The Cast of Stabbed in the Heart Photo by Candice Lee Conner of Oomphotography

This weekend's openings were Stabbed in the Heart, a hilarious sendup of horror films, particularly of the Cabin in the Woods variety, at Factory Theater ("spelled 'er' because we are not stuck-up") on Howard Street, and Black Button Eyes' much more serious (though it certainly has its humor as well) adaptation of Jessica Cluess' YA fantasy tale A Shadow Bright and Burning at the Edge Theatre. By my count, that's one each for camp horror, classic fantasy, and magic-filled teen fantasy all at once, not even counting Peter and the Starcatcher at the Paramount and Back to the Future at the Cadillac Palace. And maybe we could even count Alice By Heart, Kokandy's beautiful and sad retelling of Alice in Wonderland.

In any case, it's a wonderful time to be a horror/fantasy/science fiction fan in Chicago. When has such a confluence ever even happened before?

Factory's Stabbed in the Heart is easily the silliest of all of these. It follows Lia (a very game Jasmine Robertson), a college student whose roommate Trish (a sweet and sincere Madeline Ackerlund) convinces her to take time off studying in order to join her in a "fun" weekend with some of her old high school friends ... at a cabin ... in the woods ... where seven college students were murdered years earlier. I mean, what could go wrong?

Cody Lindley's and Nate Hall's book does more than wink at horror genre tropes. Like the Scream movies, it pretty much calls out to them and, with characters who know the score, dares the bad stuff to happen. Which of course it does.

Speaking of scores, Nate Hall's fun, often quirky songs absolutely pepper this show. At times it seems that any spoken line might trigger a sung response, and that is part of the fun. (These actors all can sing very well, I might add, and music director Evan Cullinan and his four-piece band easily fill the small space with song.) Part of the fun also is the use of handheld microphones: director Braxton Crewell must have had lots of fun brainstorming ways to get them into the hands of his characters, to the point where they become a brilliantly campy running gag.

Of course, the characters include traditional horror film types: a jock whose best days ended with his last high school football game; his female co-bully, a cheerleader who loves making fun of those lesser girls in the high school pantheon and who so doesn't seem to understand that her glory days are as defunct as her boyfriend's that she even continues to wear her skimpy uniform; a Shaggy-like stoner; an adorable (and doomed) lesbian couple; and a bright, shy boy who has been the secret object of Trish's desire since back in junior high. Oh yes, and the killer.

Unmasked very early, the killer (played by Grant Brown) of course has a familial connection to the previous murders and has been warped by that knowledge to the point where he believes he has no choice but to replicate the carnage–even if he is falling in love with Lia while eviscerating her friends. (Despite a not negligible amount of gore, it's still a PG-13 show.)

You can't really go wrong with a Factory Theater show. Along with Theo Ubique just down the street, it has made Howard St. into a showgoing destination.

The Cast of A Shadow Bright and Burning Photo by Michael Brosilow

Fortunately for all, especially with the ancient wards that protect inner London fading in strength, a woman is discovered who seems to fulfill a centuries-old prophecy that a female Sorcerer will arise and save them all. (Yes, of course all other sorcerers are male; Victorian England, despite being led by a strong Queen, was never exactly a bastion of sexual equality.)

Henrietta Howell (Annemarie Andaleon) is discovered by the Sorcerer Agrippa (Timothy Griffin) during one of the Queen's frequent explorations of rumors of magic at schools. Agrippa sees that Henrietta is what another popular genre series calls "strong with the Force" and recruits her to come back to the palace to be trained, which she agrees to only if the man she loves, an "Unclean One"–someone who survived an attack by one of the monsters and is marked by scars that are believed to allow the creature to enter his soul–can come with her. The young man, Rook (Alex George), is a total sweetheart, but is still treated with suspicion by Agrippa. However, he agrees to the condition.

Andaleon is excellent throughout, as Henrietta is put through her paces along with four other apprentice Sorcerers played by Sierra Buffum, David Lipschutz, Peter Ruger, and North Homewood, and seems to take to magic almost preternaturally. There is a reason for that: she is in fact not a Sorcerer but a Magician, scion of a famously talented family of Magicians. When she discovers her actual heritage, she secretly engages another local Magician–I said they were outlawed, not gone–to teach her how a powerful Magician wields magic. His lessons pay dividends; she discovers within herself the power to create magical flames that chase off the Lovecraftian horrors trying to take over the city and all of England. (Set and props designer/technical director Jeremiah Barr clearly had a field day creating the tentacles–because of course Lovecraftian horrors have tentacles–that eventually fill the stage, not to mention all of the other wonderful bespoke props that, along with Liz Cooper's lights and Isaac Mandel's sound, help create the magical effects.)

Additional subplots involve Agrippa and his magically gifted daughter (Kat Evans) and Homewood's darkly stand-offish Sorcerer Blackwood. Both Evans and Homewood shine in their respective roles, as does everyone in the cast. Ruger, in very silly glasses (costumer Rachel Sypniewski outdoes herself in this show) is especially hilarious as a young Sorcerer whose gift is soothsaying, and Lipschutz' Magnus is very likable, but a bit of a womanizer. Jamie Dillon Grossman adds a spark of energy to each of her three characters, and there is always the very creepy Skinless Man (Jason LaCombe) waiting to invade Henrietta's dreams.

Because Homewood is my son, I know that this production was a bit plagued by COVID–both he and director Rutherford went down for multiple days–but you'd never know it by their final achievement. (Violence director Brendan Hutt had to step in as an emergency director and clearly held things together well.)

Both of these plays are delightful forays into the world of genre fiction, one that too often is overlooked by other companies, but which Factory and, especially, Black Button Eyes know well. Chicago is better off for it.

Stabbed in the Heart plays through September 28, 2024, at The Factory Theater, 1623 Howard Street, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit thefactorytheater.com.

A Shadow Bright and Burning runs through September 28, 2024, at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway Avenue, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.blackbuttoneyes.com.