A Little Horror At This Year's Fringe Live horror shows rarely happen. Maybe a haunted house or a really terrible sibling or maybe a really terrible musical but actual live horror is a rarity. It takes an invested writer. It takes someone who loves to explore genre for the sake of experimentation, writerly girth and a pure fascination with how to bend reality subtly and artfully. It takes a writer like Jonathan Goldberg, hailing all the way from New York with his company Shelby Company to bring us an usual sixty minutes of ghoulish glee in his Toronto Fringe entry, Real Dead Ghosts. I would say that by setting his show in a cabin in the woods, Goldberg seems to be making it harder to avoid cliche. However, by grounding himself in naturalism, he's traveled closer to the creepy and further away from the "yeah-I-know". The show seems to be less about surreal white-figures in the background and more about self-reflective "I'm-creeped-out-because-I've-made-myself-uncomfortable"....I think they call that psychological horror. Revered as a "modern-day ghost story", what we're really about to watch is a young couple being haunted by "future responsibilities and past regrets" which, to me, sounds a whole lot like they're just super anxious. It's a lot more in depth than that but I like that Goldberg is using "life" as a sparker instead of some kind of lingering spirit from another dimension. Happily, I can promise, if you don't like the eye-roll associated with ghost stories, you will not find it here. This is an earnest story told with modern hauntings in mind. As Goldberg told me "part of the challenge I wanted to create for myself was to tell a story that was inspired by ghosts but set in our real, natural world". What does that mean? That means it's gonna be creepy, folks. Leave your bread at home, the cheese will not be served at this event. Get ready for a genre number with a naturalist flare and don't miss this unique addition to the Fringe.
CHECK IT OUT Real Dead Ghosts opens at the Robert Gill Theatre on July 2 SHOW TIMES July 02 at 07:00 PM July 03 at 10:30 PM July 06 at 05:45 PM July 09 at 12:15 PM July 10 at 05:45 PM July 11 at 09:45 PM July 12 at 08:45 PM MORE INFORMATION
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