(To learn more about this show, please visit the show’s page here)

Performance 6/11/26 – The Apohadion

This show was a blast! An Ode To He Who Walks Behind The Rows shucked its way out of the world of theatre performance into the stratosphere of cult (wink wink) theatre experiences. It went beyond entertainment, intellectual stimulation, and audience engagement. AOTHWWB (that doesn’t really work) built community. It provoked.

I stood on an old couch at the back of the crowd of poncho-wearing audience members, High Life in one hand, popcorn-sacrament in the other, and beamed as we collectively chanted, “Kill the outlanders!” (or something to that effect) and the blood from yet another sacrifice splattered across my neighboring audience members. But these gleefully shocking moments were not just for awe. This wasn’t mere entertainment. Something else was happening here, bubbling beneath this dark frolic behind the rows.

The Husky Boiz (the creators) mixed elements of Stephen King’s horror classic “Children of the Corn” with an array of musical styles and an in-your-face, over-the-top sensibility. The result was somehow more frightening than the “Children of the Corn” film, funnier and better arranged than “Shucked,” the recent Broadway musical, and more engaging than a Tarantino blood fest.

The performances were all on point, full of energy, absurdity, and glassy-eyed, cult magnetism. The talented ensemble of performers sang gorgeously, danced hypnotically, played banjo…ly, and even had a “shuck-off” right before our very eyes. Though I don’t have time to call out all of the stellar performances here (I still have too many amazing shows to see at PortFringe, you guys!), I have to point out the spectacular camp radiance of both Sararose Willey and Juliet Tasker. Their aggressive performances of the hyper-masculine cult leader and ambitious acolyte, respectively, were the nitrous-fueled engine that made the show hum so insanely well. No one knew why the corn-loving teenage cult leader kept their congregation in line with dangerously sharp hip thrusts and body rolls, but it proved to be powerfully effective, and so it made all the sense in the world.

When the show was over, and we were left to examine the shucked remains, what I found was the distilled essence of Fringe Theater itself. A bizarre party that provoked the audience to participate in the madness, to become complicit in the horrors. And it’s that complicity that left the audience pondering the show’s deeper meaning. It felt great to relish in community and celebration, and so what if He Who Walks Behind The Rows must have his due; it’s not us he wants sacrificed. Not yet anyway.

Submitted on 6/16/26 by Nathan Gregory, PF26 Independent Review Team