Review Rundown: The Immersive Is Coming From Inside the House
Spooky Season nationwide & online. In-person work out of London, Philly & NYC. An online festival. Nine Reviews!
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As we welcome two new correspondents to the team, it’s another HUGE week as Halloween approaches with séances, vampires, ghosts…and puppets?!?!
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ARRIVAL — imPOSSIBLE Producing & Dunster / Bausor
£5–10; London, UK; Run Concluded
Two minutes after entering the park — Arrival’s starting point — I slipped down an unlit slope, resulting in my interactive experience beginning with a ripped bag, a bumped head, and a hurt ankle. The fact that people walked around me and no one offered assistance suggested a disappointing lack of duty of care: one that, unfortunately, persisted throughout.
Audio during the eight sections of Arrival, a promenade piece set around the London Royal Docklands, were delivered to us via headphones (but said headphones were removed to access other parts of the performance). We listened to locals describe the area’s development during the war and its gentrification while watching performers dancing. There was a moving description of the factory explosion in Beirut in 2020 as compared to the 1917 Silvertown TNT disaster, although other links to the locality weren’t as clear. We were invited to scan QR codes to place augmented reality models of cranes around the dock using an app, but the app’s terms were written in Japanese. And while walking through residential roads listening to the importance of the community, we accidentally trapped a local trying to exit their estate.
The appearance of Little Amal, a puppet girl standing over eleven feet tall who had traveled from Turkey to London (taking the possible route of a Syrian refugee), was noteworthy. Sadly, there was insufficient explanation why she appeared in the show, as we were hearing “Let’s go to the docks!” screamed on a loop through our headphones.
And at the end of the experience, after viewing a short film projected onto the side of a building, we were left on the opposite side of the river, without any instructions of the way back to public transportation.
As a whole, Arrival felt disconnected despite enthusiastic performances. Instead, I would have appreciated the ability to travel at my own pace.
— Thomas Jancis, London Correspondent
The Final Séance — The Exposure Project
$35; Denver, CO; Through Oct 28
As a world renowned psychic medium, I’d been invited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to a mansion in the heart of Denver. There, I would participate in a séance with other spiritualists where we would attempt to contact the late, great Harry Houdini. Black tie attire was recommended, out of respect for the spirits.
Upon entering the home, I was greeted by Mr. Doyle (played by the show’s creator, James Lopez) and joined an in-progress cocktail hour while we waited for the other guests to arrive. Once they did, we moved into the study to learn more about the purpose of our gathering, then took our seats at a round table in the center of the parlor. Mr. Doyle then led us through a series of experiments to determine first if spirits were present, and then if any of them were Houdini himself. As Doyle conducted these experiments, we learned more about his and our unsettled relationships with Houdini while we attempted to make contact.
Although there were no jump scares or dramatic happenings during the 60-minute performance, the one-man show was a delightfully intimate experience. More than just a captivating actor, Lopez is a magician, and he blended the two crafts together in a way that made the evening’s events just peculiar enough to seem like something supernatural might actually be at play. The authenticity of the space paired with the small format (about 10 guests in total) made it feel authentic and thus easier to suspend disbelief with the passing of each experiment. Even Covid precautions (from the pre-show message we received, to the “ectoplasm” we lathered our hands with before the séance began) were artfully communicated using in-world language.
The Final Séance was fun, engaging and moody — the perfect Halloween event for even the faintest of heart.
— Danielle Look, Denver Correspondent
Hollywood & Vamp — 88Twenty Group
$75; Los Angeles, CA; Through Oct 27
There’s a lot of potential in Hollywood & Vamp, a pop-up vampire lounge/rock cabaret that’s emerged in Hollywood’s Bourbon Room for a four night run this Spooky Season. Some of it is well realized. Some of it needs work.
We start with the well realized. The creators stocked the “immersive lounge” part of the show with some real ringers — veterans from the immersive scene like Sophie Clare Cooper and Mason Conrad, who have done this kind of ambient crowd work/storyworld building before. Making a “scene” is as much about a vibe as anything and this fang gang definitely has the vibe. The cabaret structure is also sound; one story gag worked so well I don’t want to spoil it. But the show pretty much stopped after that, right when it was getting good. It was mystifying and felt extremely short at that point.
I can see how if Hollywood & Vamp is given some time to really gel, this could be one of the rare times that cabaret and immersive go hand in glove. The problem is that the story is both plot-heavy and unclear. The friends I ran into at the show couldn’t make sense of the ending. Hell, I couldn’t make sense of the ending. The irony being that this is a show that doesn’t really benefit from having an ending. People want soap operatics from the children of the night, not heavy plot and intricate world building. Leave that to the role playing set, who have that kind of vampire action on lock. (Ironically I got a new Vampire: The Masquerade sourcebook in the mail hours before I went to H&V. Tis the 🧛🏻♂️season, after all.)
