Thrillpeddlers Presents "Fear Over Frisco"

Thrillpeddlers is presenting “Shoctoberfest” at their intimate theatre in San Francisco. This year the company is presenting a trio of Noir-Horror Plays in the traditions of Le Grand Guignol theatre, a small theatre in Paris where such dramas stressed horror and sensationalism. Eddie Muller known as “Czar of Noir” has written three short “Noir” plays showing different periods of San Francisco history. San Francisco has always had a macabre past which included the Weathermen, Jonestown deaths, random street crimes and of course the Zodiac killer. I worked on several Warner Brothers noir films here in the city in the 60’s.


Eddie Muller’s “Grand Inquisitor” opens the night of terror and blood with the cast singing the somber tones “Fear Over Frisco” with music by Scrumbly Koldewyn and lyrics by Eddie Muller. The short play depictes an odd young woman with a cache of used books confronting who she believes is the elderly widow of serial killer. The 20 minute drama ends with a shocking climax. This is the weakest play of the trio to start an evening of shock. Mary Gibboney and Bonni Suval do what they can to enliven the drama.

Eddie Muller’s “An Obvious Explanation” followed after a brief musical interlude with Steve Bohinger nicely singing Johnny Mercer complied by Birdie-Bob Watt on the piano. This 20 minute drama is done in true film noir style and probably the best of the three productions. It involved a daring heist that has gone awry when the crook who stashed the loot suffers from amnesia. An ambitious doctor intends to solve the problem with her “untested” memory serum. The results are far more dramatic than she had expected. Eddie Muller directs a fine cast of Daniel Bakken, Flynn De Marco, Bonni Suval, Erick Tyson Wertz, Joshua Devore, Jim Jeske and Zelda Koznofsky.

The second act opens with the whole cast doing a splendid melodic “Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil” by Irving Berlin. Following this song fest is a true classic Grand Guignol tale called “The Drug”. Rene Berton’s play was originally set in Saigon but Muller transposed and adapted it to 1929 San Francisco. It involves a promising young deputy DA’s efforts to crack the case of a celebrated artist’s disfigurement. It ends up in an opium den in Chinatown of our city. This contains all the gore and blood to satisfy any one with a lust for the macabre.

Thanks to Russell Blackwood direction this very striking piece of Guignol drama had the cast overacting in a grand French manner of that intimate theatre in Paris. Following that all the lights in the theatre goes and the audience sits in total darkness and weird objects like machine guns, gruesome faces fly over the heads of the audience.

"Fear over Frisco” plays through November 19 at The Hypnodrome Theatre, 575 10th Street, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-377-4202 or on line at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/193894