A ‘Home Invasion’ That’s Tense But Mostly Traditional (Review)

In our household, it’s my nightly duty to ensure that our home is locked up before going to bed. If I come to bed without 110% certainty that all doors and windows are secure, I’m ousted out of bed as quickly as I got in. I sometimes feel like a security guard on the night shift, quietly retracing the route they know like the back of their hand. Yet, this ritual does nothing to protect against any nightmares we might experience while sleeping. How does one protect their mind, the most personal of “home” spaces, especially when there are those who know the magical tricks to break in? That’s the question Silenico’s Home Invasion explores.

On arriving, I enter a traditional Chicago walk-up apartment building. On the 2nd floor, I’m welcomed to wander around an apartment, which someone currently lives in, serving as the venue for tonight’s performance. Unsure of where to go or what to do, I stand in the hall that connects all the rooms, not wanting to disrupt anyone as it seems more like a house party among friends. I spent my time trying to figure out which party guests — if any — are part of “the show.” Eventually the audience is ushered into the living room where there’s a line of chairs placed against one wall. The audience is allowed only to sit in these chairs. The show then begins: there’s the traditional lights down, lights up opening. I see the actors are now in place to begin the play, standing mere feet from the audience.

The entirety of Home Invasion’s action takes place in the living room. I try but find it’s a stretch to even consider myself on a “dark ride” when I feel as if I’m going nowhere. Other than the non-traditional staging of putting the play on in someone’s living room, there is little else to be considered “immersive,” so I sit in my chair, staring straight ahead quietly the entire time. Yet, I must give credit where it’s due: the cast and crew of Home Invasion used the living room effectively, rivaling any lighting and staging found in a Chicago black box theatre space.

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The boon of seeing Home Invasion in an actual apartment, rather than in a black box space, is the proximity I had to the performers. Ella Pennington channels the energy of the late, great Madeline Kahn, verbally bouncing around using a great mono-deadpan wit, keeping the audience laughing in all the right places. Caleb Fullen plays the bland detective so well that when the Lovecraftian twists start arising, I honestly didn’t see how unhinged he really was the entire time. And Ann James captures the art of casual belittlement perfectly as an academic in a magical field, annoyed to be teaching the layman who can’t keep up with her. While onstage they might have been able to make bigger, splashier performances, I was perfectly engrossed when sitting right there in front of them.

While enjoyably engaged with the actors, my mind did start to wander on the ways Silenico’s Home Invasion could have broken through its fourth wall. Several times, the characters would go “off stage” into the apartment’s darkened kitchen, delivering lines as they made tea in one instance. In allowing the audience to follow the actors into the kitchen, it could’ve created a welcomed layer of exploration throughout the play. Additionally, the play is performed in three scenes, with the middle scene seemingly being able to be set anywhere, so there is the possibility of using an additional room in the apartment for the second scene. But overall, without these immersive layers in Home Invasion, I’m left to wonder if the play might have been better served on a traditional stage.

Home Invasion runs through February 19 in different apartments in Chicago. Tickets are $10.

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