Spooky season is almost here! Chicago’s puppet haunted house returns with lullaby theme

Chicago’s only puppet haunted house is coming back for a sixth season with a new theme built around lullabies. House of the Exquisite Corpse VI: LULLABIES runs from Thursday, Oct. 8, through Sunday, Nov. 1 at Steppenwolf Theatre’s Merle Reskin Space in Lincoln Park.

According to a press release by the organization, the show brings together six teams of Chicago artists, each creating a separate puppet horror experience tied to the idea of lullabies. Guests enter through timed entries, start in a makeshift foyer, and move through six rooms where they look through keyholes, cracks, and hidden doors.

Subscribe to Chicago Star’s Weekly City Buzz Newsletter

Director Corey Smith stated, per the announcement, “The lullaby promises motherly comfort, but our explorations uncovered something darker underneath—a plea for control in an uncontrollable world. The truth is that our mothers cannot save us, no matter how deeply we wish they could. We live in a smoke-drenched, waking apocalypse. We have to give our kin a way to process this desperation, this existential terror. What better way than a song at the cusp of a dream?”

Tickets, dates and location

Performances are scheduled Thursdays through Saturdays, with timed entries starting at 6:50 p.m. and running every 15 minutes until the last entry at 9:30 p.m. Sunday matinees are new this year, the announcement confirms, and start at 1:50 p.m.

The production is recommended for ages 13 and older. Tickets are on sale now, with sliding-scale pay-what-you-can prices suggested at $22 to $47, and an all-inclusive package priced at $75 plus a $3 booking fee.

Read more on Chicago Star

• Get buggy with it: New kid-friendly Bug Squad exhibit opens at Peggy Notebaert Museum

• Move over, NASCAR: RPM Raceway to debut massive 90,000-square-foot racing facility

• Chicago real estate competition heats up: Homebuyers face fierce bidding wars

• Shedd Aquarium to rebuild endangered sharks population, sends zebra shark eggs to Indonesia

• Chicago’s quantum explosion: Infleqtion opens new West Loop quantum innovation center 

• Fighting Illini gets glow-up: Illinois among Big Ten schools to launch $30M jersey patch deal

The all-inclusive package includes the show, a drink ticket, a giveaway at entry and a backstage tour. The package is available Thursdays and Sundays only, through Sunday, Oct. 25, for the last entry time.

House of the Exquisite Corpse VI: LULLABIES is set for Steppenwolf Theatre’s Merle Reskin Space at 1624 N. Halsted in Chicago, near the North/Clybourn Red Line stop.