Hell’s Finest, a new play premiering as part of the Hollywood Fringe festival, proves that even sinister apocalyptic cults face HR obstacles. From playwright/director Ashlynn Judy, this farcical horror comedy places guests in the role of cultist as a new leader is chosen from a trio of promising candidates. But before we get to the main attraction, let’s back up a little, as much of what makes Hell’s Finest interesting happens before you enter the theater. As you approach the box office, you’re handed a booklet. Don’t ignore this as if it were a typical playbill, as it contains the entire backstory of the cult and what it’s trying to achieve, including many details that the play itself doesn’t address in great detail.

You are one of the Ascendants of Abaddon, the loyal acolytes of what is essentially a Judeochristian third-party who aims to subdue both God and the devil and to unleash suffering and death upon all who oppose him, as you do. The leader of the AoA is Adam Apollyon (Sean Little), Abaddon’s prophet who has received his vision and formed a metaphysical bond with the deity himself. Adam has since been functioning as the capstone of the cult hierarchy, leading recruitment efforts and performing the necessary rituals. Speaking of the hierarchy, that too is detailed in the booklet and prior to entering the theater, each member of the audience receives a tag denoting their role in the organization, from the lowly feeders and providers to the conjurers and sacrificers that serve directly below Adam.

As the show is about to start the Sergeant at Arms (Corey Robideau) leads us in welcoming Adam to the stage and does he make an entrance. Adam is a somewhat stereotypically flamboyant character wearing a bright orange floral-patterned captain’s outfit with spiky golden glitter slippers. That outfit pretty much sums up that character, not particularly complicated but entertaining and charismatic. After explaining that in preparation for the upcoming apocalypse, Abaddon has called for him to join him in wherever it is that he lives and thus someone new must be chosen to reign over the faithful stuck down here on Earth.

For that purpose, he’s chosen 3 prospects, each with their own diabolical tendencies that they feel make them suited to the task. First, we’re introduced to S (Melissa Cindric), a manic and perpetually aroused psychopath that gets off on driving people to suicide. After she gives us her story, we move on to D (Malcolm Wise), a drug dealer with no reservations about purposely contaminating his product, and finally M (Christian Longoria), a young upstart gynecologist that began to get a bit too physical with his patients after the failure of a long-term relationship. It’s a small but varied cast of characters that creates a lot of opportunities for interesting interactions, not all of which are fully-realized.

Hell’s Finest has a strong concept and the structure allows them to explore both the horror and comedy of what basically amounts to a cult leader job interview but with that comes a few hiccups in finding its identity. It doesn’t take itself seriously enough to be considered much of a drama and while there are some moments of horror it seems to be intended primarily with the issue there being that D and M are not funny. It’s not necessarily that they’re played poorly or that the script is clumsy, they just don’t say anything that could be construed as comedy. D is a detached sociopath that seems ambivalent about his actions and M is a schizoid that doesn’t seem like he wants to be there. And in the sense of delivering the character as it’s written, everything more or less works but it’s hard to carry a comedy when half the characters don’t seem to be aware that they’re in one, the exceptions being the aforementioned Adam and S, who’s essentially Harley Quinn with the volume turned all the way up. It’s a performance with an utter lack of restraint but for the slapstick comedy that this seems to be designed to be, that works just fine. Sean Little as Adam is similarly not the most complex of characters but his enthusiasm and comfort in his role manage to keep things spirited.

There are some fun surprises I won’t spoil, revelations that help to flesh out the characters a bit more and overall it’s an alright time for fans of dark comedy but it does end up feeling like a concept that needed a bit more development to find its voice. The ticket price is at least quite reasonable and while I can’t recommend making a trip out specifically for this show, it could fit in as a budget-friendly addition to a night of Fringe.

Get your tickets for Hell’s Finest at hollywoodfringe.com