“Paranormal Activity”, by Levi Holloway, based on the Paranormal Activity Films. Produced by arrangement with Paramount Pictures. Directed by Felix Barrett. Presented at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street through July 30.
By Michele Markarian
As an adult who picks and chooses her viewing material, I’d forgotten what it’s like to be truly frightened. Paranormal Activity brought it all back. I haven’t been this scared since watching “The Omen” as a kid, and the feeling of being kept off-balance and shocked was exhilarating. With a plot that unveils twists and surprises, Paranormal Activity is an experience that will haunt you – in a thrilling way – well after it’s over.
James (Travis A. Knight) and his wife Lou (Cher Alvarez) have moved to London from Chicago to escape what Lou feels is a personal haunting. James, his mother Carolanne (Shannon Cochran), and Lou’s doctors believe otherwise; because of an incident in Lou’s past, she’s been put on medication for some kind of perceived depressive disorder. Lou, who knows better, follows a paranormal podcast hosted by a British woman named Etheline Cotgrave (played by Eva Kaminsky in this performance) who tells her audience, “Places aren’t haunted; people are.” The religious Carolanne thinks everything can be solved through prayer and can’t understand or appreciate her atheist daughter-in-law – “In my day, the only prescription for the blues was prayer.” She wants to become a grandma, but despite preparing a nursery in their London home, James and Lou remain childless.
It becomes apparent in their new home that whatever was haunting Lou in Chicago has followed them to London. Mysterious apparitions appear, lights go on and off, loud noises come from nowhere. In desperation, the couple has Etheline come over to help them make peace with the ghost, but what transpires is so frightening that Etheline, before running out, warns them, “Beautiful couple. Beautiful home. You’ll die here.” What follows for the rest of the show is so startling and unexpected that the only thing I can safely give away is the chills – and screams – that it produced.
Played against Fly Davis’s magnificent, two-tiered set design, and brilliantly directed by Punchdrunk founder Barrett, Knight and Alvarez are able to mix passion, humor, and fear. As James, Knight complains over the telephone about living in London – “It’s not TJ Maxx; it’s TK Maxx”, drawing laughs from the audience. He effectively goes from confident to shaky, finally believing that his wife is onto something bigger than her own brand of crazy. Alvarez is marvelous, alternately warm and chilly, depending on which version of Lou she is playing. The chemistry between Knight and Alvarez is palpable. Cochran is appropriately annoying and terrifying, and Kaminsky, with a pitch-perfect British accent, unravels convincingly.
“Not many people have left for intermission”, noted my friend during the break. It was true. Normally, people leave to buy drinks, snacks, or use the restrooms. Audience members chatted together in companionable clumps, most likely, we concluded, to allay their fears in a huddle. One of the happier things about Paranormal Activity is that it is a collectively shared experience on steroids. While involuntary screams and low murmurs of “Noooooo” came out of my mouth, similar screams and murmurs could be heard all over the theater. Being around so many people was a comfort, as it was easy to forget that the action onstage wasn’t real. Much of the audience was comprised of people in their twenties and thirties who seemed to have an appreciation for horror. Paranormal Activity will hopefully bring a younger demographic to Broadway when it opens there this August. Don’t wait for New York – see it in Boston while you are lucky enough to have the chance
For tickets and information, go to: https://us.atgtickets.com/events/paranormal-activity/
