able to bring his true love back to life. The Alchemist sends the man on a quest to retrieve three ingredients that he will need in order to bring the loved one back. There is a lesson learned by the end but even if there wasn’t the journey itself is worth attending the show for. It’s a visual treat that ends with the alchemist’s trick. This is a great show for families, kids while marvel at the creativity of the medium, In fact so will their parents. I didn’t just enjoy myself, I was very much delighted by Phantom Chorus Theatre’s production. It’s a great example of the variety of styles and shows on view at the TCHF.

Doctor Clown is this years entry from Dangerous Productions. Typically the one show you can count on to be bloody and scary. Well, that is until this year, the blood is still there, but the scares have been replaced by laughs. Many of the laughs coming from the use of blood. Was I a little disappointed? yes, not because what they did wasn’t successful, it is. And it isn’t because it’s just a bunch of gross out humor, there is actually a fair amount of political and social commentary involved. No, it’s just that the one thing I’ve always found about the TCHF, and I do love the TCHF, is that very few of the shows actually even attempt to be scary. So it’s a little bit of a let down when the one company that can be relied upon to try and get the blood pumping, in more ways than one, doesn’t, at least, not in more ways than one. Of course the company should be allowed to do something different, and this clowning show if very well done. So it is a good show and my hope is that by setting your expectations accordingly you will be able to appreciate it more fully. If you have issues with blood and gore, this is not a show for you, it isn’t used to scare you but it could trigger a gag reflex or two all the same