These monsters aren’t under your bed.

Monster Mash is fast becoming a Wellington Halloween staple as Mo Munn and Summer Begalka bring their spooky, absurdist vision to life in this 2-hour horror-comedy extravaganza.

Following Begalka’s successes with other shows such as Now That’s What I Call Reality TV, the show is presented as a series of devised sketches, loosely held together by an MC who is as confused at the chaos as the audience is. There’s a combination of sketch, devised, and improv amongst the various scenes, all of which have the same aim: to produce so much chaos you can’t help but laugh.

The theme, of course, is Halloween, and they really ham up the presentation. From the costumes to the props, there’s no doubt in anyone’s minds that this is a fun-filled campy romp through the cast’s favourite horror tropes. There’s almost an excess of effort put into making everything as authentically schlocky as possible, leaving the audience charmed by the hubris of it all.

Leading the show is Keegan Thomas who unleashes his theatre kid background upon an unsuspecting audience. He delights in his role as Vincent Price, and is so enraptured with the bits he’s presenting that he can’t help but join in at times.

Summer Begalka is her usual split self, jumping between deadpan energy and frantic motions. One moment she’s playing an endearing corpse, and the next she’s spinning around the room on a malfunctioning broom. This show is her baby, shared with Mo Munn who constantly has the audience in stitches with her quick-witted ripostes and sudden bursts of energy. She’s also an incredibly caring player, covering for her fellow castmates when they slip up, and making sure the show rolls smoothly.

Running fresh off a bout at the Raw Quest finals is Aaron James Douglas, a man so wild they invented the straightjacket to contain him. His madcap energy is matched only by his pure joy at being on stage. This contrasts perfectly with Kipling DC‘s more intense frowning energy which induces giggles with every word that ruptures from his mouth. He’s never shy to complain, and consistently gets the audience on his side with his flabbergasted attitude.

I wish we could have seen more of Q Potts, who’s a jolly presence in the disorder that surrounds him. He just looks genuinely happy to be around, and laps up the laughs with his natural charm. Oliver Pol brings an oddly youthful energy to the show, expressing a more hyper joy that comes from the myriad of characters he excels at. He doesn’t hold back on his expressive nature and the show is richer for it. Finally we have Adam Moore, who’s the true deadpan anchor in the pandemonium of this show. He serves to ground the others in a level of reality that they refuse to engage with.

At its core, shows like Monster Mash are celebrations of the things that came before it, and an inspiration of those to come. It goes to show that Halloween is first and foremost, a spirit that anyone can embody and interpret the way they see fit. Halloween is a day to express your inner weirdness, and Monster Mash embraces all of that, dildo and all. You can see by how much fun everyone on stage is having that there’s no place any of them would rather be.

Monster Mash is a weird, chaotic mess of a show that fully champions the heart of Halloween and everything it means to its cast. It’s campy, it’s fun, it’s a jumble of insane bits that you almost can’t quite believe are happening in front of you. There’s genuine love for the festival poured into here and it shows.

Happy Halloween.

Disclosure: As a somewhat active member of the Wellington performing arts community, I may be quite familiar with a number of the performers in this show. Having said that, I am not a liar, and there is zero bias in my reviews, shut up.

Also, tickets were provided to me for free by the production. Literally changes nothing, though.