Drawing parallels between 2025’s anti-ICE protests in LA and the dark reality of Hollywood’s Golden Age from Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller Callum Patrick Hughes examines the destructive nature of the Hollywood dream through the lens of modern political unrest. Told in second person narrative to draw the audience into the protagonist’s troubled mind, Day of The Locust follows a young scenic designer on his journey through the seedy underbelly of the film industry. In a machine that sells dreams while quietly breeding rage, the pressure to succeed and the feelings of exclusion push aspiring artists’ to breaking point resulting in a mob riot at a movie premiere. Featuring a live onstage soundscape using guitars, loop pedals, and guitar drones, Day of The Locust’s part-riot-part-protest-song form critiques the false promises of both the entertainment industry and the American Dream.

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