The Marquis De Sade Presents: ABANDON - Hardcore Horror and Humor
Limited Return Engagement at Vegas Theatre Company in the Arts District
Talk about truth in advertising; the title says it all. Hint: the word sadism is derived from the Marquis De Sade’s name. ABANDON means to “take leave of,” as in sanity, decorum, inhibitions, and all semblance of decency. Slip some visual humor into the mix, and the wild ride that is ABANDON rears its head (in every sense of the word).
Prepare to spend a lot of time in the dark.
The immersive element of the show means you are in the Marquis’s lair the moment you walk through the door and confront the large front-and-center sex toy at check-in. THE bordello-like lobby is adorned with crimson walls, velvet benches, adult toys, a well-endowed skeleton wearing pasties and thigh-high boots. Mounted paintings depict the myriad ways the human body can be folded and fondled. Photos are only permitted in the lobby and theatre before the show begins.
Pre-show performers roam and play, dressed perhaps not to kill but to torment their willing prey. Introverts will be questioned. A scene or two will be enacted, You can’t just simply sit quietly in a corner – you will be involved.
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Your humble correspondent could not even use the photos from this “scene,” but spectators can not only view such hijinks but partake in them as well. Use your imagination on this one.
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A small bar provides beer and cocktails, and guests are exhorted to “Get a drink. It will make the show so much better!” Then, it’s time to enter the intimate, 80-seat theatre. You realize there’s no escape. Your humble correspondent wisely chose to sit in the second row. Any closer seemed dangerous.
The stage was already inhabited by two women in kimonos engaged in the act of elaborate bondage. One tied the other up using ropes and straps, to then ultimately be suspended several feet off the floor. This had the effect of watching a human decoration being hung and admired.
After this display, the audience was warned that parts of the show took place in total darkness, so any light sources were strictly forbidden upon threat of expulsion from the theatre. That meant phones, watches, flashlights, and even a glow-in-the-dark keychain hanging off of someone’s pocket. In keeping with the BDSM vibe, audience members had to verbally answer, “Yes, sir!” to the request. Then, the experience began.
ABANDON takes audiences on a mind-bending, voyeuristic journey through the mad imagination of the Marquis de Sade during his many asylum imprisonments. His writings come to life in a series of (nearly) wordless vignettes, each punctuated by small pitch-black periods during which a host of sounds, both identifiable and questionable can be heard.
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The experience thrusts its unsuspecting audience onto a collision course between terror, depravity, torture, and the grotesque punctuated by surprising spurts of humor. This new version is purported to be even more convulsive and bloody than what descended last October in the shows first sold-out run. Keep an open mind, to match your mouth, which may very well be stuck in a silent scream of anticipation and dread.
Conceived by writer/director Jana Wimer, co-writers Abel Horwitz and Robert Bullwinkel (also the producer), ABANDON boasts an original score by Hollywood composer Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring, Insidious), and sound design by Emmy award winner Katie Halliday (Stranger Things).
Josh Berg as the Marquis utters the only words in the entire production in scenes where his writings are about to be confiscated. The gifted and fearless cast communicates with sheer physicality as they slither, prowl, stomp, shriek, and pulse through the 65-minute show.
All elements work together to mesmerize, transfix, and frequently, disgust. Full of kink, sex, diabolical acts, and lunacy, it has an R rating (17+). This is a playdate of a different kind. Sensuality and murder marry and have a baby named depravity. Siblings like torture, kink, and revenge swiftly follow, wielding playthings like straitjackets, axes, knives, and buckets of bodily fluids.
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Use of shadow and light is a performance in itself, while total darkness and sound are co-stars, sometimes all you have to keep you company before the next vivid revelation. Bits of humor are interlaced to give the audience a chance to exhale. The intense experience is fun in a gasping, shocking way. Twisted is the new normal here, as one performer, a sinewy contortionist writhes cross the stage, alternately victim and perpetrator. Another, motivated by the ever-enlarging member between his legs eventually becomes his obsession.
ABANDON is a psycho-sexual fever dream on the bleeding edge of sanity, with performances on selected days through JULY 28. It’s the stuff screams are made of.
Vegas Theatre Company
1025 S. 1st Street #110
Las Vegas, NV 89101