A girl puppet travels across a perilous frozen terrain in don’t you want to live your dream?
Rough House Theatre Presents HOUSE OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE VI: LULLABIES Review - Entering Dreams and Nightmares
TLDR: The sixth installment of House of the Exquisite Corpse has tasked artists with developing their artistic interpretations of the prompt “lullaby” and telling that story through puppetry in six unique scenes. Lullabies isn’t too scary, but has just enough eeriness and creepiness to make it ripe for the Halloween season.
A puppet takes flight in All Night All Day
The Underlying Meaning
How old were you when you first discovered that the lullaby “Rock-a-bye Baby” was not just about a baby in a cradle in a treetop? There was a deeper and darker meaning behind when the bough breaks and that cradle falls? This one along with other popular nursery rhymes also serve as cautionary tales for children and serves as the inspiration for Rough House’s sixth installment of House of the Exquisite Corpse: Lullabies.
We’re at the Merle Reskin space at Steppenwolf and enter the dark and gothic lobby. A few on-theme art installations greet us as we get checked in. We explore this space while waiting for our group to be called to enter behind the wall of black curtains. After being ushered inside we enter the pre-show area for the usual announcements and introduction to how to interact with the space. Then, it’s time to enter the rotation of rooms. With the low, eerie music playing overhead and the lighting growing even more dim, everything else fades away so we’re completely immersed in the space.
The full Lullabies experience is six individual rooms that will each perform their version and interpretation of a lullaby. We find room number one where there are large cut-outs in the walls at varying heights for us to peer through while we listen to the story through headphones (where closed captioning is also available for each). We arrange ourselves in a half circle outside the rooms and so we each get a slightly different view of the performance.
A puppet girl counts puppet sheep in Hushaby, hush you’re not going with them
Each One as Unique as the One Before
The stories themselves in Lullabies range anywhere from a children’s nursery rhyme to folklore to a multi-layered drug trip. The surrounding set and dioramas are just as unique and varied as the style of puppets playing on each one. Our first stop is “All Night, All Day” where a wire puppet with blue hair has finished a long day of work and instructs her computer assistant to set the alarm for the morning. Soon she’s whisked away to dreamland, flying to a different island that soon becomes a nightmare.
In “Hushaby hush, you’re not going with them,” the puppets are made of felt and move through a home with a roaring fireplace, a bedroom, and a garden with sheep. All told in rhyme, we hear the story of how a young red-headed girl saves her home from reckless spirits on All Hallows Eve.
A little later on, we get to play a puppet ourselves reaching through the wall and grabbing onto yarn-haired dolls attached to moveable posts in front of us. The money-grubbing CEO puppet of this story creepily walks in front of our windows judging whether our particular child will make him the most money as the poster child for his establishment.
Each performance lasts no more than ten minutes and then we step over to the next room along our journey. We see how each creator drew the initial inspiration for their story from lullabies, but the end result is six different artist interpretations brought to life through puppetry and effects.
Small groups are ushered through the set by Melissa “13andit” Schlesinger
The After Party Thoughts
As I may have said in previous reviews, I am not a scary or horror kind of girlie. So it took two members of The After Party who most definitely are into all types of scary content and shows to convince me to go. I’m happy to report on a scale of Spooky Scary Skeletons to The Ring, Lullabies sits at a comfortable Beetlejuice level for me. It has that alternate universe feel, some satirical humor, a lot of out-of-the-box characters, but still enough levels of eeriness and creepiness that makes a good Halloween show.
For those that aren’t looking for pieces with puppets involved or just aren’t into interpretive art forms, then this might not be the experience for you. However, for those that like multiple, bite-sized stories and love artistry through puppets, Lullabies would be a great fit for you!
