Review: CLAWS – Candle House Collective

Candle House Collective, led by artistic director Evan Neiden, has carved out a distinct niche through solitary, phone-based encounters. For those familiar with the clinical maze of Lennox Mutual, their interactive thriller Claws provides an interesting look at an earlier phase in Neiden and their company’s creative evolution

First appearing in 2020 as part of their Help! anthology, this psychological piece casts the participant as a volunteer operator for the fictional Etcetera Helpline.

A phone rings, and suddenly you are listening to Danny, a terrified teenager, claiming there is a monster in his closet. It is an effective hook, but anyone expecting the open-ended complexity of Lennox Mutual might find this earlier milestone stays much more firmly on rails.

Candle House Collective’s Claws: The Burden of the Line

That simpler script structure leaves some heavy emotional lifting for a single actor, with the current rotation drawing from Malachi Madrone, Cole Steeves, and Cooper Roth. Accepting the voice on the line as a 16-year-old kid takes a brief act of faith, but you quickly stop noticing, and it never impedes the impromptu counselling session. Danny is isolated and trapped in a dysfunctional relationship with his father, turning the horror elements into a vehicle for domestic trauma and parental neglect.

A phone rings, and suddenly you are listening to Danny, a terrified teenager, claiming there is a monster in his closet. It is an effective hook, but anyone expecting the open-ended complexity of Lennox Mutual might find this earlier milestone stays much more firmly on rails.

If you do not actively indulge his panic, the dialogue can default to standard teenage angst. Such was the case when I found myself unable to resist putting on some of the character I brought to an earlier phase in my life as a market research telephone deity. (I was really good, no lie)

Pacing and Audience Investment in Immersive Audio Theatre

I suspect the piece carried a completely different weight during the enforced isolation of the 2020 lockdowns when it was born. Shifting that premise to the present day exposes a few structural limits in the writing – and forces some improbable limits on Danny’s options as a 21st-century teen. If you hold back or try to stay clinical, several overextended passages will probably sag. Conversely, if you buy into the premise and actively counsel Danny through what feels like a genuine life-or-death emergency, the hour will likely fly by.

This tension underscores a vital point: Claws functions as theatre, not a game. Unlike Lennox Mutual, which holds out the clever illusion of a reachable ‘win’ state, there is no illusion of possible triumph to engineer here. The limits placed on Danny make him a bit of a fish in a barrel. Play it too cleverly, and you soon realise you cannot prompt the creature or the boy to alter their fates. Running the experience multiple ways is unlikely to yield a significantly different ending.

Atmospheric Horror: Dark Rooms and Raw Reactions

The piece succeeds best on the strength of its core moral dilemma. As the operator, you must decide who, or what, to believe, and you are entirely free to conclude that nothing supernatural is happening at all. Sound effects are used minimally and smartly, sharpening the audio claustrophobia, while the performance showcases the Candle House performer’s signature ability to adapt on the fly to whatever responses you throw down the line.

…if you buy into the premise and actively counsel Danny through what feels like a genuine life-or-death emergency, the hour will likely fly by.

Candle House also suggest you sit alone in a dark room and hear the piece through headphones rather than a headset. You might think that doesn’t sound a lot like a helpline office, home or otherwise, but you are paying for the experience, so why not get the most out of it? Role-playing your own part, as I did, is probably not the path to the most intense experience.

So, rather than overthinking a specific persona, I guess that the show rewards an unprepared blank page who simply answers the phone and dives straight in. I also suspect there’s a lot of strange fun to be had if you decide your operator should be completely reckless.

In the end, whilst CLAWS might lack a little sophistication – particularly for critics coming in to look under the bonnet – CLAWS is still an ambitious, impressive theatrical experience, and a worthwhile encounter for those interested in finding out a little more about what Evan Neiden keeps in their endlessly creative noggin.

Featured Image: CLAWS – Poster – Candle House Collective