Murder, madness and taxidermy in store at ACT’s 'Cabinet of Screams’

Here’s an antidote to the Halloween party/bar scene: Anchorage Community Theatre’s production of “Constance & Sinestra and the Cabinet of Screams.” Then again, the musical just might drive some people out in search of a drink or two to steady their nerves.

In a good way.

The production, described as “a heartbreaking and twisted musical Gothic fairytale,” concerns two little girls who live on the edge of a cliff, grieving the loss of their mother and all but abandoned by their mad taxidermist father. The preteen Constance tries to care for her dad and her younger sister, Sinestra, a child who can make people scream with a single glance.

The show has hints of the films “The Addams Family” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” in that the characters are eccentric and at times endangered (or dangerous). But those films had a sunniness at their hearts, whereas “Cabinet” is dark to its creepy core, with the Victorian-urban-decay vibe of TV shows like “Penny Dreadful” and “Carnival Row.”

Don’t let that put you off, though. There’s also humor and, yes, humanity in this tale of how pain and loss can make us afraid to hope. The “gritty, dirty, dark feeling” and implied and actual violence onstage makes this a great show for Halloween, according to director David Block.

“We want people to have fun and enjoy it – but we want them to have goosebumps,” says Block, who directed the show once before, back in 2012 at West High School.

That was a year after Block took the school’s production of “Seussical: The Musical” to the American High School Theatre Festival, which is part of the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. “Cabinet” premiered at Edinburgh that year, and some West High students begged Block to include it in the next year’s lineup.

The show has undergone several rewrites since 2011, increasing its power to chill. “There are some very intense scenes,” says Suzanne Snyder, who’s reprising her West High role of Elizabeth, the dead mother. One example of that intensity: Unable to live without his wife, the taxidermist keeps her preserved and on display in the home – in her wedding gown.

Yet Elizabeth is more than a mere prop. She watches over her children and even sings them lullabies, although they cannot hear her. Or can they? Constance may be listening to her mother – or perhaps she’s just remembering all the survival lessons Elizabeth imparted during her slow, lingering death from a rare avian flu.

That decline began soon after Sinestra was born, although Elizabeth took lots of anti-flu medications during her pregnancy in order to survive. Unfortunately, those meds could be the reason her child is so terrifying. Sinestra loves to make people scream. In fact, she captures the best shrieks in jars (stored in the title cabinet) to listen to later on.

“There’s a lot of evil in my character,” says Bronwyn Embree, the 15-year-old who plays Sinestra.

Yet she isn’t necessarily just a freak or a bad seed. One of Sinestra’s songs reminisces about the days when her parents were parents, when she knew she was loved and their family still had hope for the future. Sinestra is “so young and (has) had so much trauma in her life,” Embree says.

Devin Merilatt, 24, who plays sister Constance, agrees that the situation is, well, complicated. Most families aren’t beset by murder, mutilation, madness and a taxidermied mum.

“Constance is definitely trying to keep them as normal as she knows how. She just tries to keep (them) safe,” Merilatt says.

Due to the intense subject matter, Anchorage Community Theatre recommends the show for ages 12 and up.

CONSTANCE & SINESTRA AND THE CABINET OF SCREAMS opens Oct. 11 and continues through Nov. 3 at Anchorage Community Theatre, 1133 E. 70th Ave. (off Old Seward between Dowling and Dimond). Show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday; the Oct. 26 performance will be ASL-interpreted. Tickets are $20, $18 for seniors, military and students, and $13 for children. (344-4713)