The Ha Ha Haunting of Strathcona mixes laughter with terror

Megan Dart is a horror aficionado. A ghoul gatherer. An Edmonton scream queen.

The playwright—and executive director of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival—has been unearthing Edmonton’s haunted history for years. She’s a co-creator of Catch the Keys Productions’ long-running horror show Dead Centre of Town, which has frightened and enlightened local audiences for more than a decade.

But with Dead Centre taking a year off—or ”resting it in its coffin,” as Dart puts it with a grin—she was craving something spine-chilling for the season. And so The Ha Ha Haunting of Strathcona was born when her husband, Rapid Fire Executive Director Matt Schuurman, pitched a collaboration to fill that void.

“We’ve talked about it for so many years: how do we bring Matt’s expertise as an improviser together with this thing that I do, and I love so much, that is rooted in horror,” she says. “To have this opportunity presented this year was like, ‘Oh my God, let’s do it!’”

The resulting show format blends horror and humor with some serious Are You Afraid Of The Dark? vibes: a handful of improvisers, gathered ‘round a campfire, each receive an envelope with the title of a true historic local horror story. Riffing on the given title and any further audience suggestions, the performers will improvise how they think the stories within the envelopes would play out. Each round, the audience will choose a story to get eliminated, until only one final tale reaches its conclusion. Then, at the very end, the improvisers will open their envelopes and share the true tales behind the titles.

“What’s so delightful is, in our rehearsal process, there are moments where the improvisers have come eerily close to telling the story—and there are times when they are so far away from it,” Dart notes. “But either way, the payoff is so, so good.”

Working with improvisers may be relatively new to her, but Dart notes she’s found similarities between spontaneous comedy and her more usual scripted, fright-driven work.

“There’s a lot of parallels between horror-based storytelling and comedy,” Dart says. “There’s that build of tension that happens: you build that delicious anticipation, and even if you know what’s coming around the corner, there is still that delight that comes with the adrenaline rush, which I love so much.

“It’s been so fun to explore the genres [of horror] with the players,” she continues. “To look at those builds of tension and release, as they correlate to comedy, and how to work that into the performance. It’s been a thrill.”

The Ha Ha Haunting of Strathcona runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until October 19th, 2024. Tickets available at rapidfiretheatre.com/shows/hahahaunting