Rumble Ghost
Written and choreographed by Jack Ferver
Performed by Benjamin Asriel, Reid Bartelme, Christian Coulson, Carlye Eckert, Jack Ferver and Michelle Mola
Dramaturgy by Joshua Lubin-Levy
Original Score by Calder Kusmierski Singer
Costumes by Reid Bartelme
In Rumble Ghost, as the flimsy membrane between an American horror movie classic and the fragility of the human condition deteriorates, the darkest place in the world is shown to be right up there: in your mind. Performed in Jack Ferver’s “hyper-reality” style, seven performers reinterpret the 1982 classic horror film Poltergeist, exploring pop-psychological landscapes with movement, original music, and a highly calibrated script. The Poltergeist theme corrodes and gives way to a group therapy session, created from Ferver’s personal experience with “Inner Child Work”, in a therapy technique aptly called: Psychodrama. As the performers are overtaken by their own child selves, a disturbing spectacle confronts the audience and a fearless exploration of the company’s own personas ensues.
“Darkly funny…. for all his humor there is something weirdly bittersweet about Mr. Ferver, whose dialogue exists on some edge of reality and fiction.”
-Gia Kourlas, The New York Times
“With Ferver’s understated sureness of touch as director and acting good enough that you hardly notice it, the oscillation between insouciance and desolation makes the show.” “FOUR STARS”
-Appollinaire Scherr, The Financial Times
“Unsettling and uncomfortably funny. I hope the director/choreographer/performer reprises it at some point.”
-Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post
RUMBLE GHOST is made possible with a generous space grant from Abrons Arts Center and Center for Performance Research, and supported in part by TestPerformanceTest and The Jerome Foundation.
Photographs: Liz Liguori, Ruby Washington
