Nathaniel Eaton has written a very enthusiastic review of our current show, Hypnodrome Head Trips, in today’s SF Weekly newspaper. We’re usually quick to post the juiciest quotes on our website, but this particular review contains so many spoilers – key surprises and plot twists – that it’s difficult for us to pull a quote without giving something away. As a remedy, I’ve re-posted the review below with spoilers redacted:

It’s a titillating concept to revive the Grand Guignol, the terror theater that ran for 65 years in Paris around the turn of the 20th century. Tucked away underneath the Hwy. 101 overpass in SOMA, the Hypnodrome is the perfect setting for a Guignol revival with its player pianos, lanterns, and “shock box” seating that ________ and is curtained off. The priest at the bar opens beers with his _________ and reminds patrons they can do anything they want behind those curtains. This is the world of the Thrill Peddlers, the blood-splattering theater company that is up to its usual shocking mischief in a new production of six twisted shorts. In one short, a curious daughter finds a _____________ in an antique machine (brilliant design by Jonathan Horton) and decides to ________ herself with it; in another, a cross-dresser huffs sodium pentathol and is inspired to ________________ with a hot iron. Maybe modern audiences accustomed to slasher films will find such moments ho-hum, but they won’t be yawning during the second-act segment “Orgy in the Lighthouse,” a ___________ scene that manages to be both arousing and disturbing.

Let your imagination run wild.

If you’re just dying to fill in the blanks, you can either buy tickets to Hypnodrome Head Trips, which we perform every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (recommended), or just click over to the SF Weekly website to read the unedited review.