A GHOST STORY THAT
EXPLAINS ITSELF TO DEATH

It’s 2012 in Sherman Oaks, CA, when Thai-American life-insurance salesman Max (David Huynh) begins sleepwalking and violently lashes out at his pregnant wife Bincy (Christine Corpuz), prompting her protective Thai-born father Somboon (Alberto Isaac) to spirit her away and attempt a homespun exorcism. Max survives a second-story plunge, an accident caused by his possession, and heads to Las Vegas. There, he tracks down his estranged friend, Delia (Tamika Simpkins), begging for help. Once a dabbler in the occult, and the very medium he first encountered in the prequel The Brothers Paranormal, which played at East West in 2022. Delia is currently dealing with her niece Tasha and her fiancé Ethan; they’ve arrived to press Delia to sanitize her past so his devout Catholic parents will bless their marriage. Complicating things is that Tasha is Black and pregnant, Ethan is White, and time is short. What follows knots these pressures into a family rite — possession, expulsion, and a late time-traveling epilogue that tries to reconcile what the living owe the dead.

 Top: Tamika Simpkins as Delia and Davide Costa as Ethan
Bottom: Aja Hinds as Tasha

East West Players’ Paranormal Inside has a killer premise and a few genuinely funny exchanges, but Prince Gomolvilas buries the goods under an over-abundance of exposition. Especially in the second act, scene after scene explains itself in triplicate; characters narrate their motives and histories until the tension leaks out, and the promising relationships never quite cash the checks the setup writes. We’re told a lot, we feel less. Even with a strong tonal idea — a haunting by ancestors because of Max’s refusal to embrace his Thai lineage — the script keeps pausing to footnote itself, so we end up knowing how everyone feels without really knowing who they are.

  Top: Alberto Isaac as Somboon
Bottom: David Huynh as Max

The winning actors and the production itself move more confidently. Director Jeff Liu keeps the gears meshing, Randy Wong-Westbrooke’s set shape-shifts among locales, JJ Javier’s wardrobe choices carry a quiet echo of elders who loom large in memory, and Dominik Krzanowski’s jolt-inducing effects (yes, levitations and Max trying to rid himself of the spooks) provide the night’s sharpest shivers. You needn’t have seen The Brothers Paranormal first, but it was splendid, awash as it was in shocking and saddening revelations. Here, the theme is far too broad for Gomolvilas, who seems intent on mapping out the journey to his somewhat confusing and pat ending instead of fleshing out his characters. The bones are definitely there, now we need the organs and skin to pull it all together. Let images, situations, and silence do their share of the haunting — and cut some superfluous dialogue — and this rolling premiere could land with far greater force. As it stands, the show intrigues, startles in flashes, and talks past its own power.

 Top: David Huynh as Max
Bottom: Davide Costa as Ethan, Aja Hinds as Tasha, and Tamika Simpkins as Delia

photos by Jenny Graham

Paranormal Inside
East West Players
David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso Street
ends on November 2, 2025
for tickets, call 213.625.7000 or visit East West Players