Anna Burnside reviews ‘a fun piece of Halloween nonsense’.
Auntie Sandra, a vision in a flammable red Halloween ensemble, is tucking into a pie. Despite also being in costume, her niece Lisa, a foxy angel, is reluctant to head off to the planned psychic soiree.
This is because her husband Billy is lying dead behind the kitchen island.
Instead, Sandra and Lisa must chop up the corpse and get it into the wheelie bin before the next pick up. A gas engineer, nosy neighbour and unhinged psychic in a velvet dressing gown intervene to prevent this from occurring.
Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Bin! is fable about domestic abuse hidden inside a jolly farce, which is not something one encounters often. Behind the hilarity and sub-Tam Shepards’ props, there is a serious point about what happens to women trapped in toxic relationships.
Writer Eimi Quinn also appears as Lisa and does a decent job as the kind of woman who does not want to ruin her favourite mop with her late husband’s brain juice.
Gavin Jon Wright is the costume-change king, swapping outfits and accents as the sweary workman, bird-and-neighbourhood-watching weirdo and spirit-sensing cousin who refuses to pronounce seance correctly.
But Isabelle Joss as Auntie Sandra dominates as the mouthy older relation who drinks wine from the bottle and thinks she can get away with murder because she watches nothing but true crime. Her response to putting the last of the corpse in the bucket is to open a packet of Space Raiders.
Director Jennifer Dick keeps the comic timing sharp, and some judicious song choices and a generous use of the gory soundtrack CD gives this fun piece of Halloween nonsense a surprisingly hard centre.
Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Bin! performs at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until November 1, 2025.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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