Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – SLUMBER is vapid Halloween entertainment, and it’s mostly irresistible

• By drediman
• November 1, 2016
• No Comments

The company of “Slumber” at House of Yes

To get into the Halloween spirit, I journeyed all the way to Bushwick from Hell’s Kitchen to catch a performance of Slumber, courtesy of the circus arts troop Hideaway, at House of Yes. The concept is simple – throw in some circus and acrobatics and mix in good dose of mindless teen slasher flicks, stir for ninety minutes, and you get a concoction known as Slumber.

Yes, it’s all rather vapid (I won’t even go into the plot) and its far from perfect (some of the audience banter goes on way too long), but Slumber is at once compulsively watchable and oddly compelling. Why is this? First off, I appreciated the homespun, grass roots feel of the piece. The show is rough around the edges and miles away from the polish of the works from the likes of Cirque du Soleil. It’s a refreshing aesthetic that melds well with the B-movie feel the folks at Hideaway were going for. There’s also a gleeful sense of “I’m not gonna take myself too seriously” and “why the hell not” that had me smiling deviously throughout. We could all use a little bit more of that mentality in our hectic daily lives.

RECOMMENDED

SLUMBER
Off-Broadway, Circus Arts/Play
Hideaway at House of Yes
1 hour, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through November 6