House of the Exquisite Corpse III Immersive Puppet Haunted House Extended Through November 4, 2023

ChiIL Mama’s ChiIL Picks List House of the Exquisite Corpse III  Chicago’s only immersive puppet haunted house, extended through November 4 at Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage Space Recommended for ages 14+ “If you want to move beyond schlock and shock into an elevated horror experience, look no further than House of the Exquisite Corpse”  - Chicago Reader

Rough House Theater's House of the Exquisite Corpse III features this puppet by  Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball.  Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni Rough House Theater of Chicago is extending House of the Exquisite Corpse III, Chicago’s one and only immersive puppet haunted house, through November 4 at Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Space, 1624 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park. Originally set to close October 31, Rough House will now welcome puppet horror thrill seekers Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., through November 4. Small groups gather in the dark bar and lobby, and are beckoned inside every 15 minutes.  House of the Exquisite Corpse III, with an all-new program of six immersive acts of puppet horror ready to shock, scare, astonish and delight, is also open Halloween Night, Tuesday, October 31. Purchase tickets and pre-select entry times at RoughHouseTheater.com. Tickets are $16-$46. Rough House also offers several Pay What You Want options. This production is recommended for ages 14 and over.  Step inside - if you dare - Rough House Theater’s House of the Exquisite Corpse III

Rough House Theater's House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by artists Justin D’Acci and Sion Silva. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by Emilie Wingate and Tom Lee, puppeteered by Sam Lewis. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by Jacky Kelsey, puppeteered by Chio Cabrera and Lucy Wirtz. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by Ken Buckingham, puppeteered by Felix Mayes and Kevin Michael Wesson. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

This year, Rough House’s Halloween peep show/puppet theater anthology is inspired by the book “Our Homes and How to Keep Them Healthy,” published in 1883 by Robert Brudenell Carter.   Top Chicago theater artists, working alone or in teams, selected six chapters including “The Difficulty of Proof in Cases of Arsenic Poisoning,” “The Dangers of Rebreathed Air” and “Advantages of the Removal of The Sick” to unleash and lay open their darkest creative impulses.     For 2023, House of the Exquisite Corpse III stitches together six puppet peep-shows created by Chicago artists who work in multiple disciplines, including Pablo Monterrubio-Benet and Grace Needlman, Tom Lee and Sam Lewis, Corey Smith, Claire Bauman, Chio Cabrera and Jacky Kelsey, Justin D’Acci and Sion Silva, Ken Buckingham, and Felix Mayes and Kevin Michael Wesson. Process directors are Claire Saxe and Mike Oleon. Audiences enter House of the Exquisite Corpse in small groups via timed entries. Once inside, they must brave its dark halls for about an hour, stopping at each room to spy through keyholes, cracks, and hidden doors to witness the horrors within.  Through original puppetry, physical performance, soundscape, and illusion, each room terrifies as it enraptures. Collectively, anyone who loves haunted houses or theater of the macabre will feel buyer’s envy after touring the otherworld ills plaguing Rough House Theater’s horrifying domestic spaces.

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features this puppet by  Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball.  Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features this puppet by Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features this puppet by Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by artists Justin D’Acci and Sion Silva. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by Jacky Kelsey, puppeteered by Chio Cabrera and Lucy Wirtz. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

“Our Halloween production gives these artists the freedom to follow their own visions, create their own visuals, and be presented as individuals,” said Mike Oleon, Co-Artistic Director of Rough House, who conceived House of the Exquisite Corpse.  “They get to work independently, motivated by whatever flavor of horror that freaks that person out the most. Then we all come together to assemble a collaborative anthology that, collectively, blurs the lines between horror, puppetry and theater, beckoning you to gaze into a variety of nightmares you won’t soon forget.” Health and Safety For the health and safety of our audiences and performers, Rough House strongly encourages all audience members to wear masks during the entire performance, regardless of vaccination status. For details, visit RoughHouseTheater.com.

