On Saturday, Sept. 24 I left Little Rock’s Ron Robinson Theater grinning after attending my first interactive version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
My roommate and I went together, she had never seen it. When I was about 15, my mom bought me a copy of the DVD and I didn’t know what to expect. It is one of the oddest, most uncomfortable musically themed films, and yet also one of the greatest classics.
My roommate’s parents gave her a newspaper, bread, rice and a few other items to use during the interactive production. I didn’t know what to expect so I came with nothing but my wallet.
We saw men wearing fishnets and a variety of other straps, women wearing Mickey Mouse ears, young individuals and old folks—the diversity amongst the crowd was wonderful.
The way it worked was the movie began on a huge screen and different interactive opportunities occurred throughout it.
We sat there quietly, observing the movie, and Brad Majors (played by Barry Bostwick) would introduce himself and the audience yelled, “asshole,” then Janet Weiss (played by Susan Sarandon) introduced herself in the film and the crowd yelled, “slut.” There were many inappropriate comments made by the audience throughout the movie but all I could do was laugh and do my best to participate. It was so much fun.
When Brad and Janet walk through the spooky rain to Frank Furter’s mansion, they place newspaper above their heads to keep from getting wet. The audience pulled newspapers out and stuck them over their heads during the scene. Luckily, my roommate had some I could borrow.
During the song “Over at the Frankenstein Place,” Janet and Brad sing about the light at the Frankenstein place and as soon as those lyrics were sang the audience pulled out flashlights and rotated them around the walls.
During the famous “Time Warp” dance, everyone stood up in the audience and we all did it together. It was hilarious.
As Halloween gets closer, there should be other interactive shows of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” throughout Arkansas. If you plan to attend any be sure to have newspaper, rubber gloves, flashlights, noisemakers and playing cards. An upcoming show will be on Oct. 27-31 at Club Sway in Little Rock.
Image via www.englert.org
