Stage Review - Shadows Under the Market (Seattle Public Theatre)

Stage Review - Shadows Under the Market
Presented By: Seattle Public Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: August 01 - August 10, 2025
Date Reviewed: Friday, August 01, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes (including a 12-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Anna Tatelman

What kinds of shows do kids and teenagers want to see or take part in themselves? Many theatres ask this question when planning their seasons or education programs, and Seattle Public Theatre decided to pose it directly to the participants in their youth drama wing. When the teenagers couldn’t find a horror comedy script they liked, SPT staff allowed them to commission local playwrights to create their ideal play. With ongoing feedback from the teen participants, playwrights Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Maggie Lee, Darian Lindle, Matt Smith, and M. Yichao developed Shadows Under the Market. The result? A comedic horror play, filled with musical numbers, tons of laughs, and enthusiastic young performers who are – quite deservedly – proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Shadows Under the Market primarily follows a group of adolescents who have been selected for a ‘teen ambassador program’ run by Pike Place Market. While their official duties consist of tasks like welcoming people to the market and ensuring that young children behave appropriately, these official tasks get pushed to the side as the specters haunting the market increasingly demand their attention. Despite their many differences and squabbles, these teen ambassadors must band together to not only solve the mystery of what these spirits want, but how to prevent them from harming any of the living.

This is a show that’s driven by creative youth and supported wholeheartedly by adult designers. Jacqueline Meyners, who is also the leader of SPT’s education department, directed the show, and does an admirable job creating the right pacing and tone for each moment. The humorous moments move at a whiplash speed that makes the banter or sight-gags all the more entertaining (I was particularly in awe of the hilarious and action-packed fight choreography!), while the spooky moments are deliberately slow and unsettling. The scenic design (created by Max Sarkowsky) is simple yet impressive, depicting a few different locations in Pike Place Market. Both the set and the props (created by Jack Jessamyn Bateman-Iino) have fun stage magic features too, from the double doors that open without any human assistance to carrots that sprout up from human flesh.

Since Shadows Under the Market is a theatre for young adults (TYA) show, there are a lot of roles to ensure that all the youth performers can play at least one, if not more, parts. All fourteen participants bring tons of energy and joy to this performance, and it’s infectious; the audience on opening night was laughing, gasping, and clapping as much as I’ve ever heard at a comedic show. Standout performers include Elliot Reed, who plays a teen avidly working multiple summer jobs, and can garner audience laughter or sympathy with just a shift in his body language; Elizabeth Batt as the hyperactive Finch, who excels at delivering jokes both deadpan and goofy; Malcolm Doty as Agent Phillips, who does a fantastic parody of a movie spy; and Aine McKenna and Ria Agrawal, both of whom play multiple roles and were absolutely terrifying as two demonic children terrorizing the living kids.

One of the most impressive features of the show, in my opinion, is the fact that all of the music was composed by two of the teenage participants (Kyle Brown and Amelia Dooley). These young composers also do a great job performing most of the songs as Pike Place ghosts. The tunes range from slow and spooky, such as a haunting melody about being lost within familiar streets, to the more silly and upbeat, like one about “a kid and a carrot” that I found myself humming the rest of the night.

Shadows Under the Market is a rare type of TYA show with teenage performers and professional-level direction, set design, lighting, and other production elements. This horror comedy achieves its ambition of being by turns spine-chilling and hilarious, all of which is amplified by the student-composed music. With Shadows Under the Market, Seattle Public Theatre offers patrons a comedic ghost story that everyone involved in the production clearly loves being a part of, and that enthusiasm easily seeps into the audience.

Shadows Under the Market has closed, but to learn more about what is coming up at Seattle Public Theatre, visit https://www.seattlepublictheater.org/.

Photo credit: Nick Bringhurst