Late night television is famous for its sensationalism, but these days audiences demand more than just a good bargain and free shipping. We can get our 200-pack of zip ties online easily, but where else can we get… The Séance Starter Kit™? Pretty much just at The Speakeasy at The Royal Scots Club, produced by Get Tae Collective.
‘While Stocks Last’ is running on fumes. Chris, the overworked, petulant stage manager, barely greets us, the audience, as we come in, while fending off incoming calls that the show must sell product and be entertaining, or they’ll be cancelled. The star of the show, Garreth, is disillusioned with his role on this stage and barely manages to shake out a smile as the lights come up. But Garreth doesn’t know that ‘While Stocks Last’ is on the chopping block, or that Chris has hired Jules, a medium, to melodramatically hock The Séance Starter Kit™ to viewers.
Is Jules actually a medium? She seems to know how to set up the ritual and get spirits to ring the little bell. Are they speaking to actual spirits? Garreth can’t take it and breaks the circle, which opens… something.
The horror-comedy is mostly delightful comedy as three hot-tempered characters butt heads in a fancy dining room in the very far downstairs of The Royal Scots Club, a location that was creepy enough to find before the show even started. Excellent venue choice. The show’s intro graphics appear on the screen behind the actors, which is then cleverly transformed into its own live stage for a very Stranger Things/Beetlejuice underworld, featuring tiny puppets. The minuscule world is abstract enough to feel both silly and eerie, and it is apparently performed live in front of a camera every night, never pre-recorded.
The puppetry experiment is an excellent touch, though there’s certainly more that can be done with that specific effect, and with the script overall. The performers are excellent, but more stillness could help raise the tension and lean more into horror than comedy. It is easy to assume the puppet scenes are pre-recorded, so it could be worth setting that stage up for the audience to see as they are performed.
Still, The Séance Starter Kit™ from Get Tae Collective is entertaining and enjoyable. Catch it at the end of your day, especially if you’ve seen a drama right beforehand.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
