Do you value the life you’ve built? Do you want to stay ahead of the ill you have inevitably caused while you assembled it?
If so, please trust me on this. For your safety, your sanity, and your sanctity – in order to keep yourself and your loved ones safe – steer clear of The Veil at Crow’s Theatre.
Don’t get me wrong: this show – which is ostensibly written by Keith Barker and Thomas Morgan Jones and presented by Thought For Food Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre and Guild Festival Theatre – starts powerfully, with the late arrival of an intense attorney in the tailored suit.
He has a story to tell, and it’s a doozy.
It’s a tale of ambition and mentorship and reckoning.
It’s the kind of story a modern Ebeneezer Scrooge might tell if – instead being an old bachelor confronted by 3 ghosts on Christmas Eve – he was a regretful young family man trapped in the horror story “The Monkey’s Paw”.
But here’s the thing. This “actor” Byron Abalos who’s telling the story?
He has an agenda.
He needs you to believe him. He tells you so.
And trust me, you will believe him. He is so authentic, so … heart-wrenching as he drives us down memory lane, imperceptibly pressing the accelerator until his narration careens into a tragic wreck at the four-way intersection of ambition and relationship, horror and comeuppance.
His story folds back on itself in spooky ways. The actions and the fate of his Jacob Marley-like mentor presage his own actions and fate: both are hounded, haunted …and hollowed.
It’s mesmerizing. And it’s creepily unnerving.
But really… is this acting? Or manipulation? Because remember (don’t forget, even for a moment!) that this Byron Abalos has an agenda. And he’s bewitching you in service of it.
Indeed, this entire “production” – from the moment you enter the theatre, to the moment you exit it – casts one sinister, suspenseful and deeply creepy spell. Between you and me, Helen Juvonen has the easiest credit in the world as “Director” – because this “actor” is intrinsically motivated: he absolutely needs you there in the audience, and it’s clear he will do just about anything to suck you into his story and keep you – all of you – right there with him, until –
Well, the less said about that, the better.
(And while I’m thinking about it, how much did Ashley Naomi really have to do with the “sound design”? I mean, the creepy clicks and ominous hums and dogs barking are just the real sounds of – no, no. Let’s not go there.)
Look: what matters is that I made it out. Barely. Thanks to a kindly (and between you and me, a misguided) elderly audience member.
So I’m begging you one final time. For the good of yourself and your loved ones, skip The Veil.
In fact, don’t even read more about The Veil. Because now you’ve read this far … and I’m so, so sorry.
You’re already part of it.
The Veil continues at Crow’s Theatre until October 12, 2025. Tickets are available on crowstheatre.com.
© Scott Sneddon, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
