The second Amber's Sweets Repo! The Genetic Opera shadowcast performance took place Saturday at Sacramento’s historic Colonial Theater. The film was projected onto the stage while actors re-enacted the film using special effects, audience interaction and aerial acrobatics.
 

However, it was not for the faint of heart or stomach. The movie features scenes of disembowelment, sexual innuendo and nudity, so likewise the shadowcast performance had skimpy clothing, swearing, and blood and guts.
 

There was also a special performance by the film’s co-creator Darren Smith at the beginning of the set. Smith took the stage with his wife, Nancy, who plays Dead Marni in the film, and sang a medley. He played keyboard while Nancy sang a series of songs that she provided backing vocals for in the film. To finish off their mini-performance, Smith and his wife resurrected a song from one of his older 10-minute operas, “Old Tom’s Bar Room,” called “Folding Three-foot Penis Cards in New York City.” The song told the story of Smith’s struggles as a musician in New York, where he had a job folding massive greeting cards.
 

As the film's re-enactment began, audience members jeered and called out jokes and crude observations.
 

Darren Smith said of this behavior, known as "calling out": “This is so much akin to live theater because you have the film as your source material but at the same time people are allowed to do their own thing and I encourage it. Go out, go wild, do things. Sometimes it’s weird because there will be a part in the movie where it’s supposed to be a real sensitive scene, and people will be doing shoutouts and jokes and stuff like that. And it’s kind of like, I’m one of those sick guys who would laugh at a funeral, so to me it’s kind of perfect. I’d probably do the same thing.”
 

The Amber’s Sweets press release describes the film as “a story set in the not so distant future after an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by villainous Repo Men. In a world where surgery addicts are hooked on painkilling drugs and murder is sanctioned by law, a sheltered young girl searches for the cure to her own rare disease as well as information about her family’s mysterious history. After being sucked into the haunting world of GeneCo, she is unable to turn back, as all of her questions will be answered at the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera.”
 

Although there are about 40 shadowcasts of Repo! going on around the country, Smith said of his involvement in the Sacramento chapter, “It’s been fantastic. This is my second time up here. I haven’t seen the whole shadowcast that they’ve done yet, but I was here for the Sacramento Horror Film Fest back in October and that blew me away, just with the couple of scenes that I’d seen … So I’m really excited. And then the other thing is I really click with these guys. They’re some of my favorite people out of the 40 or so shadowcasts throughout the world. So I’m really happy to be up here again.”
 

The shadowcast performance allowed fans of the film to see their favorite characters brought to life on stage.
 

Popular characters such as Pavi Largo, played by Tristan Christ, appeared in full costume. From behind his Largo mask, Christ said his favorite scene to re-enact is the “night surgeon” scene because “it shows how messed up Nathan [the Repo Man] really is. He’s trying to hold back, but in reality he can’t because he’s got a job to do … I just love how all of the characters are so violent. They’re enjoying everyone’s death.”
 

Probably the most beautiful scene is the one in which Blind Mag, played by Camille Niello, hovers in the air and sings an operatic song. She swings midair from a harness while mimicking Blind Mag’s movements.
 

“The first time [I was suspended in midair] was crazy because I normally don’t like heights at all,” Niello said. “I’m one of those people who climb halfway up a rock wall and freak. But I was totally comfortable with it.”
 

Even if the movie is a bit unconventional, the actors are like a family. Their attitude toward the project and each other is reflected in the fun atmosphere.
 

“It’s been a good experience,” said Dani Fontana, who plays Graverobber. “I’m so glad to be in this, to be involved. All of these people are awesome. The actors are all awesome. It’s been a really cool experience.”
 

The next Amber’s Sweets shadowcast performance of Repo! The Genetic Opera is scheduled in May at the Colonial Theater on Stockton Boulevard. For more information, visit www.amberssweets.com.
 

Photographs courtesy of Amber's Sweets Website and Ashley Porciuncula