A young couple’s scattered Halloween night shows the good, the bad and the scary in “70 Scenes of Halloween.”

The comedy, written by Jeffrey Jones, arrives at the Redhouse Arts Center on Thursday and runs until Oct. 29. The play tells the story of a couple’s failing marriage. The pair, Joan and Jeff, are sometimes expressed by their alter egos, a beast and a witch who tangle with ghosts and monsters and interrupt trick-or-treaters as they try to handle their crumbling lives.

The show is set during one Halloween night in suburbia, but the action does not follow a traditional linear story.

Director Jennifer Vellenga said that, “with scenes that play out in a nonlinear order, ‘70
Scenes of Halloween’ asks the audience to play a game of 52 pickup, to laugh and reflect on the tricks and treats inherent in intimate relationships.”

Whitney Andrews and Gavin McNicholl are making their Redhouse debuts playing Joan and Jeff, respectively.

Redhouse alumni Stephond Brunson and Marguerite Mitchell will play the Beast and the Witch,
alongside Donovan Stanfield, who will play the Stage Manager.

With only two weeks to prepare and put on the show, Andrews expressed how nerve-wracking it
was to work on “70 Scenes of Halloween” at first.

“We all entered the room with the same fears and anxieties about what this play was …” Andrews said. “… That collective terror created a place where we all felt like we could take risks and dive in head-first.”

McNicholl echoed her sentiment, explaining that because the show is told in various short scenes, “it is incredibly difficult to feel comfortable and secure while rehearsing this play.”

Vellenga said she is confident about her lead actors, despite the challenging material of the show. Their “comic and dramatic chops” brings clarity to the show’s illogical order, she added.

The wacky nature of the show, not to mention the subject of Halloween, might lead some
audience members to have misconceptions about the play. Even the actors wondered about the
content in the beginning.

“I thought at first that it was going to be this fluff piece of a Halloween night,” McNicholl said, “but after reading it, it is so not that. It’s actually the opposite.”

Andrews added that the contemporary nature of the show combined with its “beautiful” monologues intrigued her from the start.

“After my first read of the script, I honestly could not tell you what the arch of the story was, but
there were some moments that really stuck with me,” she said.

Vellenga said she hopes that, ultimately, audiences will be entertained while also able to reflect on the nature of human relationships and connections.

The three artists collectively agreed that the show’s balance on the cusp of drama and comedy, combined with its different storytelling style, allows it to feel very different than anything audiences have seen at Redhouse this season.

“70 Scenes of Halloween,” McNicholl said, inspires “critical thinking of the human experience” while still being “absolutely hilarious.”

Published on October 18, 2017 at 8:52 pm

Contact Chloe: cfmathie@syr.edu