Theatre troupe La Fenice’s improvised drama creates new perspectives on eldritch terrors

The show at the Tavern is the latest in physical theatre experts La Fenice’s Speak No More series. These were inspired by the New York smash Sleep No More, which turned an entire building into a massive, wordless adaptation of Macbeth. “Seeing this immersive show that was performed silently,” Meehan said, “we went, ‘Oh, this is what we do.’”

The first production was a Shakespearean homage with improv troupe Golden at Hideout Studios, but this evolved into site-specific creations starting with murder-mystery Golden Age at the Neill-Cochran House. A cinematic influence insinuated itself with VVitch at the Haskell House and Contagion at Independence Brewery, which drew heavily on interstellar horrors like The Thing and Alien. However, Lovecraft diverges from those earlier iterations because their physical violence is replaced by internalized horrors. Speak No More veteran cast member Tatiana Jitkoff said, “It’s much less murdery and much more about madness.” (...)