Playing on The Other Side of the Veil: ‘Give Up The Ghost’ (The NoPro Review)

We head down to Whittier to do some haunting of our own

Sometimes a show comes at you from an unexpected angle and completely surprises and delights you.

That was the case with 2018’s One Last Thing Before You Go, at the Hollywood Fringe. A taught piece for one audience member at a time from writer Kirsten Hageleit and director Aaron Vanek, whose company name is Spectacular Disaster Factory, cast the audience as recently departed souls who find themselves drawn to a seance while waiting for the ferry to take them to the afterlife.

This season’s Give Up The Ghost expands on that conceit, embedding One Last Thing… in a collection of vignettes that are held together by a sandbox play space and a similar narrative concept. This time we’re still dead, only Hades’ waiting room has expanded, and we’re each going to be tested before being sent off to our final resting place.

Not to mince words, but GUTG gets off to a clunky start. Like other Spectacular Disaster Factory productions, which draw upon their background in LARPs, there’s a strong emphasis on the rules. One might even say an overemphasis.

First you’re sent an audio version of the rules. At the box office there is a printed copy. Then right before you go in a docent, in my case Vanek himself, reads the rules. Once inside the core rules are reiterated in world by the judge of souls.

All this for what essentially amounts to: don’t open closed doors, don’t touch the actors above the elbow, don’t take anything out of a room, and don’t be a total ass.

The long on-boarding fails to convey any sense of tone, and tone is oh so important when trying to get people into the mood to play. This remains Vanek’s core weakness as a director.

Which is quite the shame because — much like this review — once GUTG gets going it can be quite the romp.

Yes, some of the scenes are played at 11 when they should be played at a 6 or a 7. But other scenes find the actors being blissfully responsive. Like the group of college students who had whipped out a Ouija board proceeded to play it completely straight while I accused one of them of doing some unspecific terrible thing to a dog.

It’s that pure committing to the bit that makes GUTG worth the price of admission alone.

Tone remains a bit of an issue, as a few of the scenes feel like they’re reaching to be more profound than they actually are. Yet there’s no denying that the majority of the scenarios that Hageleit and Vanek devise are well tuned for eliciting interaction.

There’s one way in which the clunkiness of the on-boarding actually served the piece:

While coming up the stairs, seeking out my first vignette, I passed by two people who seemed to belong to the staff of the church in which the show takes place. They seemed to be doing an inventory of who knows what. I shook my head and wondered how things could be that disorganized.

One the way back down from an underwhelming scene I found the duo intensely talking, engaged with some video and audio equipment. As I passed by the stairs creaked and they stopped what they were doing, rapt.

I’d stumbled upon ghost hunters and I was the ghost.

Over and over the course of the show I’d return to torment the hunters. Opening closets. Turning on faucets while their back was turned. Recording “Pazuul. Pazuul. Pazul.” on their unattended audio recorder and then pressing play.

Each and every time they reacted with confusion or terror. Even though they could see every thing I was doing.

It. Was. Amazing.

Honestly, I don’t think you can say you’ve truly lived until people you don’t know fully buy your low grade Casper antics. Instantly the sparse decor and the rules heavy intro were forgiven. Where One Last Thing… was bittersweet, GUTG had room for pure fun. Indeed the varying tones of the individual pieces means that there can be something for everyone, but also that you may very well end up somewhere that is not for you.

None of it is too intense. At least not for us, the audience. It’s the actors who are being haunted, after all. At $80 for an hour and a half the prospect of some parts not quite working can make one blanche, but if the idea of being a spooooooky ghost appeals to you, go get yourself caught dead in Whittier.

Give Up The Ghost runs Fridays through November 1st at the First Christian Church of Whittier, 6355 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA 90601. Tickets are $80.

NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!

In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.

Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.