Review Rundown: The One With A California Desert Legend
It’s no secret: it’s the INTEGRATRON. Plus more in NYC, LA, and your home. Eight reviews.
This week: eight reviews including work in NYC, LA, the SoCal Desert, and your home. This batch includes a look at the legendary INTEGRATRON which stands just north of the Joshua Tree National Park.
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Codename Burg3r: The Maleficar’s Lexicon — Bite.Delivery/Interwoven Immersive
$24/person; Los Angeles (Hollywood & environs); Delivery or Pickup
The videos are really well-done and there’s a lot of interactivity between the stuff you get on your phone and the physical puzzles in your envelope. It reminded me of a modern version of those VHS/board game combos from the ’90s, without all the starting and stopping. Our mission was also funny and, for a bunch of escape rooms fans like my group, not too hard. The hint system is a pre-recorded call-in helpline, which is also in-game and humorous.
— Juliet Bennett Rylah from her Full Review
Haunt Quest — Todd Robbins
$58.50; SoHo Playhouse, NYC; through July 31
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious,” reads the on-stage chalkboard (attributing the quote to Albert Einstein) as I enter the Loft of SoHo Playhouse. After donning a name tag and taking my seat, a man approaches me and asks, “What do you think happens when we die?” I reply, “I don’t know, but I’m hoping to find out tonight!”
Haunt Quest is an interactive experience led by mentalist Todd Robbins. We begin with a monologue-esque description of the spiritual legend of the spaces that surround us — a ghost in a backstage room, a woman who dances across the stage — until it is time for us to participate. We learn how to use pendulums and eventually four guests are chosen to be hypnotized and speak to the dead. Although less show-y and mind-bending than some other mentalist performances I have witnessed in the past, our host reminds us that what happens next largely depends on who is in the audience tonight and who we bring about from the spirit world. The four chosen participants fall into the famous hypnotically-induced “SLEEP!” and are entranced so they can communicate with the departed and share what they encounter with the rest of the audience.
This experience was interesting because everything up until the hypnosis was engaging and I was really with Robbins and was open to the possibilities of what could happen. But as soon as the participants were whittled down to merely four people… I zoned out. It was cool to watch but I wasn’t particularly compelled or thoughtfully engaged during Haunt Quest. Robbins is charismatic and a great storyteller, but the performance can’t last on story alone, and when dipping into the participatory work it fell into the persisting problem of mentalist performances: only a few of the audience members actually get to participate. I would have loved to see a more well rounded engagement structure, but I suppose that’s the nature of the game.
— Allie Marotta
Integratron Sound Bath — Integratron
$54 per person; Landers, CA; Ongoing
For anyone seeking the sensation of being inside sound, head to a sound bath at the Integratron. Built in 1954 and described as “the fusion of Art, Science and Magic,” the Integratron is a one-of-a-kind structure located in Landers, California, just north of Joshua Tree National Park (and on the National Register of Historic Places). Originally created by aeronautical engineer George Van Tassel for the purpose of time travel (as cellular rejuvenation therapy), construction included “telepathic directions from extraterrestrials.” The full story of Van Tassel is worth exploring, as it includes post-Roswell UFO culture, the rise of the New Age movement, and the onset of the Cold War.
Since 2000, the Integratron has been privately owned and managed by three sisters and their families; sound baths are the core programming. The experience begins with historical details about the structure and then 20 quartz crystal singing bowls are played while attendees lie inside the all-wood, 55-foot diameter dome. Based on the architectural purity of the space, sound travels and moves through the body with almost indescribable intensity, variation, and tactile effects. Participants are also invited to stand in the dome’s center and make a vocal declaration; the resulting acoustical effects are astonishing. The Integratron’s sound bath is a sensory wonder and offers total immersion into the experience of sound.
— Laura Hess
The Plastic Bag Store — Robin Frohardt
$0 — $35; Los Angeles, CA; Closes July 11
I cannot recall another time I belly laughed about plastic. Plastic itself isn’t a joke — far from it — but artist Robin Frohardt takes this ubiquitous forever-material and transforms it into a brilliant experience for all ages: The Plastic Bag Store. The supermarket-themed, immersive installation does a deep dive into single-use, disposable plastics by recasting everyday items (mostly food products), into a world of advocacy and entertainment.
There are two ticketing options: the core installation and the immersive film experience. The latter is the heart of the production, which includes films, live performance, and a wonderful secret reveal. Commissioned by Times Square Arts, The Plastic Bag Store opened last year in Manhattan and has since traveled to the Adelaide Festival in South Australia. The LA exhibit is produced with support from CAP UCLA and includes special programming, an environmental toolkit, and activist opportunities.
Fans of Lucy Sparrow’s all-felt Sparrow Mart and newer fans of Meow Wolf’s otherworldly Omega Mart may sense a trend, but The Plastic Bag Store is unique and powerful in its own right. The detailed, multimedia production deftly layers narratives about our environmental crisis without ever feeling like a lecture or an admonishment. In many arenas, advocacy can feel labored and overwhelming. Serious challenges require an evocative approach and The Plastic Bag Store infuses its messaging with humor and artistry.
The issue with plastics is indeed harrowing. Frohardt and the production’s incredible collaborating artists don’t minimize that. Instead, they’ve created a resonant experience, one that fosters a new, emotional relationship with our plastic problem. It’s advocacy that stays with you: a memory you want to revisit and a forever-material in all the best ways.
