I hear my heart thumping, pounding in time to the ambient music under a dimly-lit atmosphere, some of which I see, and other areas being too dark to journey beyond visually. These undiscovered corridors seem to disappear into the abyss. My pulse rhythmically gains momentum, for I know not what lies farther beyond the unconventional scene set before me. A woman’s body lies supine and unmoving on the ground amidst what seem like large pieces of twisted metal.  Suddenly, out of the corner of my eyes, I see a majestic creature in the form of a man eerily appearing from the darkness and slowly coming closer. The sounds echo through my eardrums like tinnitus that won’t give in – shivering down my spine, creating an unnerving presence that sinks within my soul and becomes imprinted in my mind. tortured souls threshold

Zombie Joe’s Underground breaks creative ground again with their newest experimental piece, Tortured Souls: Threshold. Almost a companion piece to 2017’s original, Tortured Souls: Threshold succeeds in packing a cathartic, visceral, and sensual experience into twenty minutes. The show features three short vignettes that navigate a forsaken, dreary, and unfortunate love story, with guests either watching from the threshold of the theater, or directly engaging with (masked and safe from a distance) an in-character guide. Even more up to the challenge, Zombie Joe’s provides a Covid-safe environment – including a contactless story, social distancing, and hand sanitizer cleverly disguised as different thematic elements – that allows guests to focus on the storytelling and narrative of the experience.

A profound jaunt into the mind of a tortured soul, Tortured Souls: Threshold invokes the idea that love truly knows no bounds. A desperate, haunted soul looking for peace and sanity lusts for an otherwise naïve soul stripped of her own ideals that blurs the innocence of a spirit looking to connect. This experience, to say the least, achieves a rather thought-provoking narrative on how far love can go, and yet it is left almost entirely open to interpretation.

The concept of revenge is flipped on its head during the course of this experimental production – revenge of mind, body, and spirit encompasses both tortured souls in this piece, even if the revenge is individualistic rather than spiteful.  Revenge comes from within as opposed to against another being, human or otherwise. The tortured souls lie within ourselves as we watch other tortured souls find a way to survive.

Yet, within such a short runtime, Tortured Souls: Threshold carries with it a sense of being alone forever.  Wanting, longing, lusting, yearning –all these words describe exactly what the characters of Tortured Souls: Threshold want – but never seem to achieve. Their passion, their hope, their frustration all leading exactly nowhere, left deep inside their own personal Purgatories to torment their bodies within, eating them alive – metaphorically speaking.

The atmosphere in Tortured Souls Threshold overall creates a quiet, yet creepy experience that haunts every inch of its set, designed with precision to provide an opportunity for heartbeats, breaths, and silence to be heard. However close the performers are, there is a presence, of sense, of sight, of audio that continues to feel faint and quite distant.  With that, no matter how far away the sense, the sight, the audio, the feeling lingers quite close.

Two simple, elegant sets create a mood that speaks volumes without, quite literally, a single word being spoken. The first set – merely a few light bulbs dispersed throughout the already intricate lobby space – creates an eerie, spooky, and yet somehow alarmingly calm atmosphere, backlit throughout to allow shadows to thrive. Perhaps these shadows are even characters themselves. Just a single source of white light represents innocence, the man-like creature interacting with it curiously amidst his mournful wails. The second scene, is awash in a flush of reds, representing lust, passion, and finally anger; the lighting enhances the already beautiful, poignant piece by entering the gateway of my own passions, thoughts, and experiences. What makes this ever more intriguing and exciting is the fact that there is even a set at all. A little intuition on Zombie Joe’s part connects the limited space with the vast catharsis of emotions, piquing my interest consistently throughout this short, but powerful show.

Quite possibly the quiet, yet creepy music haunts an audience’s very own tortured soul, and allow the music drown their own, deep inner thoughts, allowing them to focus on their heartbeat, sense of breath, and feel their mind fixate on a more than simple love story.

The cast is comprised of only three rotating performers, but they are some of ZJU’s strongest. Despite the small cast and small theater space, guests will be transfixed by the performances from start to finish; each performer has their own eerie, enigmatic presence that is surprisingly endearing. A nearly-nude Jes Sabine exudes perfect physicality and movement of a mournful creature, his wails haunting. Tyler Davison seamlessly links the vignettes through his engaging storytelling and playful physical comedy. Finally, Elif Savas’ transcendent and uncanny contortions and rich, gorgeous choreography will leave even the toughest critics astonished.

A superb fly-on-the-wall encounter into the wounds of creatures, mortal and beyond, Tortured Souls Threshold reminds each voyeur to challenge their observations on love, lust, and companionship. While some diehard immersive theatergoers may be disappointed in the limited interactivity (due to social-distancing guidelines) that is often produced at ZJU, Tortured Souls: Threshold is aptly named for its ability to create an experience that presents not only an intellectual threshold, but uses a literal threshold to add an additional layer of masking reality from fantasy. As one of the rules states, do not go beyond the threshold – in its own literal sense. However, going beyond the threshold in any other way is up to the viewer’s imagination and interpretation. For me, what really stood out in the atmosphere of this production is the feeling that, even though I entered this experience myself, I was never truly alone.

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