Review Rundown: The One Where Spooky Season Starts For Real
Tastes of Creep, Delusion and art in LA, Faulty Towers returns to London, a Philly Fringe jawn, and three from NYC. Eight reviews total.
And we’re OFF!
Kevin Gossett has capsules from his upcoming reviews of Creep and Delusion here in LA, so you can get right to the part where you decide to grab some of the last tickets or not. Plus a whole lot more — and for the first time in a long time every event is either live or in the case of one has a physical anchor that makes it fairly site-specific.
No, we won’t do a “nature is healing” bit.
But we will wax poetic about a lot of this on the upcoming Review Crew show. COME THRU THIS WED!
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More From The Review Crew
- The REVIEW CREW podcast recording is every WEDNESDAY in our Discord: next recording is on 9/29/21 at 5:00PM PDT.
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Creep 2021 — Creep
$95 (2 person minimum); Hollywood, CA; Through Oct 31
Back with a new show at a brand new venue, Creep 2021 is exactly what you might want out of a new edition of the Los Angeles Halloween-season staple. Taking full advantage of JFI Productions’ new digs at The Ghost Light, the performance utilizes the space shockingly well to take audiences into a fully realized small town including a town square, haunted house, and more than a few surprises in between. Plus, the company has a great COVID-19 policy in place, requiring both vaccinations and wearing of masks indoors for all guests to better protect attendees, actors, and staff.
I’ll have more to say about Creep 2021 soon, but we all missed out on Spooky Season last year, so it shouldn’t take much convincing for you to creep back into one of the most consistently entertaining immersive theatre experiences out there.
— Kevin Gossett, LA Reviews Editor
Delusion: Reaper’s Remorse — 13th Floor Entertainment Group
$89–159; Pomona, CA; Through November 21
After a time-traveling trip into the adventure genre in 2019, Delusion has fully embraced their horror roots with 2021’s Reaper’s Remorse. Taking place in and around the historic Phillips Mansion in Pomona, CA, which was originally built in 1875 (!), the experience tells the fictional tale of Esther Phillips who collected artifacts with their owners’ souls still tied to them (Esther existed in real life, but didn’t own objects that held souls… probably).
In Reaper’s Remorse, Esther enlists guests’ help to go into a house that has mysteriously appeared on the property to do something. (Honestly, I’m not trying to be vague, but the overall plot of the show is a little convoluted. That doesn’t stop it from being loads of fun, though.) As you make your way through the house with the help of various souls, you’ll encounter the special effects that Delusion has become known for, and rightly so. Ranging from simple-but-effective gags to more complex “how’d they do that?” tricks, these effects all help to accentuate the horror of the house and the situation at hand. Interactive elements also bring the spirit of “play” to immersive theatre as participants are asked to sneak, hide, talk to creepy dolls, and capture lost souls during the experience.
After a year without Halloween activities around Los Angeles, this experience sure hit the spot with a delightful blend of immersive horror fun.
— Kevin Gossett, LA Reviews Editor (adapted from his Full Review)
Artifacts of No Consequence — Jeff Evans
$20; Philadelphia, PA; Run Concluded
We don’t talk about it, but so many of us have become divorced from ourselves over these long sequestered months. What did I like before all of this happened? Since when do I have my Dad’s musical taste? What’s this bump on the back of my neck and was it always there? The questions seem mundane, but with enough hours to contemplate them, eventually, we all can feel adrift in a sea of possible selves. And then so many of us, myself included, had to return to our childhood bedrooms and live amongst our archived selves, like hermit crabs forced back into long discarded shells.
By inviting us into his own proverbial shell, creator Jeff Evans manages to capture all of the desperation, alienation, and confusion this process has brought forth in a solo performance called Artifacts of No Consequence. The show invites the audience to shuffle through the discarded evidence of a life other than their own (Jeff’s life), looking for the “self” buried somewhere in there. Because it has to be there, doesn’t it? Otherwise, what? We can’t just be lost from who we used to be, with no way back. Can we?
— Blake Weil, East Coast Curator at Large (from his Full Review)
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience — Interactive Theatre International
Adults £60–75, Children £39; London UK; through Dec 19
Nostalgic BBC television fans and the as-yet-uninitiated squeeze in together for an evening of hilarious dinner theatre that’s suitable for all ages and all nationalities; a tribute to the legendary BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience has been running since 1997 and is now performed in 20+ countries. Here, versions of Basil & Sybil Fawlty welcome guests to their hotel’s dinner service attended by their ever-earnest (if barely-bilingual) waiter Manuel. With razor-sharp comedic timing developed over the show’s 24-year worldwide run, our cheeks are already aching with laughter by the time the appetizer is cleared.
