Tortured Souls Threshold – Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater Group’s Socially-Distanced, Tragedy Horror Play

October 2020 is a tough one for haunt creators and enthusiasts alike. With COVID-19 still very much an ongoing issue, safety concerns and regulations have made traditional haunts impossible to stage without significant redesign, if they can be put on at all. The core of many haunts is being trapped in a confined space with nowhere to run and boogeymen lurking in the shadows, and that’s tricky to pull off while maintaining social distancing. Some companies have gone the drive-through route, or by limiting group sizes and aggressively sanitizing in between them. But even then, throughput is limited and it’s tough to turn a profit without raising prices or scaling down the experience vs a typical year.

Small venues like Zombie Joe’s have it especially tough. Their bread and butter have always been cramming as much experience as possible into a small space, and their traditional Halloween mainstays like Urban Death really don’t work when people have to be 6 feet apart at all times. Tortured Souls Threshold is a radical departure from how the theater typically operates, but it preserves the company’s spirit of bizarre, transgressive horror in a way that keeps audiences safe.

The Ballad of Hell’s Stick

Tortured Souls Threshold is a roughly 20-minute play for one or two audience members, comprised of three one-person scenes linked by a common narrative. Without getting into spoilers, it essentially concerns the damnation of a civil war-era soldier Charles Stickman (Warren Hall) and his love Elena (Elif Savas).

The two never meet during the experience. The first scene involves a ragged, nearly-naked Stickman grieving over his lost love’s corpse in the darkness of some buried, forgotten space. In the second, the enigmatic Curson (played by Faydakin) leads the audience around to the rear of the theater while spinning the mournful tale of Stickman and Elena’s life and hellish afterlife. Finally we see Elena, tormented by some unseen demon, assaulted and thrown about by her tormentor for all eternity.

Sending In the A Team

In a way, Tortured Souls Threshold is largely about giving some of ZJU’s strongest performers a chance to really cut loose. Hall and Savas are both excellent physical actors – Hall’s Stickman is a top-notch portrayal of a man reduced to near-feral goblinhood by his time in the shadows, while Savas is so good at faking being dragged, struck, and tossed every which way that you may find yourself looking for guy wires.

Faydakin, meanwhile, is at his best in character. A gothic cowboy delivering a fiery soliloquy about Stickman and Elena’s road to perdition, his presence and movements draw the audience in enough to forget that they are walking the streets of North Hollywood rather than the black corridors of the underworld.

Outside Looking In

The biggest difference between Tortured Souls Threshold and most of ZJU’s previous shows is that audiences barely set foot in the theater at all. In Stickman’s scene, viewers are at or just past the threshold of the lobby; Curson’s scene takes place outdoors; and Elena’s scene is observed from the theater’s back door.

This actually works in the cast’s favor by giving them more room to maneuver. Particularly with Hall and Savas, not having to worry about sticking to a confined space lets them show off their skills in ways that they normally don’t get to.

It also helps limit transmission risk for those worried about COVID. The audience and performers are kept at a safe distance, all cast members are masked, and the theater has masks and sanitizer on hand for those who need them.

Doing More with Less

Another hallmark of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater is low-budget ingenuity, and that is also on display in Tortured Souls Threshold. It’s genuinely impressive how much atmosphere they’re able to create with some tubing, string, duct tape, and a handful of light bulbs. Between that, a couple of other props, and a single costume for each performer, that’s pretty much it. And yet it works.

It’s not as clear where Elena’s torment takes place, but the framing of the scene makes up for it. Staring down a black hallway into the main theater allows for some interesting play with perspective and distance. Elena starts off further away, but repeatedly gets pulled out of view before re-emerging closer to the audience. The closer she draws, the more harried and desperate she becomes.

Should You Go?

Tortured Souls Threshold is a dark, tragic tale driven by solid performances by three of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater Group’s best performers. It’s on the short side, for sure, and that may discourage folks for whom North Hollywood isn’t accessible. I would also recommend splitting the ticket with a friend if you can, and feel safe doing so. $35 may feel a little steep flying solo. But since Tortured Souls Threshold is the same price whether it’s one or two audience members, it’s better value when split two ways.

To purchase tickets, head to the show’s reservations page here. Note that the process is a little different than usual; you’ll indicate two choices for dates (Wednesday through Sunday until November 1), and whether you have a preference for an earlier (7pm-9:30pm) or later (9:40pm-12:15am). Shows start every ten minutes, so make sure to be on time!

To learn more about Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater Group, you can check out their website, Facebook, or Instagram.