The Christmas season is definitely over.
The Victorian Playhouse steps out of its — and your — comfort zone with “Voices in the Dark,” an outrageous killer thriller that’s not for the squeamish. Or the subtle.
Written by the author of “Agnes of God,” “Voices” is a campy popcorn horror tale that’s as genuinely disturbing as it is outright laughable and, at times, downright gross.
Think “Misery” meets “Talk Radio” meets “Green Eggs and Ham” (emphasis on the “ham”).
We’ve become anesthetized to two-dimensional gore like the “Saw” series on screen. But we’re accustomed to the more cerebral, genteel shivers of “Sleuth” and “Dial M For Murder” on stage.
Not many live stage plays are as viscerally unsettling as John Pielmeier’s “Voices,” thanks in large part to eerily effective sound and special effects that draw full-throated gasps from an audience that is playing fully along.
Even if the whole thing is kind of stupid.
“Voices” is classically set in a secluded, snowy mountain lodge (excellently designed by director El Armstrong) where “Doctor Lil” (Annie Gavin Li) has planned a weekend escape with a lout of a husband who never shows up.
Dr. Lil is the female Dr. Phil. She’s the most popular radio personality in the country for her ability to dialogue with the sick and twisted. But as her ratings have grown, so too has her ability to attract sickos who phone in threatening to commit all manner of heinous acts. Her job is to keep them on the line long enough for cops to track them down.
But boy, Lil must have miffed one maladjusted miscreant because he’s tracked her down, commandeered her phone lines and completely isolated her. He’s now set to take his revenge . . . if he’d only shut up and do it. “Voices” fully adheres to the greatest cliche in the genre, “Too much talk . . . too little killing.”
As Lil, Li holds her own despite the near-impossible task of maintaining a believable state of ongoing panic that here ebbs and flows.
This is some getaway for Lil: Our shock jock is surrounded by a forest full of creepy dudes. One simpleton steals her slip to fulfill his sexual fantasies. A sketchy, 1940s kind of cop appears out of nowhere to help (or hurt) her.
The style of the play morphs from realistic to noirish to such outright melodrama that our killer might as well be dressed in a cape and twirly mustache.
There’s too much initial exposition in the first half of the play, which relies heavily on long phone conversations with unseen callers. That can be a death-knell to a live play, but it’s smartly executed here by live backstage actors rather than voices on tape.
Armstrong allows far too heavy-handed acting from his cast and makes an especially unfortunate choice for the song that bleeds into the intermission because it confuses whether this is all supposed to be a serious thriller or a parody of the genre.
Karalyn “Star” Pytel pulls out a couple of evocative lighting effects that completely betray the realism of the moment but undeniably make things that much creepier. There’s a great sequence in the second act which verifies what we learned from Wait Until Dark” – that sometimes the most chilling lighting effect of all is just a flashlight on an otherwise dark stage.
It could be argued that “Voices” is a satire of America’s lust for talk-show slime, but it’s difficult for live theater to effectively mock a pop-culture phenomenon that is so inherently absurd all by itself.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Voices in the Dark” **1/2 (out of four stars)
Horror. Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St. Written by John Pielmeier. Directed by El Armstrong. Starring Annie Gavin Li, Wade Wood and Seth Maisel. Through Feb. 20. 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $22. 303-433-4343 or