Though reportedly 70% of the show is improvised with direct feedback from the audience, the main plot points are likely set in stone, so repeat visits would be solely to relive the humour of the first time. There are no hidden scenes or special tracks; everyone sees the same performance unless you sneak off to the bar for a refill and miss a gag. It’s ideal for those who don’t mind a bit of give-and-take clowning with the audience (note that you may be put on the spot, but always in good faith), and a great family-friendly option with younger folks who are comfortable dining out right now.
Be warned: don’t come starving to Faulty Towers The Dining Experience. The Faulty Towers dining room isn’t famed for fast or meticulous service, so while you’ll get a delicious three-course meal, you’ll be waiting a bit for it (the show runs over 2 hours).
I can only recommend this performance for those who don’t mind a crowd in a post-Covid world: neither social distancing nor face coverings are in use, and the UK’s CovidPass isn’t in place. You’ll also be dining at a communal ten-person table and will need to do a bit of passing the butter.
Overall, it’s an excellent dinner-and-a-show option for a night in central London (just down the street from the British Museum) for those who look forward to their hosts taking a bit of direct criticism from a guest and slinging a witty barb right back.
— Shelley Snyder, London Curator
Final Notice; Danielle Russo Performance Project
Free; New York, NY; Run Concluded
It appears the reign of Zoom shows is finally ending. New York is back, baby, and with it, so is in-person immersive art.
Final Notice, a free, site-specific dance performance by Danielle Russo Performance Project, was the first show I’ve seen outside of my computer screen since the pandemic began — and it was everything I hoped it would be.
Winding along the riverbank parks in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Red Hook, Final Notice is half interpretive dance, half promenade theatre show, taking place in the areas of Brooklyn that will be most impacted by climate change and rising sea levels. Four performers dressed in neon orange hazmat suits alternately frolicked, gyrated, crawled, sprinted, and meandered through crowds of brunching Brooklynites, children splashing in fountains, and people smoking on stoops. For an hour and a half, the audience formed a procession that wound through the streets of Brooklyn.
The reactions of passersby — some laughed, some stared, some clapped, while some joined in and followed along — felt like part of the performance. A British man holding a baby asked me if this was “some sort of American version of Extinction Rebellion.” Meanwhile, a little girl eating ice cream asked her dad what the “orange people” were doing.
“I don’t know, some sort of art-y thing,” was his response.
His take is as valid as any. Final Notice is an “art-y” thing: a delightfully strange, spontaneous, inspiring, whimsical art-y thing with a noble goal of bringing attention to the climate crisis.
— Cheyenne Ligon, NYC Correspondent
Hold, Please — Kate Douglas
Free; New York, NY; Run Concluded
I find myself on Little Island late on a Sunday evening, surrounded by families and tourists enjoying the latest NYC tourist trap. A man made island has popped up on the Hudson River, but it is not the park which interests me on this occasion. I’m looking at a small QR code which has made a one day appearance in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Once scanned, I am placed immediately on hold. The voice on the end of the line seems pleased to have me “back,” in a strange robotic kind of way:
“Remind me, when did we last meet? Say or select ‘1’ for waiting on hold for the bank. Say or select ‘2’ for waiting on hold for your automobile insurance. Please hold. Hold, please. Please hold me.”
The android on the other side of the receiver has gained some form of sentience. But it seems to have misplaced its notes regarding the informative audio guide to my surroundings which is supposed to be giving me. The short call is full of wit, humor, and — surprisingly — heart. I listen to the inner workings of an answering machine as it talks through its existential feelings of being a machine, all the while delivering factoids about Little Island. And I am shocked to find myself feeling something for this mundane piece of technology.
Hold, Please is a relatively short experience, between 5–10 minutes long, and so I immediately found myself calling again several times, to replay the interactions, to see whether my inputs would affect the output. The experience seems to be a little glitchy, with not all of my options actually having any impact, which I surmise to be a wry dig at the idea of an automated phone system itself.
I observe many people walk straight past the QR code, with only the truly curious taking part in this beautiful audio experience which awaits them. If nothing else, this beautiful little show has encouraged this particular writer to lean into those small moments of adventure which await in the mundane. And, I’m surprised to say that never before have I wished to be placed on hold for just a little bit longer.
