‘Eschaton 2.0’ Breaks the Internet (Review)

“Allie, can you please tell him he should have TOLD ME he was taken before he started speaking?!” says Heera, the glittering being in the spotlighted Zoom square.

I chuckle to myself, and then unmute to say, “Oh, yes, obviously you should have made your relationship status known first. You should have known better!”

The man in the adjacent Zoom square laughs and apologizes profusely and Heera goes on to cheekily make fun of my pre-school teacher style chastising before singling out their next victim…I mean suitor. I stay a few moments more before jumping out of the “Entice ”room into another mysterious door to see what awaits behind it.

Eschaton is a remote immersive performance, using a desktop web interface and a series of Zoom calls to transport audience members to mysterious rooms of wonder from the comfort of their own home. With the early success of the show at the beginning of the pandemic last year, this experience has become a household name for immersive fans across the country. The new relaunch includes a redesigned web portal with a new all audience chat box, as well as new performers and puzzles.

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In terms of the redesign, the addition of the audience wide chatbox on the homepage is a huge bonus. There was always the opportunity to chat in individual Zoom rooms in past versions, but the communal chat helped build a sense of camaraderie among audience members and also functioned as a place to share tips and mysterious findings. The relaunch also includes a new visual portal-style door system (as opposed to the previous passcode only system) to lead into the Zoom rooms. This was much easier to navigate, and it was very clear to see when rooms are open throughout the night which I appreciated. Something new that was a bit disappointing, though, was that certain rooms seemed to close early, which I hadn’t noticed in previous runs with the old format. The new puzzle track is intriguing but in its current state is quite simple. Those who reached the end of the track in this iteration are encouraged to return after June 5th to dive deeper into the puzzle, which seems like a great way to entice audience members to return, but also left this audience member feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Excellent additions were made to the cast with a slew of new acts to discover mixed in with fan favorites from past performances. I am a big fan of Jonothon Lyons’ Buddy the Rat and was thrilled to see this act return, and was also excited to see developments made to transition another act that was previously a secret one-on-one into a full Zoom room. This did raise the question of whether the relaunch includes any one-on-one action, and while I hope it does, I didn’t come across any during my time at the experience. One of the new acts that I found absurdly enthralling is the “Juicy ”room which spotlights a “fruit dom” as they dominate different fruits BDSM style throughout the night. I never thought I would encounter a fruit dom in my lifetime, but I absolutely could not stop watching once I did!

The relaunch includes some new lore elements that actually felt a little bit forced. The narrative focus is now put on this idea of performers being chosen to do the finale of the show each night and how that affects the politics of the ensemble overall. While this is an intriguing Pippin-like show within a show spin on the piece, there isn’t enough formal introduction and continuity for the concept to stick in a meaningful way. I really didn’t care who got the finale spot, and didn’t quite understand the implications of performers who were “red listed” (who are not eligible to do the finale at all). I think Eschaton has room to lean into the narrative more, especially if they want the audience to invest emotionally in it and believe that the stakes are as high as they say they are. Although the show is often praised for its free flowing and unrestricted format, perhaps there are moments for some more structured storytelling to be intertwined.

Despite the growing pains, Eschaton continues to shine as the desirable, elusive nightclub of the remote immersive world. The performers are all fascinating and engaging and the audience experience is well thought out and streamlined. Although I experienced some small disappointments in my time at the relaunch, there truly is still no where I would rather be than in a Zoom room with Brita Filter and select unmuted audience participants singing off key to Alanis Morissette on a pandemic (yes, it’s still a pandemic, wear your masks, you fools) Saturday night.

Eschaton runs Saturday nights on Zoom. Tickets are $18–23.

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