Arts Review

Review: A Midnight Visit Presented By Broad Encounters Productions

A Midnight Visit Presented By Broad Encounters Productions

 

The House of Usher-Funeral Services, Fortitude Valley

 

27th July-5th September

 

Dr Gemma Regan

 

A Macabre Maelstrom of Madness!

 

A Midnight Visit is not A Fairy-Land. It will chill and confound you, yet disturb and delight! 


 

If you enjoy theatre or art with a macabre edginess and are even slightly familiar with the 19th-century gothic horror author Edgar Allan Poe then you will relish the immersive theatre experience of A Midnight Visit.


 

Broad Encounters creators and producers Kirsten Siddle and Danielle Harvey have transformed a Fortitude Valley warehouse into a maze of intricately woven nightmarish horrors inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe. But this is not just a Dream, but an assault on the senses and A Dream Within A Dream where you wander from one nightmare to another witnessing strange characters, smells, sights and sounds. 


 

It starts with The Fall of the House of Usher in the funeral home surrounded by coffins. On entry, a sleep spell is cast upon the visitors who are doomed to wander in silence through the intricacies of the disturbed mind. It is A Descent into the Maelstrom where the eight performers quote Poe or revel in their madness dragging you into a whirl of confusion and fear. The darkness is overwhelming when The Bells chime above, rung by the many ominous black-veiled grieving widows who lurk in the shadows. 


 

It is not a place for the faint of heart, but you do not have to wander AloneThe Raven (Gina Tay Limpus) will confront you with their torrid tales. The Puc-like trickster Hop-Frog (Kristian Santig) will unnerve you with perverted puppetry on an empty stage. 


 

You aimlessly wander from creepy graveyards where an aerial acrobat (Bri Emrich) hovers above a demented Roderick Usher (Daniel Kirkby) into a dank cavern of chaos with The Lake of solitude. 


 

Beyond is a hospital room of horrors where Ligeia (Hannah Raven) craves to shed her nurses uniform. The Actress (Meg Hickey) dashes between rooms screaming as if wearing The Masque of the Red Death. The endless twists and turns reveal more unnerving nightmares whilst the incessant thump of The Tell-Tale Heart vibrates through you, pervading your very soul.


 

Nevermore will you think of the works of Edgar Allen Poe as archaic and anachronistic. A Midnight Visit will unbalance you with a journey deep into the psyche of insanity. 


 

What is that I hear? A tap tap tapping… is it The Raven at your door?


 

Or perhaps it is the tapping of your computer keys as you frantically book online at amidnightvisit.com for A Midnight Visit before this incredible temporary installation becomes just another dream!

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