Halloween Review: ‘Fangs!’ from Downtown Repertory Theater is a well-crafted night of eerie entertainment at Mountain View Mausoleum
Downtown Repertory Theater continues its Halloween tradition of bringing location based immersive theater to Altadena, California. “Fangs!” leads guests throughout Mountain View Mausoleum as each audience member receives a completely different experience. It’s eerie, it’s beautiful, and it’s really well done.
Past productions from Downtown Repertory Theater have included “It’s Alive!” with a connection to the classic Frankenstein Monster story, “Witch!” themed around witch hunts, and this year’s “Fangs!” is connected to vampires. Having experienced them all, and enjoying them all, “Fangs!” is my favorite one yet.
What Downtown Repertory Theater accomplishes each year is truly impressive. An original script is created to be set in not one, but two different real-world locations. Early this Halloween season, “Fangs!” had a successful run at Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles before moving to Mountain View Mausoleum. Both of these locations are very different in style and layout, but Downtown Repertory Theater does a great job making it feel as though the story was written for each space.
Experience a village’s descent into darkness as an infestation of Vampires threatens to wipe it off the map. The residents of Strigoia, and the mysterious stranger who has come among them, will separate audience members to various spaces as pieces of the story are revealed throughout the night. This means you will most likely get separated from whoever you came with at some point.
Sometimes the whole audience will witness a scene together. And sometimes you’ll be separated into a group of strangers. Then other times you’ll be left alone for a personal one-on-one experience with one of the characters. You will not have the same experience as any other audience member. And if you were to return more than once, you would not have a repeated experience.
There’s no doubt the maze-like mausoleum in all its beauty plays a big part in the storytelling. But I can’t say enough good things about the cast of actors telling the story. Every performer was so strong that I hate to point out any individuals. I’ll simply state that Chanel Castaneda, Aidan Collett, Kevin Cook, Danielle Fraser, Erika Godwin, Sarah Lee Harter, Isaac W. Jay, Taylor Flowers, Markus Jorgensen, Christopher Karbo, Rachel Levy, Caroline Quigley, Georgan George, and Devon Armstrong all deserve the standing ovation received at the end of the nearly three-hour performance. It’s a strong ensemble of talented actors.
“Fangs!” is now playing not only through Halloween, but also into November. Performance nights do sell out, so be sure to book your tickets in advance. And don’t forget to wear comfortable clothing and shoes as you’ll be walking a lot and climbing stairs.
Jeff DePaoli is a producer and voiceover artist living in Los Angeles. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast,” the ultimate, unofficial Disney fan podcast. Get your FREE gifts of “America’s Hidden Mickeys,” “On the Rohde Again,” “Theme Park Comfort Kit,” and more at DizneyCoastToCoast.com. DePaoli’s opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent Attractions Magazine.