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When
Now through November 1, 2026
Where
Steppenwolf Theatre’s Merle Reskin Space
1624 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60614
Runtime: ~45min, no intermission
Tickets
$22+
Tickets can be purchased through the Rough House Theater website
Photos
Greg Inda
Find Allie and The After Party featured on Theatre in Chicago
Audiences peer through keyholes and cracks to witness the puppet horror and gallows humor happening inside The Moon is So Bright
PERFORMANCE CREDITS
Lobby Lullabies (Installation)
“Black Milk”
Jacqueline Wade (Creator)
“The Fae Tithe”
Sion Silva (Creator)
Rosalie Arends (Co-Collaborator/Costume Artist)
Lullaby 1: “All Night, All Day”
Vim Hile (Creator)
Tanima (Creator)
Camille Mitchell (Performer)
Casey Doe (Performer)
Vim Hile (Performer)
Tanima (Performer)
Harry Sadowski (Shadow Puppets)
Jonah Bernard Marmorstein (Backdrop)
Jae Robinson (Sound)
Lullaby 2: “Hushaby hush, you’re not going with them”
Charlie Malave (Creator)
Caitlin McLeod (Creator)
Rachel Hartmann (Performer)
Eddy Barber-Rozema (Performer)
Finn Bradley (Performer)
Emilie Wingate (Performer)
Caitlin McLeod (Scenic & Puppet Creation)
Charlie Malave (Music)
Jess Baldissero (Music)
Charlie Malave (Sound Design & Voiceover)
Lullaby 3: “The Moon Is So Bright”
Saskia Bakker (Creator)
Ruby Que (Creator)
Lizz Windnagel (Performer)
Lenna Wren (Performer)
Alexander Ferguson (Performer)
Ruby Que (Performer)
Mabel Kwan (Singer)
Andrew Tham (Singer)
Nolan Chin (Singer)
Ruby Que (Singer)
Corey Smith (Vocal Arrangement)
Jae Robinson (Sound)
Lullaby 4: “(love is) A Mother’s Burden”
Leah Lara (Creator)
strawberry gelato (Creator)
Sara Addai (Performer)
Amari Amai (Performer)
Sam Lewis (Performer)
Tia Pinson (Performer)
strawberry gelato (Original Music/Sound Design)
Jae Doug (Music Engineer)
Tracie Kunzika (Vocalist)
Sara Addai (Vocalist)
Felix Cooper Browne (Vocalist)
Andres Fiz (Puppet Construction)
Ben Moroney (Crankie Engineer)
Pei-Yu Hung (LED Overhead Projector/Set Constitution/Puppet Engineer Consultant)
Jae Robinson (Audio Engineer)
Lullaby 5: “Jumping Jack Money”
Madigan Burke (Creator)
Zhen Heinemann (Creator)
Andy Slater (Creator)
Lindsey Ball (Performer)
Candice Conner (Performer)
Zhen Heinemann (Performer)
Andy Slater (Sound)
Madigan Burke (Voiceover)
Zhen Heinemann (Voiceover)
Andy Slater (Voiceover)
Terri Lynne Hudson (Voiceover)
Chris Mosier (Mural Design)
Andres Fiz (Mural Creation)
Lullaby 6: “Don’t you want to live your dream?”
Felix (Creator)
Abby Palen (Creator)
Shannon Twenter (Performer)
Mallory Kimbrell (Performer)
Amandatron 5000 (Performer)
Felix (Performer)
Ryder (Performer)
Felix (Original Music)
Jae Robinson (Sound)
Fire fans the flames of fear in (love is) A Mother’s Burden
CREATIVE
Production
Corey Smith (Direction)
Anastar Alvarez (Production Management)
Molly Sharfstein (Assistant Director/Dramaturgy)
Kacey Lindeman (Production Stage Management)
Emi Cruz (Stage Management)
Tess Duncan (Stage Management)
Marcey Abramovitz (Production Administration)
Claire Saxe (Production Support)
Design
Melissa “13andit” Schlesinger (Environmental Design & Technical Direction)
Jackie Berland (Environmental Design & Technical Direction)
Nina D’Angier (Immersive Experience Design)
Ken Buckingham (Environmental Art)
Peter Wilde (Scenic Carpenter)
Rachel Hartmann (Scenic Carpenter)
Taryn Michelson (Scenic Carpenter)
Clark Mills (Scenic Carpenter)
Quinn Chisenhall (Lighting Design)
Josiah Croegaert (Lighting Design)
Rowan Winterwood (Lighting Electrician & Programmer)
Jae Robinson (Sound Design)
Aidan Grey-Gardner (Sound Engineer)
Alice Heemang Kim (Captions/Projection Design)
Claire Saxe (Accessibility Coordination)
Kyle Sullivan (Accessibility Support)
Front of House
Felicia Cooper (Entry Room Performer/Understudy)
Amandatron 5000 (Entry Room Performer/Understudy)
Emily Wood (Entry Room Performer/Understudy)
Kyle Sullivan (House Management)
Mikayla Wilson (Box Office Manager)
Lucy Wirtz (Box Office Manager)
Casey Doe (Graphic Design)
Kimzyn Campbell (Marketing Director)
Jay Kelly (Public Relations)
Additional Credits
Mike Oleon (Project Conception)
Claire Saxe (Project Conception)
Jacqueline Penrod (Scenic Foundations)
Joey Meland (Original Sound Design)