Horror is making a quiet splash in the world of theater, but it is a splash that has been long overdue. The immersive nature of the horror genre screams to be up close and personal with its audience. This is just what has been happening with MAB, a site-specific play written by Hayley Spivey and developed with Alex Casillas and Siobhan Carroll. The play has now been produced several times inside the actual Brooklyn brownstone apartment that Spivey lives in, creating an immersive atmosphere perfect for implementing innovative theatrical magic to instill the perfect amount of fear into the audience. MAB recently had another sold out run and the team is hoping to only build its audience from here.
This past iteration of the play took place entirely inside the railroad-style rooms of Spivey’s apartment – a set that was cleverly constructed to make use of doors that lead into rooms positioned further back into the apartment. The audience is seated in chairs within Spivey’s living room facing a pair of sliding doors that open up to reveal the primary playing space, a bedroom with rotating decorations to indicate whose bedroom the characters are occupying in the current scene. A door to the right of the audience is open to reveal the apartment’s communal hallway which leads to the kitchen, bathroom, and the apartment’s other bedrooms. A single doorway opens to the right of the bed in the center of the bedroom to reveal a mirror, an instrumental tool in creating the supernatural illusions throughout the show. The set and lighting were all designed by the creative team along with their stage manager Rachel Oshrin, who controls all of the tech from a booth inside the kitchen. She miraculously does all of this without being able to see the set at all. The complete creation of MAB is extremely impressive and each aspect of the technical side of the show was made and implemented in such a way that only elevates the text of the play.
While the design of the show is a major highlight to the production, it would be nothing without the ghost story contained within the haunted apartment. MAB is the story of three roommates – Kate (Alex Casillas), Tally (Siobhan Carroll), and Sasha (Hayley Spivey) who begin to experience the titular ghostly presence MAB (Oreine Robinson) as they grapple with the unusual activity of their new subletter. Who is MAB, where did they come from, what do they want? Why does the subletter always play the same song in their room every day? The trio navigate these mysteries and more as they seek to understand how their personal lives weave together in regards to their personal relationships that exist outside of the apartment. As MAB begins to reveal themselves to Sasha, they take hold of the roommates – tangling them into a series of inescapable dreams that force the trio to work through their conflicts. Their bond is tested as they confront demons of their own that come to impact the others in a drama that is as thought provoking as it is scary. As it manages to pull off its memorable jump scares, it remains refreshingly funny as it twists through its surreal timeline. Spivey, Carroll, and Casillas have devised a story that is familiar in its tenderness with their real life collaborative friendship shining through their characters. It’s unique, warm, frightening, and challenging in its premise and execution, leaving the audience begging to know how the team accomplished such a feat.
MAB asks us tough questions, forcing us to acknowledge the harm those in our lives can cause to others. It forces the audience to imagine what ghosts haunt the halls of our homes and how we can eradicate them in order to save those we care about.
MAB has had three sold-out runs and is an O’Neill semi-finalist for the 2025 season. The team looks forward to continuing its productions within Spivey’s humble home, as well as (hopefully) the humble homes of others in the future.
Playwright & Actor Hayley Spivey
Be sure to keep an eye out at https://www.nextminuteproductions.com/mab for upcoming productions as the show expands and check back to Daily Grindhouse soon for my interview with the team!
— Taylor Hunsberger.
Tags: Alex Casillas, Ghost Stories, Ghosts, Hayley Spivey, MAB, Oreine Robinson, Rachel Oshrin, Siobhan Carroll, Stage Play, Taylor Hunsberger, Theater
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