Strong solo performances anchor Searcher Collective’s immersive tour of Victorian ghost stories, even when the scares fall short.

Immersive, character-rich performances await the curious at the historic Rosemount Museum in Pueblo.

Running through Oct. 18, Night Terrors is four short plays and an audio vignette, each with a single actor telling macabre Victorian tales. Written and directed by Tierra Izzo for Searcher Collective, the show dodges the usual horror trope of an external threat and delves into the mind for deeper disturbance.

The performances are consistently compelling, and the eerie museum provides an ideal setting. But the stories themselves lean more toward psychological curiosity than genuine horror.

The setup

The premise promises a chilling night of engaging environmental theatre. Small clusters of the audience are guided through Victorian rooms at timed intervals. There is no stage, no curtain and no applause.

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The Rosemount is a beautifully preserved Victorian home built in 1893, awash in amber hues, with actors in perfectly chosen period costumes. Some vignettes work, while others feel forced. What is intended to be bone-chilling is sometimes more head-scratching.

Zoe Flack portrays three women in No Door Against the Dark. The audience is transported to a lonely moor where Flack and her companions find something better left undiscovered. Shrouded in a ragged robe, Flack credibly amps up the panic, but we do not know enough to share in the menace that haunts the trio.

Because the production relies on the museum’s natural Victorian lighting rather than traditional theatrical design, subtle facial expressions are occasionally lost in the dimly lit rooms. Abundant furnishings charm but also crowd the playing space.

Ghosts and madmen

The production’s greatest strength lies in how each performance flows naturally into the next. As we leave Flack’s windswept moor behind, we are ushered down a narrow, creaking hallway to the next chapter of the evening.

The story begins as we take our seats and settle into collective stillness. We meet an older woman in her bedchamber, distraught. In Proper Order invokes the fear of being unheard and invisible, and it lands well as a relatable scenario.

Barbara Summerville is bewitching as the terrified woman insisting that there is a spirit in her room. With her face twisted in unsettling contortions, Summerville delivers the production’s strongest performance. She convincingly portrays a forgotten and discarded figure whose rants go unheard. Her monologue is somber and shot through with manic emotion.

Even ghosts can get frustrated, and Gleason Bauer leans into the next tale with a welcome whimsical twist. In The Spirit of It, Bauer’s ghost has been unable to remember something for two centuries. The performance is peppered with pithy barbs, erratic ramblings and frenetic movement suggesting the character may have been a little off in life as well. Amusing yet creepy, Bauer nails it.

In a fourth scene we meet an art dealer (Sammie Joe Kinnett) in Regarding No. 978. With a bit of madness creeping into his portrayal, the shopkeeper seeks validation that the ordinary print he shows us is indeed changing before our eyes. His vocal delivery, pacing and piercing eye contact with the audience deliver a glimpse of impending lunacy.

Below deck

The fifth and final offering seems out of place in the elegant mansion. The Upper Berth, created and performed by Tierra Izzo, Nick Izzo and Colin Bridgman, is a binaural audio production. Given headphones as we take our seats in a darkened room, we have only sound to absorb the tale. We hear rippling water and tinny acoustics. A man has boarded a ship, soon to learn why no one wants the upper berth of cabin 105. Well executed and the scariest of the five, it holds the audience spellbound.

Ultimately, Night Terrors succeeds less as a traditional haunted attraction and more as an immersive showcase for strong character performances. While not every story delivers the terror promised by the title, the atmospheric setting, committed cast and inventive use of the Rosemount create an evening that is memorable, unusual and well worth experiencing. Ready yourself for something different, and then embrace what is unique and well done.