Kyle Donovan, Raven Mahoney, and Steven Arce (Photo courtesy, Zombie Joe’s Underground)
Holiday Nightmare Fuel
Reviewed by Martín Hernández
ZJU Theatre Group
RECOMMENDED
What better way to enjoy the holiday season than a festive celebration of time-honored Christmas traditions reflective of capitalist exploitation, sexual predation, and dysfunctional families? In true Zombie Joe’s Underground fashion, the show balances blood, gore, and occasional nudity with satiric social commentary.
In a compendium of short vignettes, the crazed cast (Kyle Donovan, Steven Arce, James W Ruggero, Hecatia Guerra-Caram, Raven Mahoney, River Bennett, Samantha Rosenberg, Chloe Pan-Kita, Danielle Gray, and, at the performance I attended, special guest Douglas Clarke), under writer Charlotte Cocker’s unbridled direction, takes on various uncredited roles, from Santa’s manipulated employees to serial killers to sexual criminals. Jorge Vaca’s horror movie tech and set design add to the show’s spooky themes while the musical soundtrack is suitably eerie. And the title is a trigger warning for all who squirm at slasher flicks (or the daily news) as the show contains plenty of grisly material to unsettle one’s sleep.
The evening kicks off at the North Pole with a bit about Santa’s elves, incensed at the increasing number of injuries suffered on the toy assembly line and organizing to seize the means of production. But for Old St. Nick, the spilling of his workers’ blood is just part of the cost of doing the business of bringing joy to the world’s children. While a skit about a guilt- and poverty-stricken mother lacking the resources for the proverbial family Christmas feast remains timely, the one about a young boy wanting a baby brother for Christmas offers regressive sexual politics and is far from funny.
In a sketch that harkens to the bullying of those deemed “different” by society, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is portrayed as so psychologically scarred by the taunts of his peers that he goes to drastic means to confront his tormentors. Meanwhile, the lesson that “patience can be a virtue” is the main takeaway as a pair of snowbound hikers desperately wait for rescue. Can they last until help arrives or will they succumb to nature’s more primordial dangers? As a mostly unclothed male and female impart the lines to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” Crocker’s disturbingly bizarre staging gives the song’s lyrics a chilling impact, and not because of the exterior temperature.
ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm and 9 pm; thru Dec. 14. ZombieJoes.TIX.com Running time 35 minutes with no intermission
