The ghost hunters of Point Loma (from left) begin their séance: Jevon Nicholson as Rick, Michelle Park as Kim, Ian Brady as Todd, and Parker Jenkins as Chad.
In life, people are all haunted by one thing or another. For some, it might be love, loss, or anything in between. For the characters in Tim Mulligan’s latest play, Point Loma, what haunts them are literal ghosts. The play explores the supernatural with an immersive production by the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.
Despite its title (a reference to the historic San Diego neighborhood where most of the play is set), Mulligan’s piece starts off in Omaha, Neb., where three enthusiastic members of a popular fictional podcast called Ghosting are set to visit to the site of a brutal family massacre, Hewitt House. Kim (Michelle Park), Rick (Javon Nicholson) and Carl (Mathew Hernandez) get more than they bargained for when their supernatural encounter suddenly takes a dangerous turn, with various ghostly presences on the verge of attack. The group retreats after their failed attempt, and a month later, are met with a new opportunity at the titular Point Loma.
Rick and Kim take in a slasher flick in Point Loma. Photographs by Chris Bentley.
Ken Wolf’s direction and production design join seamlessly with Mulligan’s writing to build a world that immerses the audience in the podcast’s latest adventure at the home of an invalid, Hank (David Silberger), where nurses Anna (Jessica Luhmann) and Chad (Parker Jenkins) increasingly find themselves in creepy situations: from ominous noises to kitchen items with threatening messages etched in blood-red lettering (a chair with the word “Kill” written under the seat, for instance). Together with the Ghosting team, along with Chad’s partner and Ghosting superfan Todd (Ian Brady), the group soon uncovers the house’s history as a former military hospice where many nurses have gone missing throughout the decades, and they hatch a plan to finally expel the house from the horrors of its past.
With clever practical stage effects, Wolf manages to provide an appropriately chilling ambience as a tonal counterbalance to Mulligan’s often comic dialogue (A choice line from Anna: “I do have a date tonight, hopefully he doesn’t ghost me”). Together with Verena Lee’s sound design, one finds oneself transported all too fully into another realm—even the piece’s pre-show soundtrack added to the atmosphere, setting the tone for what was to come.
Jessica Luhmann’s Anna cracks a joke with Jenkins’ Chad, despite the creepy happenings around them in Point Loma.
Each element makes creative yet practical use of the Chain’s limited space, utilizing even the theater’s exit door as a multitude of different exists and entrances for places such as a movie theater, as well as the Point Loma hospice house itself. Helping to further enhance the experience are the actors themselves, who display a natural chemistry onstage.
The production as a whole works with what it’s got, although it’s a shame it has to. With plenty of jump scares and an engrossing mystery at its center, Point Loma has the potential for an even more experiential turn, perhaps at a site-specific venue befitting the creepy atmosphere it evokes. Still, the play’s intimate setting at the Chain helps to amplify the creep factor, with moments that genuinely elicit fear—so much so that it renders the inclusion of physical representations of the specters themselves as unnecessary. Textually, Loma manages to shift between humor and horror with the ease of a spirit traversing dimensions, and although the cast took a while to fall into an equally easy rhythm, they prepared the audience for the play’s climactic séance.
Whether the supernatural or the mundane, real or imagined, there is nothing that haunts us that can’t be conquered—particularly, when you’ve got friends by your side. And with friends like these, you’ll be sure to conjure up enough laughs to scare away any ghost.
Point Loma runs through June 15 at the Chain Theatre (312 West 36th St.). Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m.; matinees are Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit witchlandplay.com.
Playwright: Tim Mulligan
Direction: Ken Wolf
Production Design: Ken Wolf
Sound Design: Verena Lee
