CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The Annoyance's "Splatter Theater:" Sharing a Chicago Halloween Tradition with an Online Audience

The Theatre Times: While theaters around the United States typically produce The Rocky Horror Picture Show around Halloween, the city of Chicago, Illinois has a different tradition. Starting in 1987, The Annoyance Theater has produced Splatter Theater. Parodying 80s slasher movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, the show depicts a group of stock characters who throw a party, and gradually get dispatched one by one by a masked killer.

1 comment:

Sarah Bauch said...

This sounds like such a fun, and admittedly maybe just a little too gruesome, show to see during the Halloween season! Hopefully, they are able to return the show to its full gory glory when the pandemic subsides, but in the meantime its great to see that they have found an inventive plan B. I particularly like that with this online version no two nights of the show will potentially be the same, and I wonder if they will keep this kind of spontaneity with the storyline when they return to performing back in person. At first thought I was wondering why they would chose to make the virtual performance version of their show be the one that utilizes some form of improv, but then I realized that this tactic could be an amazing method to have audience members return to see the production again and again. I am very happy for the company that they get to continue their Halloween tradition, and hope that this slasher film/play brings joy to a lot of people this October.