For one night only, Lincoln Hall was home a collection of macabre and spine tingling stories. WildClaw Theater was holding its 11th annual competition for horror stories staged as radio plays. Five finalists were read aloud, accompanied by expert Foley artists on stage. The five stories, plus some songs and commercial breaks, run a gamut from the overtly scary to the deeply unsettling. This year’s winner, Whisper Trigger tells the story of a man trying to get help getting to sleep with the soothing sounds of the ocean, and gets more than he bargained for. My personal favorite was Migraine, a story about a woman who meets the personification of her migraine and chaos ensues. The other stories included the horror standards of being haunted by family members, terror at an insane asylum, and the horrifying experiments of a mad scientist, each with their own twist on the tropes. 

Praise must be heaped on the Foley artists who accompanied the stories. The make deflating balloons, rain sticks, and flexible pieces of metal sound like all manner of atmospheric effects. The less said about what the sound of tearing apart a head of lettuce also sounds like, the better. The live production of a radio drama is a lot of fun to watch. I’m a sucker for seeing how theater gets done. I like seeing rigging and cables. Something about seeing the craft of theater at work encourages me to suspend my disbelief and it’s more effective that a flawless but computer generated version of the same thing would be.

 

I know horror isn’t everyone’s favorite genre, but even for the squeamish, the focus on sound rather than sight is a fun way to engage the stories without worrying about your limits on gore. For those that do like horror or suspense, the stories are great, the acting is fantastic, and seeing and hearing the sound work is worth the ticket on its own. Most of all, everything was fun. Good horror walks the line between exciting and terrifying, and the works on display last Monday night were a perfect fit. This show was a one-off, but it will be back next year, and if you like horror or suspense, then WildClaw Theatre is definitely a company to keep an eye on.

 

Recommended

 

Review by Kevin Curran

 

Presented on December 3 by WildClaw Theatre at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, Chicago.

 

For other WildClaw Productions, visit www.wildclawtheatre.com.

 

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.