— Laura Hess
Speakeasy - Bond 45/Holly-Anne Devlin
From $99; Bond 45; through July 2021
Well, I can safely say: it’s a very good burlesque show…But ultimately it is still an event of burlesque rather than a piece of immersive art. (Ed. note: at time of publication, this production no longer uses the word “immersive” in its marketing.) I appreciated the live musicians and was very impressed with the Broadway-caliber singing of the ensemble. I enjoyed the choreography of all the dancers, and found myself moved by the rousing final number, an anthem to the return of live performance. Yet I found myself waiting for something more than what was on offer.
— Edward Mylechreest from his upcoming Full Review
The Watering Hole — Signature Theatre Company
$10–35; Signature Theatre, NYC; through July 25
The Watering Hole is an immersive installation taking over the entirety of Signature Theatre in Midtown. Helmed by creator Lynn Nottage and director Miranda Haymon, the experience features work from a team of multidisciplinary artists of color. With the goal of “disrupting the notion of how and where and why storytelling can happen,” The Watering Hole uses a guided tour format to introduce the audience to a myriad of different stories in different areas of the space.
I really enjoyed the beauty and care of the visual art installations and found a lot of the vehicles for storytelling exciting. It was also exciting to access areas of the space I had never been able to before; I have seen a good number of shows at Signature but never had I ever been into the dressing room or invited on the stage. All of the stories are centered around the theme of water and have such different styles that all somehow work together. The standout for me by far was Ryan J. Haddad’s film about swimming. Audience members are invited to sit in front of a giant projector screen with shimmering pool-like tiles on the floor below. Haddad tells us about his experience with swimming as a disabled man and of his family and hi roots. Visually, this piece was stunning: the swimming pool floor reflected the film playing above and the cinematography of the film was gorgeous. But the thing that made me love this one so much was that this piece was the only one to include accessibility accommodations — like captions and audio description — before they were asked for. As a disabled artist and advocate, this was super validating and thrilling to see.
Overall, The Watering Hole was a lovely experience and included such beautiful stories, but I do think there is some disconnect in the “immersiveness” of the work. Audience members are guided through the experience by Signature staff members who were not a part of the world which was a jarring transition between each part of the experience. I also think the piece is more of a passive multimedia installation than theatre as no live actors were present (which of course is a safety pivot due to COVID), but I still found it immersive in some way regardless of the performative aspects. If a second iteration were to ever surface, I would love to see more direct and meaningful engagement with the audience in this piece.
— Allie Marotta
The Extremely Grey Line — 23.5 Tilt/Ice Factory
$17–20; New Ohio Theatre, New York City; Run concluded
She was the realtor from hell.
Well, the afterlife to be more accurate. The “Unrealtor” (Alejandra Venancio) welcomed us on the street outside the New Ohio Theatre, and prepared us to welcome our own demise and to begin planning for the inevitable. She is a flamboyant tour guide, with the attitude of a grizzled Manhattan realtor (complete with an emerald two-piece suit) and the effervescence of Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus taking her class out for a field trip. We are invited to walk around the Lower Westt Side, while we consider the bodies that have come before us, the dead shaping the land beneath our feet, and where we want our own bodies to end up. We are dead, you see, and so the unrealtor is eager to help place us in our final resting spot. And so we trot at a pace, listening to the various factoids and listings of the area around us, as we also contemplate our fate.
The Extremely Grey Line is actually three simultaneous performances at once, with a bicycle tour and an indoor performance all taking place while we are walking the streets. There are two very brief moments of interaction with the other groups, which teased an interesting side story to our own tour, but they are both so brief it was actually more of a disappointment to know that there was “more” to the story that we couldn’t interact with.
New York City is always a delight to walk through, and, of course, the city behaved perfectly so as to match the tone of the tour. A highlight was a brief mention of the rotting of bodies, followed by walking through a crowded restaurant street, with the smells wafting in the air. The experience is a well planned out walking tour, with some lovely moments of contemplation and interesting “factoids” (which our unreliable narrator assures us could be true… or maybe not), and an excellent performance by our guide. But I do think this run of The Extremely Grey Line has more potential lurking below the surface. It’s a great debut as part of the Ice Factory Festival of new works and one I hope to see developed further.
— Edward Mylechreest
What Happened Here — Strange Bird Immersive
Pay-What-You-Can ($5 Suggested); Remote; Ongoing
My apartment has been much maligned during the pandemic. My roommates and I have called it every name in the book: small, boring, stuffy, poorly-located, overpriced…. We’ve complained about feeling like we’re stuck or trapped on top of each other like sardines, while we try to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
What Happened Here is a self-guided audio tour of your home that asks you to look at your living space in a different way. We are, as Strange Bird Immersive’s co-founder Haley E. R. Cooper describes it, now in the “twilight of the pandemic,” at least here in the USA. As we re-emerge from our individual quarantines, Cooper’s voice encourages us to give thanks to the place that offered us safety and shelter, and to consider how we changed within our walls during the course of the pandemic.
As someone who worked outside of my home during most of the pandemic, I thought the experience might not resonate with me, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that What Happened Here was inclusive of a variety of pandemic experiences: illness, layoffs, remote school, and death are all touched on.
Over the course of the experience, we are asked to go room to room and find the things that brought us comfort, that show how far we’ve come, that made our lives possible, that were a source of beauty in dark times, and that we can’t wait to use post-lockdown. Together, they form what Cooper describes as the spirit of our home, and a sign of who we have become post-COVID.
— Cheyenne Ligon
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