Event Report Things Get Creepy at Creep LA: Awake
Creep LA has consistently raised the bar for SoCal immersive horror experiences, and as we found this past Friday at a preview night for their latest incarnation Awake, they’ve done so once again, and wonderfully so.
Now in its fourth year (after most recently 2017’s entirely impressive play The Willows and Creep LA: Lore, which we both experienced), Just Fix It Production’s Creep LA: Awake takes place for 2018 at Row DTLA (777 S. Alameda Street, Los Angeles) within a 60,000 square foot space. Running on select dates through November 4th, each performance (and there are only six a night) ushers twenty-five brave souls into an imagined, multi-sensory and fully immersive universe: a dynamic and diverse environment of moody rooms, intimate encounters, and terrifying scenarios.
“Creep was created to put a modern twist on the haunted house experience, but what it’s evolved into is a horror experience unlike anything else,” offered JFI Production’s creator and producer Justin Fix, who for the 2018 iteration has partnered with MOUSETRAPP, the award-winning immersive design agency and media studio that creates and develops ideas into cinematic experiences. “We seek those moments of suspense, fear, and surprise when guests question what they’ve gotten themselves into. And this year we’re bringing nightmares to reality for a city of dreamers.”
For our seventy-five-minute trip into Creep LA: Awake, those dreamers also included actress Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), Lance Bass (The Backstreet Boys), model Chrissy Teigen and singer John Legend, proving that word of Creep LA’s top-notch production, scintillating performances, and bold creativity continues to expand its audience. And while that audience may have grown in demographic, Creep LA has remained true to its intimate, personal roots.
The very construct of the production isn’t one of volume, but one of lingering dread and dramatic personalization (guests’ experiences will differ as multiple paths lay within), and for 2018, we interpreted the subtext of Awake as a deep dive into the very real effects of traumatic violence, as communicated by those (actors) suffering somnambulism. Never one however to spoil the nuanced and multi-layered narratives or the characters which drive them, I will say that Fix’s promise of delivering a nightmare-inducing experience may be spot on, particularly via their original and altogether terrifying character of The Salesman (introduced for 2018). In subtext and seemingly pulled from current societal conversation, the character’s very construct, and the tableau in which he’s framed, tap into a zeitgeist altogether unnerving.
Creep LA: Awake will get under your skin. And it’s worth every penny.
Tickets for Creep LA: Awake are for adults only and priced at $89 per person. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.CreepLA.com, and engage with Creep LA and follow them on social media at #creepla @JFIProductions.
Writer’s note: My thanks to Sabrina Sandoval for arranging our visit.
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