Blending Cinema with Theatre: A Q&A with the Creators of ‘The Black Key’ Experience
How a Cannes party sensation is becoming an immersive experience for New Year’s Eve
Part lavish party and part elaborate mystery quest, this year’s most talked about New Year’s Eve party might just be The Black Key.
A self-proclaimed “erotic” event, The Black Key will take place in a San Francisco mansion this Saturday night, December 31, to ring in 2018. But event creator Anya Bay wants you to know this is by no means just another ordinary evening of drinking and debauchery. Guests have the opportunity to look beneath the New Year’s celebration to dig deeper into a story that unfolds over the course of the event, leaving just one lucky participant to find the elusive titular “black key” which unlocks the final secret of the night.
We recently spoke with Bay to learn more about not just this upcoming weekend’s event, but also their plans to remount it in Los Angeles next year, learning how this independent filmmaker plans to blend the worlds of cinema and live immersive experiences into a combined form of entertainment.
No Proscenium (NP): How did The Black Key come to be?
Anya Bay (AB): We did the first event — it was barely immersive — at Cannes Film Festival and people loved it. My producer said, ‘You guys are so good at this. Why don’t we do another level.’ With each film that we do, we not only create the film but also an experience for people to be part of the film. And also later on, which requires more investment, to do a VR piece.
The event promotes the film and the film promotes the event. That was the whole idea of creating the company, doing the film, immersive experience, and later on VR.
NP: How would you describe the immersive elements of The Black Key?
AB: Everybody at the party starting from the security guy to a cleaning lady — everybody is playing a part, including actors and models. The whole venue becomes the “game room,” as we call it. It’s not necessarily an escape room in terms of you’re not given an hour and you have to escape. But rather it’s a quest. The guests come in, introduced by a guy in a mask. Everyone has to wear a mask, it’s a requirement. Then they come in and the whole design is really beautiful. We’ll have costumes from the movie Snowbound. The story is last year a group of people disappeared at the party. Later they were found frozen in the snow. Follow the “key” signs to find out what happened. The whole venue is filled with clues. You can interact with objects and performers to find out your next clue, as far as what happened to guests at the party and why they were frozen.
NP: Is The Black Key based on your movie Snowbound?
AB: It’s not exactly like in the film. We can’t reveal the story because [the movie] is not out yet. But it is based on it. That’s how Snowbound starts, as five people woke up naked in the snow wearing masquerade masks not knowing where they are or what the hell happened. Later on during the film, we see their flashbacks as they start to remember the night before they were at the erotic masquerade party and each one of them did something to the girl, which they found was dead later on. Then they have to find whoever did it and the guilty person has to die the way the girl died, otherwise deadly consequences will be released. The characters in the film are trying to find out who that guilty person is and point fingers at each other. So basically, in The Black Key, it’s heavily based on it.
NP: How much will everyone at The Black Key party get to participate in the immersive story?
AB: The beauty of event is you can choose your level of participation. Some people just want to come in, have drinks and food, and not care about anything — just look at the half naked girls and dancers, which they absolutely can. If you’re really interested in a quest, you can try to find as many clues as possible. The “black key” itself, it’s only one person that can find it. Basically that’s the person that will receive the missing element of the game and find out exactly what happened.
NP: So is it basically a free-for-all search until one person finds the black key?
AB: Yes, but we also have different tickets, the Silver Key and the Golden Key. The Golden Key also has additional erotic entertainment, though I want to say it’s not a sex party. People keep asking me that. It’s going to be an erotic theatrical performance. It’s going to happen in a closed room and only a limited amount of people can be in the room because it’s small. It’s an immersive theatrical play — about 15 minutes, also based on the movie. […] You watch the performance, which gives you even more clues to what happened in the story.
NP: Are you prepared for insanity as hundreds of people are unleashed into your quest?
AB: We are. First of all, nobody’s coming at the same time. Second, it’s New Year’s Eve and some of them couldn’t care less about the quest. They’re coming for the beautiful girls and costumes and design. We wanted to satisfy each customer. But yes, I’m prepared for chaos. At Cannes, we didn’t expect that at all. We threw the party on Saturday night — the biggest night of the festival. All the big celebrities had their events. My PR agent at the time said, ‘I don’t know Anya how many people will show up. If 100 people show up, it’s great, but I cannot guarantee that.’ We had 400 people. We had lines all night long. It was called the best party at Cannes. […] We just took it to another level and created The Black Key.
NP: You say it’s not a sex party, but it is an erotic evening. How much sexuality should attendees expect to see and participate in?
AB: It’s the whole atmosphere that is created by actors, models, and the design and costumes. That’s how we rehearse with actors and models that each guest, should he want that, will be part of that, if that makes sense. I started receiving emails asking, ‘Can I come in lingerie?’ Yeah! As long as you don’t do anything crazy, so to speak. We’ll have Massive Attack type music. It’s all going to be very dark and sexy and sensual. We want to make sure that people will feel a part of the environment. People who are coming want to be a part of that. Mostly couples, interestingly. I’ve noticed mostly people are buying two tickets.
NP: What made you want to combine filmmaking with live immersive events?
AB: People these days, it’s hard to surprise them. Just watching the movie is not good enough anymore. People want to be move involved and more entertained.
NP: Where does The Black Key go after San Francisco?
AB: We are going to kind of see what works and what doesn’t, because it’s the very first time we’re doing The Black Key. Also, it’s going to be a little different because it’s New Year’s Eve, so everybody cares about New Year’s Eve more than everything else. But later on the plan is to do a series of events in LA.
Tickets are on sale now for The Black Key in San Francisco, which takes place at the Payne Mansion Hotel will max out around 200 attendees, according to Bay. She expects the Los Angeles incarnation of the event, which is scheduled for February 10th, 2018, will have a smaller audience, depending on the downtown venue’s size, yet to be announced. The events will be open to ages 21 and up. More information can be found at TheBlackKeyEvent.com.
No Proscenium is a labor of love made possible by our generous backers like you: join them on Patreon today!
But wait! Now you can tip the writers DIRECTLY. If you want to support our review and feature writers, use this widget to drop them some bucks. The site doesn’t take a cut. (Gumroad does.)
In addition to the No Proscenium website, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in our online community Everything Immersive and in our burgeoning Slack forum.
