Review Rundown: Of Pirates, Whirlwind Tours, and Parties
The Review Crew is all smiles this week LA, London, and on Long Island. (FOUR REVIEWS)
This week we’ve got two Weil’s for the price of one as siblings Blake and Ellery tackle shows on Long Island and in London, respectively. Meanwhile, Anthony returns for the first time in a minute to board a tall ship and get his pirate on out in the Port of Los Angeles. Yar.
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The Birthday Party — Rara Avis Productions
$175, Long Island, First Run Concluded, Returning October 2024
I am fully aware of the privilege it is to describe my nights out to the unsuspecting.
“Oh, Blake, what did you do this weekend?”
“Well, it was a sort of occult horror-tinged sex-comedy in a secret villa on Long Island. There was a cursed skull, and oodles of champagne, and I got to baffle uninitiated audience members who didn’t expect a non-actor would play along!”
Honestly, I could leave the review at that if I wanted. If you’re not already interested, I don’t particularly want to be friends with you. But, for those whose acquaintances don’t regularly tell them it sounds like they’re about to be “The Menu’d”, I’ll elaborate.
Rara Avis Productions has, for the past ten years, been developing what I can only describe as one of the most exciting boutique theatrical practices on the East Coast. With spectacular sets furnished by their home at the historic Sands Point Preserve, intimate audience sizes, and a signature Grand Guignol blend of the macabre, erotic, and absurd, I never hesitate to recommend them.
Their latest production, The Birthday Party, is the first to bring a select group of fifteen visitors to the private villa, deeper in the woods than the primary Hempstead House estate that normally hosts Rara Avis’ larger shows. Audience’s arrive to celebrate Archie, the dissolute son of the Chatterton family, the perverse eccentrics at the heart of prior hit Chatterton Cabinet of Curiosities. Archie is in a state of ennui, un-thrilled by the constant stream of drugs, sexy pillow fights with his cadre of floozies, all of which the audience gets to experience as they explore the villa. With friends, family, and loyal servants hoping to cheer him with the arrival of an aforementioned cursed skull, the audience has both a mission and an opportunity to share in the revels.
This casting of the audience elevates the evening and differentiates it from prior offersings. Where previously, tension was maintained by treating the audience as intruders to be met with hostility (fun in its own right), at The Birthday Party, you’re a trusted guest to be pampered. Not only does this give the audience an immediate affinity for Archie, working to make sure his party is pleasant, but quickly secures buy-in.
Needless to say, things don’t go according to plan, and audience alliances shift as characters begin to reveal either their vacuity or hidden depths. As the evening progresses, satire builds, and while never heavy, The Birthday Party has a witty class consciousness that gives it a core of substance that separates it from frothier comedies in the immersive space.
At the end of the day, I can’t recommend the show enough. It’s so rare to find immersive theatre that’s so sparking a good time. Clever, bubbly, and occasionally delightfully raunchy, The Birthday Party leans into the strengths of Rara Avis as a company, and cements their status as leaders in the field.
— Blake Weil, East Coast Editor at Large
Horizon of Khufu–Excurio Immersive Expeditions
Tickets from 21 GBP, London, through May 31st
If I were cooler, I would be skeptical about VR in general, and Horizon of Khufu in particular. After all, there’s something inherently, borderline aggressively, silly about the whole business– you’re strapping yourself into an awkward, ungainly helmet and blundering around a more-or-less empty room, pretending you’re on an expedition with the pharaohs. What’s worse, the event advertises itself as “educational”! What could be less cool?
Fortunately, I am not very cool at all. Horizon of Khufu is silly–splendidly, gloriously, aggressively silly, and while I giggled the whole way through, I had a very fun time indeed.
The premise feels almost cribbed from a theme park attraction–and despite the very modern technology, there’s a distinct early 90’s flavor to it all. You’re on an expedition to explore the Great Pyramid at Giza with your guide, the charmingly dorky archaeologist Mona. Mona is going to show you the chambers of the Great Pyramid, and teach you a little about Pharaoh Khufu, whose tomb it was built as. However, there’s a pesky cat who seems to be following you…anyone who had an “illustrated guide to ancient Egypt’’ as a kid, or is otherwise familiar with the role of cats in ancient Egyptian culture, can see where this is going, but come along for the ride anyway, why don’t you?
