‘England Expects’ Exceeds Expectations (Review)

(The following contains mild spoilers.)

London is a murky mix of employment statuses in early August 2020: many are still furloughed or out of work, while others in essential roles have practically never been out of it, and a rising demographic is now adjusting to the regularity of working from home as employers are reducing the demand for unnecessary travel. It’s a strange time to produce a show online; how does a company anticipate the needs of their audience when social hours are in high flux? Gone are the pre-COVID days when a production could skip Mondays or Tuesdays, counting on a high demand for weekend nights and matinees. Now, the audience could appear any time, from any place, so long as there’s an Internet connection.

Working from home myself, I’ve returned to reserving my weekends for safely-distanced in-person socializing out of doors, so I’m grateful for weeknight performances via Zoom. Though I’m now a member of the masses which are becoming accustomed to the fatigue of endless digital meetings, I’m still cozying up with a glass of wine at 7pm and signing on to Parabolic Theatre’s latest: England Expects, a prequel to their long-lived For King And Country series.

Upon arrival into the Zoom group, I’m immediately charmed by something I haven’t seen much of since lockdown began: proper costumes. The producers have managed to get the contents of their FK&C costume store to their cast at home and we’re treated to WWI military uniforms in tandem with the now-ubiquitous custom Zoom backgrounds behind each cast member as well as incidental (but not obtrusive) props.

Parabolic Theatre has a track record of meshing roleplay and scavenger hunting with elements of tabletop and digital gameplay. Without the immersive physical set that historically becomes the uncredited extra cast member in their shows, a custom-built master website now paints the vibrant backdrop against which we’ll interact with the storyline. The first half-hour of the show is actually an orientation session: an audience of about 24 is broken into four groups of six and our smaller group is given a link to the performance’s website as well as a screen-share walkthrough of its functions by one of our hosts. It’s useful for audience members who are less familiar with the trends of lockdown theatre and/or are less adept at video games; for those of us who are old hands, the session drags a bit, but it’s a necessary step. The site Parabolic has built to support England Expects is extensive with military schematics, decoder functions, and personnel files. It also delivers live game updates throughout the performance, unlocking new features in real time while removing ones that are no longer pertinent. While it isn’t the most slickly designed interface and there’s room for improvement (particularly with some formatting issues depending on the size of the screen) it’s still robust and responsive enough to drive and carry gameplay.

After orientation, my team is then assigned a new handler: from Parabolic’s core stable of actors we’re delivered alumnus Christopher Styles, who’s back in the saddle wearing a full naval kit and sporting his signature FK&C’s officer’s rhotic accent. He welcomes us aboard our battleship, of which we are now in command. He then swiftly runs down a list of tactical command posts up for grabs: navigation, communication, weapons, overland warfare, cryptology, and captain in command. After a short call for volunteers, we each have our assigned roles and are advised that we are encouraged to make decisions as a team to command our vessel in coordination with the three other ships in our fleet (each ship is run by another team of players).

Between audible volleys of bullets and shell salvos (the sound effects are deployed via Zoom, presumably by our handler, and are an impressively fresh experience), Styles vocally relays our commands in character via shipboard telephone, seamlessly communicating our choices to the backstage coordinators, who are augmenting the narrative as the four teams proceed. This is Parabolic’s calling card: the real-time evolution of the plot as informed by the players’ choices. Much like a session of Dungeons & Dragons or long-form improvisation, the cast is generally advised to say “Yes, and?” And as long as our directives are something the scenario can deliver, they follow our orders. Even as we move to new narrative environments and meet new handlers, our suggestions are constantly encouraged. Engagement is not about puzzle-solving so much as it is about open-ended problem solving, and clever ideas are rewarded; we keep the backstage coordinators on their toes as they map out new interactive paths based on the tactics our handlers allow.

The plot is long and varied — surprisingly so, with 2.5 hours’ run-time — with a naval fleet as well as a ground campaign and international espionage to coordinate, the time can fly for audience members with more involved roles. There are plenty of opportunities for more keen players to take center stage and direct the action, as well as comfortably safe space for less interactive players to enjoy the fireworks. It must be noted however that less engaged players may feel that the performance is long; without enough direct calls for participation, the kinetic energy can ebb. For veterans of Parabolic’s Bridge Command, the same digital cooperative experience is present; there’s no way for one player to be looking at all the necessary screens in order for the plot to proceed, so team members must divide to conquer and trust one another to be confident in their research. Serving as captain, my only negative experience with the position was the constant need to encourage my team past their hesitance to make the joint decisions our handler was asking of us. Eventually I started issuing minor orders without a consensus in order to advance the plot; in retrospect, I believe if we were empowered from the beginning to take full responsibility for the division we were assigned but also advised to work together, we would have seen some faster and more confident results.

While the show does utilize the now-common Zoom engagement tactic of the invitation to dress up (it is encouraged but not required), at intermission I actually run to grab an accessory or two at the facilitator’s suggestion because I actually trust that my buy-in will be rewarded. The backstage coordinators are steadfastly doing their job to ensure that an audience who plays along won’t be railroaded into a finale that doesn’t fit. (In speaking to the creators afterward, I learn that they’ve planned for all sorts of mishaps; though ideally a ship stays afloat under wise command until the end of the show, should a team manage to sink their ship, there’s an alternate track that could be activated.)

England Expects is the closest thing we’ll get to Parabolic’s particularly responsive brand of immersion for a while yet. While I miss the sandbox-style environment and ability to bounce between a wide menu of characters found in their on-site productions, this performance is a comfortably familiar placeholder that could easily continue after social distancing begins to relax: a show to keep patrons engaged, generating income while R&D for the next production is underway. One thing’s for certain though — England Expects is an experience worth looking forward to.

England Expects continues through August 22. Tickets are £17.50.

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