Ha-Ha-Haunting at Rapid Fire’s Exchange Theatre.
By Liz Nicholls,
Embrace your ghosts, Edmonton.
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This is the season when the frontier between the living and the dead is at its flimsiest, and spirits are raving (and lining up for artisan beer at the bar. And Rapid Fire Theatre is once more dipping into the dark boneyard labyrinth where our macabre civic secrets lie fermenting.
Ha-Ha-Haunting, which sold out every show in its debut run last season, is back. The concept is crazy and inspired: to let a cast of improvisers loose on the horror stories embedded in our own history. It’s the kind of raw material Catch The Keys disinterred in their late lamented Dead Centre of Town excursions to the river valley. And this time, the stories are historical Edmonton locations that open different veins (so to speak) of horror — demonic possession, resident ghosts, bizarre acts of violence, restless avengers, ghostly voices … Edmonton history has it all.
We’re at a séance with the four-member cast (Diane Webb, Christina Harbak, Alaina Sadowski, and host Michael Vetsch on Friday’s opening night). And, eek, suddenly the table at which they sit is on the move (I mustn’t say more). They open mysterious black envelopes, each containing the location and seeds of a real-life story assigned them. And each improviser is compelled to lead an improvised re-enactment, with supplementary characters, narrative interventions, and direction by the others.
The train station in Strathcona (that’s became an assortment of bars including MKT in more recent history) is the eerie locale of a train incident and a subsequent haunting, directed by Sadowski. The U of A residence Pembina Hall, which became a military hospital during the 1918 flu epidemic, a kind of haunting that we know about from more recent viral rampages, is the setting for a doctor/nurse zombie tale, with weapons from the tickle trunk. And, the funniest improv of all, a tale of bizarre serial deaths showbiz revenge by a thwarted actor-turned-drama teacher (inconsolable because whose Fringe show didn’t get reviewed, a cautionary tale for some of us) proved the favourite of the spirits who occupied the house seats, and who get to vote, Survivor-style, on which story should be carried through to its grand finale.
OK, Shakespeare didn’t seem to be their forte. But that’s fair since it’s memories of high school drama that motivate a serial killer. And who knew that Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was such a seminal character?
Anyhow The Exchange Theatre is decked out in spooky seasonal finery, with sound effects improvised by Vicky Berg, technical effects by Rhiannon Eldridge. And there are other RFT stars waiting in the wings to rotate into the Ha-Ha-Haunting casts: Nikki Hulowski, Kelly Turner, Joleen Ballendine, and Tara Koett.
Horror and improv aren’t natural bedfellows (except when it comes to Edmonton road renos). So this is an original. It’s funny and it runs at the Exchange through Nov. 1. The full schedule and tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.