There’s no question that vampire lounges can work in LA. The Count’s Den and others before it have proven that. Rock cabarets also work in LA: the Bourbon Room packs ’em in when Tarantino Live is playing. I even think there’s no question this can work outside of Spooky Season — the production value is readily apparent and the immersive talent is good to go — but the story needs to leave us in a frenzy, even an ’80s campy frenzy, not scratching our heads at the end. That said: I hope Hollywood & Vamp rises from its torpor once it wraps its seasonal run this week.
– Noah “Elijah” Nelson, House Tremere, Childe of Meerlinda
House of the Exquisite Corpse — Rough House Theater Co.
$21-$26; Chicago, IL; Through Oct 30
In the basement of the historic Chopin Theatre, smoke seeps through closed French doors. When they finally open, audience members are greeted by a soberly dressed man. He pulls back a curtain, revealing six different walls jutting out into a large room. Each wall has portals in them, allowing us to peer inside, along with headphones hung underneath each one. For five minutes at each wall, I bear witness to six different horrific tales.
Always a Spooky Season delight, this year’s production from Rough House Theater Co. is no exception. The company’s signature — uniquely designed puppets — are as hauntingly captivating as ever, used to full effect in magnificently executed performances. Even when visible, the puppeteer seemingly disappears from sight, my attention drawn to the puppet they’re manipulating. But this year’s star is the technical crew’s phenomenal work. Not only does the lighting and sound design set the tone of each chapter instantly, they also take the terror and tension in each piece to new heights. Additionally, I find myself impressed by the expertly executed mirror work in one piece: so simple yet utterly effective. That said, I also struggled to understand how some of the pieces connected to the titular theme, specifically involving burying secrets.
And, unfortunately, the audience experience can be physically challenging. The holes are set at different intervals on each wall, allowing audience members to find one that works best for them. While I applaud the mindfulness for accessibility, an audience grouping where everyone is five feet tall or high is in trouble. I got “stuck” at a hole so low to the concrete floor where the “best” option was to be on my knees. (It was a painfully long five minutes.)
But if you don’t mind the potential for physical discomfort, or rushing ahead of others to get an ideal viewing spot, House of the Exquisite Corpse is a terrifying time of stunning work.
— Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator
OnBoardXR — Jigsaw Ensemble, Active Replica, Agile Lens
Pay what you can; Online; Through Nov 2
OnBoardXR is a recurring, seasonal anthology of showcases of live virtual performance in WebVR. The collection typically runs under an hour and gives audiences a grab bag of digital performance projects all under one theme (“Mythos and Monsters” this time around). In a great move for accessibility, it can be viewed in a virtual reality headset (which is how I watched it), but also streamed to other devices and platforms. Attendees can tune in from all around the world; you can be an active participant in the shows or you can choose to select a more passive role. And it’s all done through the web: no special download required.
Each time I attend, I’m struck by how OnBoardXR allows a bunch of different artists to stick a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Like any good playtesting or “scratch” night, pieces are in various stages of polish or being finished, but that really isn’t the point here. It’s Brendan Bradley and team’s punk rock ethos crossed with the freedom of experimentation in a new medium that keeps the mini-festival fresh and exciting.
A singing octopus? Check. An interactive folktale? Check. Technical difficulties covered up by improv comedy using a broken-on-purpose pirate avatar? Check. An artist who 3D scanned the van she spent lockdown inside of, recreated it in VR, and then let us inside her living space, while also dialing in to greet us over Zoom so we could see her face? Check. And a gorgeous, live motion captured dance performance using full body tracking and multiple copies of the same avatar doing different things at the same time, yet streamed in 360 degrees to my device in real time? Check, check, and check.
I think of OnBoardXR as a tiny fringe festival, but available in my headset. And like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
— Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor
The Poison Garden — Alterra Productions
$35; Philadelphia, PA; Through Oct 26
At the end of the day, nothing beats a sandbox-style show for die-hard immersive fans. The ability to follow a performer around through a gorgeous mansion was enough to make me love The Poison Garden right away. Telling the story of five people disappearing over the course of an evening, and the way their destinies are shaped by a mysterious garden, the experience blooms ever grander as each life reaches its tragic end. The Poison Garden manages to evoke a Steven King-tinged tale of the ways evil preys upon human weakness. While nothing approaches blockbuster scope, the environmental storytelling, historical setting, and intimacy of the irony and shudder-laden performances elevate the experience.
If I had one quibble, it’s that too many scenes are performed solo. Sandbox immersive works best when you’re able to get a fairly comprehensive grasp on the story by following a couple of different actors, but I found myself dashing between scenes trying to grasp the plot, each performer’s track often leaving them alone. With a dispersed cast of five, the structure seems to be an attempt at crowd control. Without looping a la Sleep No More, though, I couldn’t help but miss some nuance.
Still, this confusion is a tradeoff made in exchange for intimacy. While crowds at the show were large, the performers managed to make time for small moments of interaction. I attended a performance dedicated largely for donors, with much of the audience unfamiliar with immersive theatre (and quite chatty early on). Nonetheless, as the show climaxed, I noticed the audience fell silent. Even for a set of attendees dipping their toes into immersive (while equally interested in the cocktails and nibbles on offer), The Poison Garden commanded the respect of the audience, and displayed the power of sandbox techniques.
