What is Brooklynites’ biggest fear?
Perhaps it’s claustrophobia or musophobia, the fear of rats.
Maybe it’s bugs. Or maybe it’s the currently fashionable fear
of clowns or the strangely medieval fear of being buried alive.
This Halloween season, you can actually experience the borough’s
top 13 fears in "Nightmare: Face Your Fear," the haunted
house show playing at the Brooklyn Lyceum through Nov. 2.
In this interactive series of tableaux, the audience is invited
to go through the house of a little girl, whose worst fears fill
each of the 13 rooms. As she leads her guests through the rooms,
they become fully immersed in the action, coming face-to-face
with their own anxieties.
"Nightmare" is not about vampires, witches or any of
the other holiday staples. It explores phobias that are with
us every day and is thus not for the weak-hearted or the pregnant,
because if you are secretly afraid of being buried alive, guess
what? In one of the rooms of the house, you will be buried alive.
Created by Timothy Haskell of Psycho Clan, also known for his
off-Broadway productions "Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy"
and "I Love Paris," "Nightmare" first played
in Manhattan in 2004. Although it was originally an interactive
haunted house show, it did not focus on New Yorkers’ specific
phobias.
However, this is the first year that the show comes to all five
boroughs, presenting the local fears of each. To detect the flavor
of regional anxieties, the producers of "Nightmare"
polled thousands of residents. They went to schools, stopped
people on the streets, spent a lot of time on the Staten Island
Ferry, and sent out Web surveys.
Although no one was prompted or asked to choose from a list of
specific fears, many described similar worries such as being
watched or falling from a tall building.
Yet, a few fears turned out to be borough-exclusive, explains
Bill Coelius, the show’s associate director. While Manhattan
residents were afraid of burning alive, for example, Brooklynites
really dreaded eating disgusting food.
With research in hand, the creators of "Nightmare"
tailored the show to each borough. For Coelius, who directs the
Brooklyn version, the Brooklyn Lyceum proved to be especially
evocative.
"Lyceum is a creepy, beautiful building," he says of
the public bath house-turned-theater that opened in 1910. "It’s
a wonderful place to do the house."
Designed by a team of young artists, "Nightmare" is
not simply a visual feast of gore. As groups of a dozen audience
members go through the 13 rooms, their whole bodies are engaged.
"It’s an important task to make it not only cathartic, but
also interesting to all the senses," Coelius says. "It’s
tactile; there are a lot of smells; and the sound travels with
you through the rooms."
The house is also inhabited by characters who may decide to chase
you in order to complete the effect.
"A lot of people come out with their heart racing,"
Coelius says triumphantly, explaining that they also offer PG-13
shows in the afternoons with toned-down violence and no cursing.
There are other thoughtful accommodations at "Nightmare."
If you get overwhelmed, for example, they sell underwear at the
end of the show "in case you need a pair."
Besides experiencing an exhilarating rush, facing your fear in
the rooms of the "Nightmare" house can also have a
therapeutic effect. Recently, a pair of visitors to the Brooklyn
show – a teenage boy and his father – got separated in the "fear
of being separated from your loved ones" room. When they
were reunited, recalls Coelius, they hugged and said that they
loved each other.
"It’s exciting to see that kind of response, because you
know that you have communicated the idea of phobias, and that
they lived through it," the director says.
Coelius has also observed this unifying power of fear on a bigger
scale. No matter how racially mixed the audience may be, he says,
everybody screams the same.
"Those who may not associate with each other outside the
house are holding on to each other by the end of the show,"
says Coelius.
In our anxiety-filled lives, participating in the staged horror
show in the house that "knows your fear" may be the
healthiest way to face those skeletons in the closet. The scenarios
are never entirely real and no one even touches the audience,
assures Coelius. Instead, "Nightmare" gives a safe
scare and lets the visitors release their worries by howling
their heads off.
Despite their courage and pride, Brooklynites are especially
good at that.
"We love Brooklynites, because they are all out for a fun
time," Coelius says. "Brooklyn has been a great home
to us. As long as people keep showing up, we will keep doing
it."
By the way, fellow Brooklynites, want to know your biggest fear?
It’s drowning, and the best place to face it is while you’re
surrounded by the Lyceum’s once-watery halls.
Psycho Clan presents "Nightmare:
Face Your Fear" at the Brooklyn Lyceum (227 Fourth Ave.
at President Street in Park Slope) daily through Nov. 2. The
show plays every half-hour from 6 pm to 12:30 am. A PG-13 version
plays Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 4 pm. Tickets are $20
for afternoon shows, $25 for evenings. For tickets, call Smarttix
at (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com. For more information,
visit the Web site www.hauntedhousenyc.com.
