SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES
tor in order to procure a kit, and
ended up putting on a farce, starring Sarah Silverman and David
Cross, among others.
“It was an abomination,” Roberts
said. “People have been trying to
do damage to Hell House for years,
and I always say this: God’s going to
have the last word.”
Roberts first put on a low-budget
version of a “hell house” in his late
20s, but it wasn’t until 1995, after
he’d moved to Colorado, that he
made scaring kids for the Lord a
regular part of his mission. He sent
out press releases to media outlets
all over Denver. (“And they came
like crazy,” Roberts said.)
After nearly 40 churches had
reached out to him for guidance, he
began to develop his how-to kits.
By now, Roberts has sold kits to 26
foreign countries including Australia, and all 50 states.
While Roberts presents himself as a fighter on the front lines
of the culture war, he’s only
once written an overtly political scene: It featured Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, glow-inthe-dark writing (“Lies” “Lust”
“Adultery”) and, of course, demons. This year, citing logistical
reasons, Roberts isn’t putting on
a production. If things were different, he said he’d likely add a
scene about President Obama’s
support for same-sex marriage.
The next step, he says, is
Hollywood. “We were real close
to a movie once,” he said, “but
too many people were
scared of it.”
Secular
theater
company
Les Freres
Corbusier
staged
Keenan’s
Hell House
in 2006 in
New York. In
this scene, an
angel visits a
patient on life
support.