– Blake Weil, East Coast Curator At Large
The Program — Falconworks Theater Company
$20; Red Hook, Brooklyn NY; Through Oct 31
People gather in a circle and share their most honest thoughts. The meetings start and end with a prayer. They treat each other by first names only, and carry a blue book with 12 steps that will lead them to a better place. No, they’re not recovering alcoholics, or compulsive gamblers. Here, they want to recover from white supremacy.
The Program puts audience and actors alike in the circle to discuss their actions in a white supremacist world. The play asks us “What if there were a place for candid discussions where people of all races could work to heal from white supremacy?” The playwright and director of The Program, Pink Flowers, builds an atmosphere where it is difficult to decipher who is the cast and who is the audience. While the set, inside the New Brown Memorial Church, is intended to be intimate, the producers surely expected more than half a dozen mostly white people in the audience on a Friday night.
The realistic acting, very well performed by the six person cast, gives the audience a sense of comfort where they feel open to share their own thoughts and feelings. However, realism does, at times, lack the rhythm of dramatic theatre. The first 20 minutes of this hour-long play are spent simply reading the blue program booklet. While that reinforces the idea of a 12-step program meeting, a shorter introduction and longer testimonies would make the production more engaging.
Even though the production deals with a sensitive topic in a fresh and provocative way, it lacks a more poignant approach. Flowers’ script is realistic, but the writing doesn’t match the freshness of the style. A clearer central point of conflict and heightened stakes would give the production a greater sense of drama.
— Diego Areas Munhoz, New York City Correspondent
The Woman in Black — The McKittrick Hotel
$84-$114; New York, NY; Through Jan 30
Much has already been said about the stellar The Woman in Black (and its disappointing film adaptation), yet the English ghost story continues to terrify to this day. And now this infamous play returns to haunt the McKittrick just in time for Spooky Season.
Despite a bare bones set, and just two performers, this play is one of the most haunting works I have ever witnessed. The two actors, David Acton and James Evans, produce a tour de force performance, playing dozens of characters, and helping to transport the audience to the haunted Eel Marsh House with its eponymous spectre. The sound and lighting design certainly aid the terror, but it is perhaps the audience’s imagination that is most disturbing.
However, despite being described as a “ghost story in a pub” the setting itself has little to do with the telling. The Club Car space of the McKittrick Hotel is intimate, yet has an impressive lighting array able to transform the space. But the play itself is set in a proscenium style with traditional seating in the space, rather than utilizing the promised pub imagery.
Traditional British pub fare is available for those who want it, a nice touch to further bring the audience into the English countryside. The food is marvelous (the Scotch Egg and piccalilli in particular), but this is more a lovely add on to the experience, as opposed to an intrinsic one.
There are certainly ways that this adaptation could have utilized the immersive pub atmosphere to a greater extent, but this would require some tweaking of the narrative which in itself, might take away from this staple of the horror genre. As it is, this is an incredible piece of “traditional” theatre, superbly performed, and one that any horror fan should experience at some point in their lives.
— Edward Mylechreest, New York City Correspondent
Wraith: The Oblivion — Afterlife — Fast Travel Games
$29.99; VR (Oculus, Steam); Ongoing
Ed has died. Yet he’s not dead. He’s now a “Wraith,” a ghost trapped on a plain of existence between life and death. How’d Ed die? He can’t remember. But Ed’s “Shadow,” a manifestation of his self-destructive tendencies, informs him that answers can be found in Barclay Mansion. And within this post-modern Hollywood mansion, horrific tales and vile atrocities await discovery…along with frightful and violent monsters.
Based upon the roleplaying game set within the World of Darkness universe, Wraith: The Oblivion — Afterlife is an intense, moody, and suspenseful VR game. Afterlife’s success is due to three elements working in perfect unity: sound, pacing, and set pieces. The sound design has my head whipping around at every door slam and floorboard creak I hear. This fuels Afterlife’s pacing, knowing that I’m being hunted. A glimpse of a monster here. A moaning voice there. It’s only a matter of time before I encounter something terrible. And when that confrontation begins, — a monster forcing me to quietly avoid it — it happens in a stunningly rendered and designed environment. These elements together make checking Afterlife out a must.
However, while the hide-and-seek gameplay is engaging at first, it can become tedious over time. This stems partially from lack of variation in gameplay. But when paired with the player dying (which will happen, possibly a lot), and having to do the encounter over again (and again), frustration can set in, butchering that wonderfully crafted dramatic tension. Additionally, the final hour’s content focuses on cinematic moments in lieu of tension building, but unfortunately comes off as textbook jump scares instead.
If you’re someone who loves horror (or can stomach it along with smooth locomotion-induced motion sickness), Afterlife is a VR experience that any haunted house enthusiast will love exploring.
— Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator
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