— Edward Mylechreest, New York City Correspondent
Tidepools — Glenn Kaino
Free with reservation; Long Beach, CA; Through Jan 2022
There’s a difference between hope and optimism. The distinction has only become more salient since COVID’s arrival. A critical part of the equation is agency: those with hope believe in a personal ability to effect positive change on a small or large scale.
Hope is also instrumental in Glenn Kaino’s work. Tidepools, his current exhibition at Compound in Long Beach, imparts guests with agency and, in turn, guests fulfill the artwork’s mission.
Consisting of two main rooms, the show explores a key theme of Kaino’s: making the invisible visible. Bookended by “kitbashing” sculptures, the first room contains two cloud chambers. Designed with NASA support, these tanks allow viewers to witness charged particle movement by way of ionization trails. Due to the pandemic, air particles and their properties have become a common (and often fraught) topic of conversation. With the cloud chambers, Kaino yanks the monster out from under the bed and transforms it into a meditative, scientific wonder: one to delight in, not fear.
A sculptural aquarium with plankton occupies the second, darkened room. Participants are invited to cast a sand dollar-like disc into the chamber while making a wish; the dinoflagellates respond with a spark of bioluminescence while the pile of submerged discs embodies a physical representation of our individual and collective hope. Through the scope of its environmental design, the exhibition amplifies its multisensory impact and creates a cohesive balance of friction and harmony. By probing the tension between the seen and unseen, Tidepools reveals the inherent magic of our external, tangible world and of our inner, spiritual and emotional selves.
A cultural complex with its own hopeful mission, Compound, which opened in July, takes a holistic approach to contemporary art, wellness, and community building. Compared to traditional galleries, the center’s programming integrates these elements, resulting in a more thoughtful and resonant experience.
— Laura Hess, Arts Editor
Wherefore Art Thou Juliet? — ChalkNotes, Phil Olarte
$24; New York, NY; Ongoing
It is just minutes before the premier performance and the star of the show, Juliet, has gone missing. The cast implores you, the Producer, to go and find her, somewhere in the heart of the busiest theatre district in the world, Times Square.
Wherefore Art Thou Juliet? plays out using a brand new app, ChalkNotes, which tracks the user’s movement through a location, and allows notes (or in this case audio logs) to be played within a certain proximity of a location. Starting in Shubert Alley, a vein which runs through the heart of Midtown, we are soon presented with a choice to decide who to follow, as we look for our missing starlet.
However, this was the first and only choice in the experience; I was disappointed to be reunited with my party only minutes later as we were railroaded back along the same line of investigation. The use of the word “investigation” is perhaps a little generous, in that at each location we hear dialogue and then are pushed to a new area where Juliet might have been. It’s a hearty walk around Times Square, a little over a mile long, with a host of theatrical haunts familiar to Broadway-goers. The ChalkNotes app is just coming out of development, and so there are a few bugs (issues with tracking accuracy and even getting booted out once or twice) but, for a preview performance, I applaud the team for their efforts. There are some structural issues to the experience which are slightly more concerning, with some locations being off limits at certain times, incorrect guidance to the next location, and a lack of consistency in audio between areas, as unexpected silence would take me out of the immersive audioverse I was in.
The performances are great, with some well designed voice work to go with the surroundings, and while the premise has potential, the narrative is not as intrinsically linked to the locations as I would have hoped. It is neither geographically generic enough to allow for interpretation, nor site-specific enough to really make the journey to Times Square feel required. Wherefore Art Thou Juliet? lands in a gray area, where it is nice to walk and see things, but I don’t truly feel like I needed to be in this particular space, other than that the audio told me to go there.
In the end, a revelation came quite suddenly, and we were asked to input into a Google Form who we think did the thing. Up until this point, the experience had felt more like an intriguing walking tour, as opposed to a mystery to be solved, as the “clues” we were meant to be looking for never seemed to be particularly clear.
The tech has such potential, and is miles ahead of older podplays I have experienced, but perhaps those technical limitations forced prior creators to consider the structure of the experience. I just don’t think Wherefore Art Thou Juliet? is the fantastic introduction to the app that it should be. It needs a little more why: more specificity in locations, more clarity around what the experience wants to be, and more thought to the audience it’s for. Though, I am hopeful that with some creative reconstruction, this show can truly be ready for opening night.
— Edward Mylechreest, New York City Correspondent
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