After the disastrous Great Chicago Fire Festival this month, Redmoon Theater gets back to basics in a big way. Which is to say, a small way. Well, in a way.
The company, which made its first forays into large-scale public celebrations with the long-gone Logan Square Halloween parades, reconnects to the spooky season with “Skelebration,” a cozy choose-your-own-adventure family party — itself a prelude to the adult-oriented (read: booze will be available) “Boneshaker” rave on Halloween night. But especially for those with younger kids, “Skelebration” is a great way to kill a couple of hours indoors.
There really isn’t much of a connective tissue here. You’ll get a map to the cavernous Redmoon space outlining what’s happening where, and then you’re on your own, with plenty of snacks available to fortify you. But as opposed to shivering on the banks of the Chicago River waiting for something big to happen, “Skelebration” works because it puts the power of exploration back into the hands of the audience. And by breaking the space into smaller sections, Redmoon creates an intimate connection between performers and audiences and with audience members themselves.
There isn’t anything terribly scary here — even the upstairs Haunted Attic — which requires a separate entrance fee of $1-$5, depending on the spin of a wheel — is far more about atmosphere than horror. Bony things will reach out and grab you, but the gore factor is nonexistent. For those of us who prefer a more subtle approach to spookiness, it works just fine.
In the spirit of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” Redmoon has reconfigured the rooms from last spring’s “Bellboys, Bears, and Baggage” show for a seasonal theme. So, for example, the kitchen installation from that earlier piece now serves as Hell’s Kitchen, where a rotating group of demonic chefs show kids and their parents how to make a confectionary version of deviled eggs. “Hell’s secret ingredient? Processed sugar.” (If you don’t believe Chef Satan, just let your kids go crazy with the Halloween treat bag in a couple of weeks.)
If you or your kid has always wanted to star in a horror film, there’s the Bearwolf Film Studio, where a stationary bicycle and fog effects create the illusion that you’re riding away from the title creature, clad in a bear suit. It’s another creative reuse from “Bellboys, Bears, and Baggage,” which took inspiration from the famous stage direction in Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale” — “Exeunt, pursued by a bear.” (Hey, who hasn’t recycled a Halloween costume from years past?) You can log onto Facebook to see your performance afterward.
Less successful is a live movie/animation, where beatboxer Yuri Lane relates a rather arbitrary story about a drunk insect, Alejandro, who gets kidnapped by a Cyclops and has to free a princess. At least, I think that was the story. Judging by the reactions of the kids around me, I wasn’t the only one who found it a bit erratic.
The two side-by-side paper scroll “crankies” illustrating the story are undeniably cool, however, and a nice homage to the small-scale homemade aesthetic Redmoon used more frequently in its earlier years. (Original founder Blair Thomas keeps that spirit alive in his chamber performances for Blair Thomas and Company.)
Perhaps the nicest thing about “Skelebration” is that it’s not pretending to be anything other than what it is — no lofty pronouncements about civic engagement, no bigwig movers and shakers elbowing the hoi polloi aside.
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When: Through Sunday
Where: Redmoon, 2120 S. Jefferson St.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $20 for adults, $12 for kids (ages 4-17); 312-850-8440, ext. 123, or redmoon.org