Bremner Duthie from New Orleans presented The Hauting of Saint River a dark eerie one man musical with mysterious original songs. The haunted house in his tale is located in the deep south of New Orleans. The buyer essentially felt he had sold his soul to the devil to acquire the property. At first he is able to live with the hoes few creeks and groans but in time he becomes sleep deprived and the time spent at the edge of sleep become moments of absolute terror.
A female neighbor across the river become his one refuge as he slips into the houses depths. It sits on the edge of the river banks and seems ready to slip into the rivers grip taking him with it. A small box was used as a screen for historic flashes but the projection also slipped around the box onto the back wall of the theater.
The show felt like a work in progress. To me it seemed like the kind of shows a ten year old might throw together in the bedroom. It was mad and experimental. flashlights were used for the typical campfire under-lit face effects and a ghost puppet danced to the New Orleans Jazz while members of the audience held flashlights to illuminate her. Unfortunately the puppet wasn’t menacing or scary at all, detracting from the intended mysterious thrust of the story.
The story was most successful when Bremner asked the audience to imagine the ghostly threat as he described the characters slip into madness.