Be a Witness for the ‘Last Days of the Tsars’ (Review)

A member of the royal family opens the front door of the Stimson-Green Mansion with a glass of champagne in her hand. For what seems like a celebratory mood, we are stepping into 1917 Russia, so I know the night will include some murder and perhaps some revolution. The transition from downtown Seattle into the mansion does check the historical immersion box for a moment, but my friend and I make a beeline for the coat check since we are already narrowly on time thanks to my knocking on the wrong mansion door earlier. First Hill problems.

We have a few minutes to mingle with the rest of the audience in a large room with a fireplace and limited seating. Two large wooden doors across from the fireplace suggest the official entrance to the evening via some sort of “portal,” even though we walked through the hallway on the other side when we came in. The effect works; with the audience packed into the room it gives a bit of a Disney Haunted Mansion vibe — anticipating the doors to open for the ride to start.

Surveying the crowd and chatting, it’s really only a few moments before we are welcomed and the rules are set: no touching, no talking, and it’s our collective job to bear witness (pun intended, I assume) to the events about to unfold in this house. The doors open. I admit we ran out ahead to explore the three stories of the mansion first, in order to get a sense of the space itself.

Back in the room we just left, there is music and dancing. Most of the audience did remain in that room, or returned, to watch and see the key players: Tsar Nicolas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Princesses Olga and Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei, Rasputin, Dimitri, and Mikhail. House staff Yakov and Elizaveta blend into the background doing their tasks, occasionally interacting with the family and nobles as needed. After the first scenes, the storylines fracture throughout the mansion. It’s time to decide how to approach the story: follow a specific character, stay in a room, or explore and hope you get lucky.

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My friend and I choose different strategies. He spends most of the night in a couple of spots watching both the audience and a majority of scenes happening in the upstairs bedroom (he is pleased with this choice later). I switch it up and am fortunate enough to get a good mix of scenes mostly focused on Alexei, Rasputin, and a few family scenes. Many audience members decide to follow Rasputin, which seems like a safe choice. For those who don’t know the story, this next section may be a bit of a spoiler.

The show starts to reveal itself after Rasputin is murdered and his ghost walks through the house unnoticed (in most cases anyway). Things really get going after the family is murdered by the house staff (who, it turns out, are really revolutionaries) and are left to clean up a mess they didn’t intend to create with other guests in the house. The design of the family murder scene was excellent and memorable — I wish it had come sooner. The back half of the Last Days of the Tsars is filled with death, resurrection, haunting and revenge making a potent mix with an audience who also seems to be haunting the house with their observation. Changes to music and lighting design supported the notable transition and two-world feeling and were more noticeable as the end of the show inched closer.

Part of wanting this turn to come sooner was that the audience visibly lost steam about 90 minutes in. With a solid 2-hour(ish) run-time, those who had bounded up and down the stairs to follow a character slowly dropped off, causing many participants to miss out on some of the important scenes upstairs. While this is normal, the amount of movement may have been too much for some audience members to follow. It’s worth noting that older audience members complained about the number of stairs under their breath and other audience members did lightly chat throughout. I did not see or experience the no-speaking rule being enforced by the Witness team, so if you are looking for a pure experience be prepared for some light breaks in audience silence. Most people were discreet about breaking this rule, but I did need to shush my friend.

The audience reconvened during the final moments of the experience, which provided some closure while also keeping the sense of mysticism so critical to the narrative. In the end, the Last Days of the Tsars hits their goal in making the audience a witness in a venue that allows for sound and moments to permeate the walls. Newbies wanting to explore the format should be open to piecing together the narrative, and those more experienced with immersive should be open to not having the most pristine audience experience.

Last Days of the Tsars runs through March 22nd at the Stimson-Green Mansion, tickets are $49–69; 18+; 16+ must be accompanied by an adult.

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