“Brothers Paranormal” at Vertigo both heart warming and haunting

It’s not your average ghost story.

It’s also not your average Vertigo show.

The Brothers Paranormal at Vertigo Theatre is scary in many ways, but also food for the heart in others. The heartwarming script flips from horror to hilarious — literally with a flick of the lights — leaving the audience unsure whether to scream, laugh, or cry. It asks what true fears are the drive behind ghost stories.

Written by Thai-American playwright Prince Gomolvilas, the show marks a first for Vertigo Theatre — with no white actors on stage. Artistic Director Jack Grinhaus says while the script is based on several cultures, the story is universal. 

“And yet it’s not a play that feels like any audience wouldn’t love right away,” he said. “You know, it’s a story about family. It’s a story about community. “

Some of the main characters in the show are Thai immigrants, others are Louisiana natives displaced by Hurricane Katrina. For Aaron Refugio, who plays Visrarut, this story resonated on a personal level. He is originally from the Philippines.

“The first thing that popped out to me was when Tasani, the mom, talks about how some people move to another country, not because they’re going through hardship, but just because they move and that they also go through things.” He says many immigrant kids are distracted by the immediate logistics of the move, like losing friends and new schools, and miss the long term effects of migration, which their parents feel.  “That was a really big reason of why I wanted to be a part of this story is because I saw myself, but I also saw my mom.”

That sense of displacement runs through every part of the play, not just the immigrant experience, but also the domestic, and eventually the connection to the paranormal. Felix and Delia are characters who are American in America, but also out of place as their home, New Orleans, has been swept away by Katrina.

“I’m sure a lot of people have had to move not on their own accord, but because of like disaster or, you know, something or other. They also have a sense of like needing to find like a new identity,” Refugio says.

He adds that the yearning to return to where you began even when that place no longer exists  connects the worlds on stage, “The yearning to be in the place where you were originally, I think, is also a very big part of the show.”

In a city like Calgary where almost everyone has come from somewhere else, Refugio says the theme feels unmistakably local.

For Grinhaus, programming this show was about pushing Vertigo’s genre and its audience forward by diversifying on it’s mandated theme of murder mystery by using a new script.

“You have Theatre Calgary doing Dial M for Murder, ATP doing Sleepy Hollow, Stage West doing Sheer Madness,” he says. “So doing a new play like Brothers Paranormal is really exciting, because as opposed to following the trend, we’re bucking the trend.”

And the result, he says, is more than just a hit horror.

“A lot of people have been coming up to us who have been going to Vertigo for years and being like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve never seen a show like this,’” Refugio says. “It’s really been like humbling and it’s been very heartwarming… It’s such a celebration of different culture and different stories and different ways of approaching those stories, too.”

The Brothers Paranormal runs at Vertigo Theatre through Oct. 26.