About Rough House Theater Co. Rough House Theater Co. is on a mission to connect individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique and the weirder things that bring us together. Rough House creates theater that captures the heart through the eye. Their shows use puppetry, music, and human performance to tell intimate stories, as strange as they are sincere. Through performances, presentations of work by fellow artists, and artist training, Rough House aspires to make Chicago a national hub of contemporary puppet theater, comprising a diverse and ever-growing community of audiences and artists. The company’s work has appeared in the National Puppetry Festival, The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, punk houses, funeral parlors, a lotion factory, and the woods of Appalachia. For more information, visit RoughHouseTheater.com and follow the company on Instagram and Facebook.

OPENING: The Walls of Harrow House Immersive Puppet Haunted House Via Rough House at Chopin Theatre

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

The Walls of Harrow House 

A new genre of puppetry. Immerse yourself in horror. Announcing our world premiere of monstrous fun.

**Recommended for ages 14+**

On October 11th, Rough House unleashes genre-blurring immersive puppet horror upon the Chopin Theater. Tickets on sale now.

708.955.7675

Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows, we adore Rough House and can't wait to catch their groundbreaking Halloween show, The Walls of Harrow House. We got a sneak peek at a few Harrow House scenes and characters in last month's Nasty, Brutish and Short: A Puppet Cabaret. It's crazy busy review season, so I'm booked solid on opening weekend, but hoping to catch the show by the 19th. There are two shows a night every Thursday through Saturday starting October 11th. Got your tickets yet? This looks to be a Halloween must see, so don't wait till they're sold out. 

Photo Credit for all: Christine Kozol

Part haunted house, part immersive puppet theater, ​The Walls of Harrow House ​opens its doors to visitors this Fall. Starting October 11th, at the Chopin Theatre, audiences will descend into Rough House’s gorgeous, dark, and surreal world where a mad architect’s relentless pursuit of utopia has gone horribly awry.

You are invited to a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Harrow House, the secluded home and studio of Milton Harrow, the world’s most influential and reclusive architect. With no guide but your own instincts, you’ll be set loose in the infamous home to discover its secrets, free to pull on whatever threads you encounter and become entangled in the terrifying tale that unspools around you.

Within Harrow House’s mouldering walls, you will meet its monstrous inhabitants – the architect’s family, assistants, and his most fervent followers. Each one has made an unthinkable sacrifice to the mad architect’s insatiable hunger for a world that conforms only to his design.





Through puppetry, environmental and sonic design, Harrow House will bring you face to face with cosmic horrors, nightmarish to behold and yet...uncannily familiar. Harrow House asks: can we not only face our fears, but meet them? Can we find empathy for those who frighten us?

Creative Team
Conceived and Directed by ​Mike Oleon Lead Puppet Design by ​Grace Needlman Script by ​Mark Maxwell and Claire Saxe Set designed by ​Lauren Nigri
Costumes designed by ​Caitlin McLeod and Anna Wooden Lighting design by ​Becca Jeffords
Sound design by ​Corey Smith



About the Company
Rough House Theater Co. is on a mission to connect individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique and the weirder things that bring us together. Rough House creates theater that captures the heart through the eye. Their shows use puppetry, music, and human performance to tell intimate stories, as strange as they are sincere.

Through performances, presentations of work by fellow artists, and artist training, Rough House aspires to make Chicago a national hub of contemporary puppet theater, comprising a diverse and ever-growing community of audiences and artists.

The company’s work has appeared in the National Puppetry Festival, The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival, punk houses, funeral parlors, a lotion factory, and the woods of Appalachia.

SHOW SCHEDULE​: “The Walls of Harrow House” performs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, October 11th through November 3. Additional shows will be held on Halloween, Wednesday October 31st. Visit ticketing page for exact event details. Press opening Oct 10th.

TICKETS AND INFO:​ Tickets on sale now at ​roughhousetheater.com

TICKET PRICES:​ $25 General Admission. $15 for Students/Industry/Earners of less than $25k per year.