“We never know exactly what the House will show us,” says the “shadow,” support staff checking in audience members for Speak No More: VVitch. It’s mostly true. Each night is a mystery. The production – a collaboration of local commedia dell’arte company La Fenice and Golden: Silent Improvised Stories – was influenced by the 2010s sensation Sleep No More, where masked audience members wandered through hotel rooms depicting a Macbeth-based thriller. The production borrows the masks, the free-roaming audience, and imposed silence for audience and performers alike. But the nature of commedia dell’arte adds another element to this story of witchcraft mayhem: improvisation.
This means the show will be slightly different each night, but there are a few guarantees. There will be a witch. There will be an impeccably designed devil-goat puppet, a skeletal form with a glowing red eye and as much charisma as one puppet can hold. And there will be six other characters filling out the puritanical household, each influenced by a randomly assigned trait based on the seven deadly sins. Early arriving audience members can pick a “sins and secrets” card and randomly select a performer to assign that trait. From there, the actors coalesce to create a supernatural spectacle.
A site-specific production that changes with every performance, and every audience, this is the closest you’ll get to bespoke theatre.
It’s a site-specific performance, done in partnership with and as a fundraiser for the Haskell House, one of the last standing structures in the Freedmen community of Clarksville. As one of Austin’s oldest historical sites, the House’s atmosphere enhances the play’s pilgrim-era spookiness. It’s easy to believe this place is haunted. Bedecked with rough-hewn furniture highlighted through soft, eerie lighting, the building seems to come alive. Folksy music, slowed down with healthy dashes of creepy creaks and whispered whimpers, fills the air. Lanterns flicker from the interior, forming ominous shadows as the audience mills about, witnessing the story unfold.
Red-masked “shadows” lurk around the site, making sure the performers are safe. At times they gently encourage audience members to move to make way for an upcoming story beat. The quiet, from both the audience and the performers, leads to a heightened awareness of surroundings. Each visual and movement is magnified. The drama isn’t just in the characters but in the masked audience themselves. Never knowing if that shadow behind the curtain was a character or a fellow theatre-goer makes the performance even eerier.
The tale lasts a half hour and loops three times, resetting after a chime of midnight. Performances solidify over that time frame, and part of the thrill is seeing the performers gain confidence in their created personas. Dramatic improvisation is a rarity, and seeing these skilled actors integrate elements of lust or greed into a coherent story with intriguing character beats was a privilege. It was like a somber Whose Line Is It Anyway?, except the players don’t speak and the points can lead to murder. At the performance I attended, the story involved adultery and theft, plus a gradual manipulation of each character’s worst impulses exacerbated by the wily witch.
For those who suffer from extreme FOMO, this type of performance might prove too much of a trial. Because the actors use the house and the grounds freely, and since each audience member directs their own journey, missing something is inevitable. Honestly, after my viewing, there are still elements whose mystery haunts me. I will never fully understand what, if anything, the formation of soft dough poppets meant. Or if there was any significance behind the bird figures on the mantelpiece, or whether the chessboard pieces signaled evil. These details make me want to return and delve further into the world – but again, it wouldn’t be the same. In a society where everything must be documented and last forever on social media, the fleeting nature of a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience is refreshing.
The trade-off for that uncertainty is an intensely personal theatrical experience. Audiences can craft their own experience. They can choose a spot for each loop and stay there, seeing one location throughout the entire half hour. Or they can choose to follow a character or storyline. It’s a unique event not just every night, but for every person. This is the closest you’ll get to bespoke theatre. Depending where you go, there’s the possibility of viewing an exhilaratingly individualized performance. It’s nonthreatening voyeurism at its finest.
Speak No More: VVitch
The Haskell House
Runs through November 2
Editor’s note: This review has been updated since publication to clarify Sleep No More: VVitch is a co-production between La Fenice and Golden: Silent Improvised Stories.
This article appears in October 11 • 2024.
