Davide Costa, Aja Hinds and Tamika Simkins (Photo by Andrew Ge)
Reviewed by Dana Martin
East West Players
Thru November 2
What is scarier than unwelcome family visitors? East West Players’ world premiere of Paranormal Inside by Prince Gomolvilas explores what it means to either honor the past or be possessed by it. A sequel to The Brothers Paranormal, the plot-laden script delivers this cautionary tale: remember your ancestors or they may come back to haunt you.
Sherman Oaks, 2012. A black man is in office and there’s a general sense of hope for the future. But Thai American life insurance salesman Max (David Huynh) suffers from past terrors. He’s possessed by something: maybe a disease of the spirit, or maybe it’s sleepwalking? After he physically attacks his pregnant wife Bincy (Christine Corpuz) during a sleepwalking episode, she summons her protective Thai father Somboon (Alberto Isaac) to return to her family home far away from Max whom she now views as a nocturnal danger. Somboon commands spirits out of his son-in-law (whom he never really liked in the first place) and tells his daughter she’s in imminent danger. Max, overcome by another entity, flings himself out of a second-floor window, survives, and then seeks the one person who can help him — his long-lost friend Delia (Tamika Simpkins).
Delia, owner of a tiny, off-the-strip café in Las Vegas, has distanced herself from her loved ones and avoids the world. Her niece Tasha (Aja Hinds) unexpectedly returns to her life with her new fiancée Ethan (Davide Costa) in tow and an epic request: Delia’s complicity in her upcoming marriage. Ethan’s super Catholic parents have heard rumors of Delia’s past dalliances with the occult, don’t approve, and won’t lend approval to Tasha and Ethan’s marriage, despite the fact that they’ve yet to meet Tasha, a Black woman raised Baptist (whereas Ethan is very White — and very Catholic). The young couple ask Delia to lie about her own past in order to appease Ethan’s parents. The pressure is on; Tasha is pregnant. In that same moment, desperate Max also finds Delia and demands the unthinkable: an exorcism. But Delia is battling demons of her own. She’s weak, vulnerable, and the Rite of Exorcism will fall upon the family.
While prior knowledge of the original story isn’t necessary, it certainly helps. Much of the dialogue is spent bringing the audience up-to-speed from the previous story while still presenting the current plot and characters. The play takes highly dramatic and broadly comedic turns throughout, and not always intentionally. The story’s resolve lets the characters off easy and parlays fright into metaphor. Gomolvilas provides an over-abundance of exposition and sets up several interesting character relationships and dynamics that never quite pay off. The characters over-explain themselves and their circumstances and yet we know so little about any of them. Still, director Jeff Liu delivers a solid production that makes sense of the supernatural elements and varying story styles.
The cast ride the waves of intensity and melodrama well enough. Both Simpkins and Huynh have revised their roles for this sequel. Simpkins’s Delia anchors the play. As Max, Huynh delivers a fully committed performance of a man completely lost and fully possessed. Isaac’s Somboon provides protective fatherly energy in contrast to Corpuz’ emotionally fraught Bincy. Costa’s Ethan is a fish-out-of-water White man who provides corny comic relief. Hinds’s performance as Tasha is straightforward and sweet.
The evening’s highlights are the supernatural design elements thanks to visual effects design by Dominik Krzanowski and projections designer David Murakami, assisted by Ariya Selvakumar. Scenic designer Randy Wong-Westbrooke provides a functional set that supports several location changes and supernatural occurrences. Brian Gale’s lighting design shifts between warm and soft and the starkly dramatic, which helps round out the storytelling. John Zalewski’s sound design adds a creepy, imposing effect. JJ Javier’s costume design is appropriately simple.
Paranormal Inside invites the audience to remember that maintaining relationships with our ancestors is central to a peaceful life; they are always inside of us, possessing us, guiding us. Honor family history, ancestors, and faded memories; otherwise the past may come back to haunt you.
David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso Street., Los Angeles; Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 & 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; through November 2nd. www.eastwestplayers.org. Running time: two hours and 15 minutes with one intermission.
