Nightmare: Superstitions Announces Themes

The themes to be explored in Nightmare: Superstitions, the seventh edition of the theatrical haunted house created and directed by Timothy Haskell, have been announced. The show will play at The Noho Event Center, September 24-November 7.

The piece will take audiences into a surreal version of The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum, one of America’s first psychiatric hospitals, now defunct. Theatergoers will be made to feel that they are visiting the schizophrenic/manic-depressive wing that specializes in extreme paranoia, where patients have voluntarily admitted themselves seeking protection from the danger they perceive is awaiting them because they broke a superstition.

The show will explore 13 superstitions, including broken mirrors cause seven years of bad luck, cameras steal people’s souls, never say Macbeth in a theater, a black cat crossing a person’s path causes bad luck, and rabbits feet are good luck.

The creative team will include Paul Smithyman (production design) and Justin Haskell (art direction), as well as Garin Marshall (lighting design), David Roy (sound design), Candice Thompson (costume design), and Sylva Ventiko (additional design).

Special room concepts will be provided by playwright Eric Sander, performer Ariella Goldstein, and one longstanding attendee of the events, Bobby Ferrara.