More than a haunted house and not quite a play, the House of the Exquisite Corpse series lives somewhere between immersive theater and a live-action episode of Black Mirror.
For the fifth year in a row, Rough House Theater Co. is haunting Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Theatre with House of the Exquisite Corpse V: BLOOD & PUPPETS. This production-experience hybrid is unsettling, uncanny, and unlike anything else running in Chicago this Halloween season.
The show consists of six puppet performances, each roughly five minutes long, staged in dark, enclosed rooms. Positioned more as voyeurs than viewers, the audience observes each performance through peepholes cut in the room’s walls and listens through headphones. It’s an experience like no other, immersing you in a world entirely, even as you watch it from the outside.
LETTING -Creators Nina D'Angier & Madigan Burke Puppetteer Amandatron 5000.
Although you may be tempted, as I was, to take this year’s blood-and-puppets theme literally, expecting guts and gore, co-directors Felix Mayes and Corey Smith encouraged artists to explore “blood” more metaphorically. The results are striking. Across the six rooms, blood takes many forms: as a symbol of life, decay, lineage, legacy, intimacy, and rupture. Each room also offers a radically different world. One might transport you to the cluttered lab of a deranged scientist, another to a barren, surveilled interior, another to an eerily windswept desert.
The artistry on display is staggering, extending far beyond set design. Each vignette – created by a different team of artists – interprets the theme in personal and provocative ways, resulting in a thrilling range of styles and techniques. The puppetry alone shifts dramatically from room to room, moving from delicate shadow work to oversized, wearable creatures and full-body figures that act like natural extensions of the performer’s body. Some rooms tell tight, plot-driven stories; others are impressionistic and mood-driven, favoring feeling over narrative. Across the board, the performances are intriguing and deeply theatrical – you might come for the scares, but you’ll stay for the craft.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the collective effort of the full production team. The co-directors have built more than a series of puppet shows: they’ve created a platform for experimentation. Puppetry, an art form that’s far too often dismissed and infantilized, takes center stage in House of the Exquisite Corpse, revealing its full expressive range. A space where this kind of work is possible is rare, and Rough House has built one where artists can be unapologetically weird, bold, and free – a testament to what independent theater can be when creators are trusted to follow their wildest ideas.
Whether you're a horror fan, a regular theatergoer, or just looking for something truly unique to do this spooky season, House of the Exquisite Corpse delivers. It may not make you scream, but it will definitely make you squirm.
House of the Exquisite Corpse V: BLOOD & PUPPETS is haunting The Merle at Steppenwolf Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through November 1. Tickets are available at https://roughhousetheater.com/house-of-the-exquisite-corpse
Before you go, please note that the experience requires walking and standing for extended periods, as well as the use of over-ear headphones. Rough House is committed to accessibility and has made detailed information and request forms available at https://roughhousetheater.com/accessibility.
*This review is also shared on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!
