Marielli Manoudaki, Ruixue Chen, Madison Hubler (Photo by Zombie Joe’s Underground)
Reviewed by Amanda L. Andrei
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre
Through March 8
RECOMMENDED
TOP: Marielli Manoudaki, Kyle Donovan, Vadim Zim, Brian Lozano Aguilar
(BOTTOM: Aynur Nova, Ruixue Chen, Madison Hubler
(Photo by Zombie Joe’s Underground)
Nestled between the green-and-white neon signs of a weed shop and an H&R Block, an unassuming red brick building sports an unlit black-and-white sign that reads “Z. J. U.” – Zombie Joe’s Underground. Open the storefront’s glass door and the world flips upside down, as you enter a demonic portal into the collective’s newest immersive performance: Nightmare Streetscapes.
Written and devised by the Killer Nightmare/Streetscapes Ensemble (seven actors and a musician), with additional writing and direction from Zombie Joe, the performance is less a story and more a tormented swirl of modern dance, experimental theater, and grotesque imagery. Loosely woven together into a tapestry of terrifying dreams, the ensemble screams, crawls, climbs, and terrorizes each other in a dark city of alleyways, gutters, and dead ends.
Audience members can expect jump scares and fun haunted house antics as they make their way to their seats in the tiny black box theater, where ZJU has made its brick-and-mortar home for 26 years out of the company’s 34-year existence. The indie aesthetic is evident in the plastic props, costumes, and glow-in-the-dark body paint, with the scrappy style enhancing the haunted house experience. Consequently, what unfolds next is not so much amusement park horror, but a performance in the lineages of Brecht and Artaud, a theater of alienation and of cruelty.
As the monstrous dreamers writhe and scream — feasting on a corpse one moment, scattered to the walls like roaches in another — the experience is less emotional or fearful and more fascinating and unsettling. The audience, while physically surrounded by the actors, may experience emotional distance from the creatures they portray. Vadim Zim is superbly nimble, climbing from a small window high on a wall onto a banister and jumping to the ground before pitching himself into the melee of bodies. Aynur Nova similarly delivers an athletic and vigorous performance, stamping and howling from beginning to end. The entire collective has impressive physical and vocal stamina, as well as awareness of each other’s bodies, especially considering the small size and semi-darkness of the space.
Theater of cruelty comes into play with the ritualistic dances, intense sounds (Ivan Rivera as Guitar Man provides a live score and musical backbone for the piece), and exquisite lighting. When not in darkness, a purple-red-green washes the collective in an eerie atmosphere. Zombie Joe crosses the space and rotates a blue light and a red light in each hand, imitating a disjointed police car (tech by Zombie Joe and Kyle Donovan). These elements produce a distorted world to shock audience members into self-reflection and new ways of thinking.
When the show ends, the ensemble whispers and hisses as they lead the audience members back onto Lankershim Boulevard. In contrast to the shadowy theater, the electric white streetlights and fast-food chain logos are jarring. It prompts one to wonder which is truly scary — the gothic violence just witnessed, or the stretch of commercial mundanity ahead.
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood. Opens Fri., Feb. 27; Fri.-Sun., 8:30 pm; thru March 8. https://zombiejoes@gmail.com Running time forty-five minutes with no intermission.
