Leave it to the creative minds at Redmoon Theater to grab All Saint's Day by the tits and turn it into a riotous freakout.
Redmoon Theater, in case you don't know, has been hosting Halloween celebrations for nearly 20 years in vast open spaces like Logan Square and Daley Plaza with what appear to be hundreds of participants in skeleton costumes as well as lots and lots of fire. Now that the theater has taken possession of a monstrously large warehouse at 2120 S. Jefferson St. on the borders of Pilsen and Chinatown, the logical and daring thing to do was create and execute what they call "indoor spectacles."
After all, Redmoon is the group that has made a name for itself not only for community outreach but by mixing literate theater with large scale puppetry and stage craft. In years past the group presented Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and an ambitious reworking of Moby Dick with The Pegasus Players.
Boneshaker, held Nov. 1, was the inaugural event at the 57,000-square-foot space but rather than the same old Hershey's Kisses or stale candy corn, this blowout was full of sass, cheer, cheekiness, electricity, bawdiness and a winking playfulness. In short, Boneshaker was not y'mamma's Halloween jam. And if the sheer spectacle of the event weren't enough, the guests rose to the occasion with an absurd wit of there own.
There was something, ahem, many things for every taste—a bare-chested/bike shorts-wearing cop leading a makeshift merry-go-round contraption; elegant undead maidens serving snacks and mini-burgers from full body tables; a roller rink; a lascivious ghoul-beauty perched atop a crescent moon suspended a good 70 feet in the air; ghouls serving libations from bizarre bicycle contraptions; a mini-race car track; a drum-and-techno performance that came with pyro; a makeshift tattoo parlor; non-stop beats and dance music provided by DJs LMS and White Russian; and, as a topper, a manic jam session from the world's most beloved marching punk brass band, Mucca Pazza.
The costumes on the guests were just as witty: a pack of clean-cut well scrubbed young men came as Mormon missionaries ( it was no surprise that they were the first to get good and juiced ), a very loving gay couple who came as Hansel and Hansel ( yes, they wore matching lederhosen ), a virtual army of well-executed spinster-like ghouls in exquisite silk and lace, plenty of muscular men in revealing drag, and—surprise, surprise—a number of Beetlejuice incarnations.
Hate to say it Halsted Street, but Halloween in Chicago has a brand-new tradition.
Heads up: Redmoon Theater's next short-term event will be its Winter Pageant, which will run Dec. 13-22 and be followed by the New Year's Revolution Dec. 31. Tickets are on sale.
For those thinking even further ahead, tickets for JD Sampson ( formerly of Le Tigre ) and Men at The Empty Bottle went on sale Nov. 2. The Bell Boys of Gramaphone Records will be joining the city's Wired Fridays electronic/house festival with a performance at the Chicago Culture Center, 78 E. Washington St., Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. The event as is the rest of the festival is free to the public.
