You don’t have to believe in ghosts to succumb to the spell of Prince Gomolvilas’s entertainingly spooky supernatural thriller The Brothers Paranormal, now getting its long-awaited Los Angeles Premiere at East West Players.

The siblings in question are 20something American-born Max (David Huynh) and his Thailand-born 40ish older brother Visarut (Roy Vongtama), who’ve recently gone into the ghost-debunking business in the Midwestern town they now call home.

Unfortunately for the brothers, haunted Midwesterners seem few and far between these days, which is why a call from Delia (Tamika Simpkins) has them heading over to the apartment she and her EMT husband Felix (Jasper Louis) have shared since fleeing New Orleans and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina two years ago.

 Felix may scoff at his wife’s fears, but Delia is convinced that she’s being haunted by a raven-haired woman in white, an otherworldly being Delia believes has been speaking to her in Thai.

Who better to hire, then, than Max, whose childhood best friend during time spent in Thailand just happened to be … a ghost.

What Delia doesn’t know is that Max has simply been recounting the plot of a subtitled Thai horror flick he and his brother watched together, and that whatever his claims, the truth is that Max and Visarut are no more  bona fide ghostbusters than Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis were when they set up shop.

Completing The Brothers Paranormal’s cast of characters is Max and Visarut’s live-in mother Tasanee (Emily Kuroda), who’s battled schizophrenia as her elder son fought against alcoholism and depression, though fortunately for Max, both Mom and Elder Bro seem on the road to recovery.

As to whether Delia’s visions are real or simply a figment of an imagination made overactive by the horrors of Katrina, well for that you’ll have to head on over to the David Henry Hwang Theatre where playwright Gomolvilas has more than a few didn’t-see-that-coming surprises up his sleeve, aided and abetted by illusionist Ian O’Connor, who has more than a few of his own kept hidden until … Boo!

New York, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Portland, Seattle, and Juneau have already been treated to Gomolvilas’s gem of a thriller, but it’s hard to imagine any of those productions topping East West Players’, not with Jeff Liu returning to direct an all-around fabulous Asian-and-African-American cast in a production designed by some of L.A.’s finest.

Vongtama makes for the most charming and engaging of elder brothers, Kuroda once again proves herself an East West Players treasure as the warm, wise, and wry Tasanee, and the duo’s witty exchanges with Max provide The Brothers Paranormal with multiple laughs amidst the thrills and chills.

Louis does powerful work as a man who believes there may be good reason for his wife to be haunted by a Thai-speaking ghost, even if he’s seen no evidence of her presence in their midst, and the mononymous Ratana shows up from time to time in a highly effective cameo I’ll leave it to you to discover.

Still, it’s to Huynh and Simpkins that playwright Gomolvilas gives the biggest, meatiest roles and both are absolutely terrific, Huynh delivering a standout turn as a young man dealing with grief and loss in unexpected ways, and Simpkins burning up the stage as a woman facing terrors that threaten her marriage, her sanity, and perhaps she and her husband’s very lives.

Scenic design master John Iacovelli’s side-by-side apartments have been meticulously decorated with Michael O’Hara’s as always pitch-perfect properties, and Delia and Felix’s flat has multiple surprises in store as does an Act Two hospital room. (Kudos again to illusionist O’Connor.)

Add to this the thrill-enhancing contributions of lighting designer Brian Gale and sound designer Da Xu (and Hyun Sook Kim’s just-right costumes) and you’ve got a production design that more than does justice to Gomolvilas’s supremely ingenious script.

Chacha Tahng is assistant director. Brandon Hong Cheng is stage manager and Eden Treiman is assistant stage manager.

Casting is by Andy Lowe. Daniel Kim understudies the roles of Max and Visarut.

It’s been a dozen years since Prince Gomolvilas’s stage adaptation of Scott Heim’s Mysterious Skin gave East West Players one of its finest productions ever, all the more reason to celebrate his return to the country’s longest-running professional theatre of color.

There’s no need to wait till Halloween season 2023 for a fright night (or scary Saturday matinee) to remember, not while The Brothers Paranormal are in town.

East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles.
www.eastwestplayers.org

–Steven Stanley
November 20, 2022
Photos: Jenny Graham

Tags: East West Players, Los Angeles Theater Review, Prince Gomolvilas