The Study 

Reviewed by Angie Hoover
Make Believe Stage Productions (Hollywood Fringe Festival)
Through June 23 

The Study, directed by Jared Tyrel Pixler and written by David Evan Stolworthy, is mostly dead but slightly alive. The piece pays homage to 80s slasher films, and while it succeeds at including the audience in an interesting way, its attempt to frame the experience as a psychological study is clunky, underdeveloped, and distracts from the production’s true strengths.

The premise is as follows: all audience members are participants in a psychological study which promises self-discovery through experiencing sadism and masochism. Scattered throughout the performance are choose-your-own adventure-style questions which are projected onto the backdrop of the stage, so that the audience can vote for their choices.

The main narrative, a campy cabin-in-the-woods story, sees a large group of comically (and sometimes not so comically) insufferable college kids massacred by horny hillbillies. For the most part, this is fun — but not nearly as immersive or disturbing as promised. The cast is excessively large, and the scenes are mostly made up of banter that drags on without pushing the plot forward or establishing emotional depth. The actors, however, have chemistry, and some of the dialogue is engaging, if only because the performers seem to enjoy what they’re doing.

The production has other flaws: it goes on about 30 minutes too long with no delivery on the promise that the experience would result in self-knowledge. It’s clear that a lot of thought has been put into creating an interactive play that accurately touches on horror tropes. In the end though, it seems there were too many working parts for it to come together seamlessly on the first try.

The Complex Hollywood, The Ruby Theatre, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038; Through June 23, https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/5202 or (323) 465-0383. Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.