Despite the goofy details, the show has legitimate educational value, and real egyptologists worked on the content to ensure accuracy. The VR effects are convincing enough that when we were instructed to “crawl through a tunnel to the next chamber,” I, while fully aware that we were in a completely empty room and I could have easily made the stride, crouched and crept to avoid “hitting my head in the tunnel.”
There are imperfections–the completely open physical layout coupled with multiple groups attending at a time means that sometimes you’ll see a ghostly figure wandering through a sarcophagus, or hanging around in the middle of the Nile, and it breaks the immersion. But overall, I walked away having learned something, having smiled and laughed, and feeling like I’d been somewhere very different than a room in a shopping center, indeed.
–Ellery Weil, London Correspondent
Mr Fogg’s Treasure Hunt–The Inception Group
Tickets from 65 GBP, London, Saturdays
As regular NoPro readers may be aware, I am an old friend of Mr Fogg’s, and the associated, often well-lubricated, cocktail adventures he and the Inception Group have cooked up over the years. And so, one recent Sunday, when myself and a relative were in dire need of a diversion after a loss in the family, and Mr Fogg was hosting a treasure hunt around Soho, I had my suspicions that he’d have just the ticket. I wasn’t wrong.
Mr Fogg’s Treasure Hunt joins other Fogg’s-brand experiences, such as the Murder Mystery in Mayfair, but feels somewhat more thematically appropriate than the latter. You and your “team” are assigned a quest to travel “around Soho in 80 minutes,” with an app that gives you frequent video guidance from Fogg himself–kitted out in a truly zany mustache and cravat, naturally. You’re also kitted out with a mysterious leather satchel containing jars of spices, old postcards, a newspaper, and more, and plied with a cocktail before being sent on your way.
Is this a light, easy-breezy wander around a few blocks of the West End, followed by your second drink in the cozy surrounds of Mr Fogg’s Pawnbroker’s? Why, of course not! True to the spirit of his own journey, Mr Fogg has you running (literally) around what feels like half of London, learning everything from facts about the history of public health in the city to Fogg’s own apparent struggles with foreign languages and medicinal herbs.
While I suppose a less competitive team may have taken the hunt at their leisure, where’s the fun in that? We arrived back at the Pawnbrokers thoroughly exhausted and more than ready for our second round of cocktails–while the menu was limited, every option, including non-alcoholic one, was thoughtfully prepared.
Potential visitors should be aware that this adventure is not cheap (another Fogg’s signature, it seems–given that tickets include two of their elaborate cocktails, this probably shouldn’t come as a shock), and happens rain or shine, mostly outdoors. However, if, like us, you’re looking for something to transport you elsewhere for a few hours, even as you remain resolutely in Soho, this certainly does the trick.
–Ellery Weil, London Correspondent
Pirates Wanted! — Last Call Theatre
$60; San Pedro; Through April 20
How often are you given the opportunity to put on some pirate-y clothing, board a 3-masted tall ship and live out an evening of pirate adventure, intrigue and melodrama? Given the chance to stand up for piracy, freedom and kinship, would you? Last Call Theatre’s latest show Pirates Wanted! is offering all of that, plus laughter, sea-shanty sing-a-longs and a measure of controlled chaos that wants you coming back for more.
Pirates Wanted! is part LARP, part melodrama, and part Pirate Faire with a little bit of a speed dating feel. The show follows the adventures of a motley crew of pirates, fresh from a shipwreck, as they attempt to recruit a crew of landlubbers (those would be, we audience folk) and get them trained within a matter of hours. Recruits scurry around deck, talking to various crewmates, learning various pirate skills (Dice! Navigation! Knots!) between bells and larger set pieces. This is all under the shadow of trying to get the crew up to snuff in time to be evaluated by the Pirate Council, and the odd circumstances of the ship’s crashing.
The amazingly diverse cast are at turns broad, funny, intense and raw, depending on the story path you’re on, what decisions you and the rest of the audience have made, and whether it’s a larger or more intimate moment. I and my fellow recruits quickly became invested in what was going on, and I found myself cheering (or quietly booing) in one moment, and holding back tears in another on my particular story path.
The show has a bit of everything, but because of its nature, you can’t do everything — at least not in one go. Every decision, every conversation steers the tale, letting each audience member find its own fun.
Fun that makes you want to sign up again, make different choices, and enjoy a different ending.
— Anthony Robinson, LA Correspondent
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