Diana Kyle as Ma Barker, facing off with Grant Garrison as Dock Barker, in “The Ghosts of Ma Barker.”

The recently closed production of T.S. Devai’s play, The Ghosts of Ma Barker, at the Ruby Theatre at The Complex in Hollywood offered audiences a strong intersection of drama, history, social issues and the paranormal. Framed by the story of a paranormal podcaster (Devix Szell) and a psychic investigator (the electric Linda McShan) visiting the hideout where the last members of Ma Barker’s gang met their deaths in America’s longest-running shootout, the play recounts the events that led up to that lethal disaster. Along the way, the audience meets Dock Barker (Grant Garrison, giving an assured performance), “Curley” Davis (Owen Virgin) and Edna Murray (Joan Apperson), Freddy Barker (an effective Ricky Ryba) and Ma Barker herself (a commanding Diana Kyle). Richard-John Sekaily makes a particularly magnetic impression as Alvin “Creepy” Karpis. With a strong supporting cast and good production values, the show lagged a little in its second act and had some script issues that the cast overcame fairly well. In terms of the creepy content—a very significant element on this website!—The Ghosts of Ma Barker has a few good hackle-raising interludes, but really only comes into its own horror-wise with the understated effect used in the very end of the play. (Not to give too much away, but it’s a chance for the dead to break the fourth wall with the living…) All in all, a good show, and here’s hoping Devai and company will bring more ghosts to the stage again soon.