Go Along For The Ride with ‘We’re All Strangers Here’ (The NoPro Review)

As the temperature plummets in the UK and the limited options for physical exercise in lockdown are further restricted by black ice and snowfall, an invitation to forget the bleak present is heartily welcomed; any personalized reminder of a world outside one’s four walls and essential workplace in the post-holiday winter doldrums has become a special treat. Here enters production company Hitcher Encounters, offering a new series of podcast-style “binaural escapism.” Their series titled We’re All Strangers Here consists of four recordings (playable in any order over the course of two weeks) and a phone call.

I choose to take in one recording a day over the course of a single week as I haven’t yet set my telephone call’s date and time. The audio episodes are relatively short, running roughly 15–20 minutes each, so it’s fairly easy to carve out a half hour of “me-time” daily where I can close myself off in a private space and give myself over to the experience. It’s certainly understandable, however, that a person with more demanding responsibilities would appreciate having a full two weeks to access all four recordings. While the here-and-now nature of performative theatre is part of what makes it special and different from other media, the flexibility of access can certainly be considered a kindness to households juggling care, education, and employment on a post-COVID fluctuating schedule.

As headphones and a comfortable position are recommended, I lie down flat on the bed and keep my eyes closed as the audio pipes in through my earpieces. What follows are four distinctly different and unrelated storylines, though some of the characters feel familiar to the other recordings and could be considered overlapping within the Strangers universe. The sound quality is good — a narrator is present throughout the series, addressing me in second person while she guides the setting and action: “You feel this, you see that,” etc. It’s a nice nod to immersive practice, though for the most part I’m not required to do anything apart from listen. During one of the recordings, I’m invited to have a hot drink in hand before beginning; it is the only true call to action I’m given during the four listening sessions. This presents a measure of kinaesthetic experience: the heat of the mug and the scent of the drink, as I listen to the sounds of a coffee shop around me. Ah, the memory of coffee shops! With my eyes closed, I immediately recall a favorite booth in an old standby, and set the action there.

At the beginning of the two-week access window it’s not clear if I’m meant to listen to all the recordings first before booking my phone call or if it doesn’t matter, but a few days into the proceedings the Hitcher Encounters team sends through a reminder for me to book my phone call, so it seems the timing doesn’t really matter. After sending them some options, their team confirms a time, date, and a phone number that I am tasked to call at the appointed time. This dynamic feels a bit disorienting after having so much flexibility: am I not the audience, in other words, the customer? So much of We’re All Strangers Here has been audience-passive thus far so it’s surprising I’m responsible for initiating the next segment; why do they get to choose the exact option and why must I be the one to initiate the call rather than their team contact me?

Nevertheless, on the confirmed date I make myself comfortable in the same position and reach out. Initially, the voice answering at the other end sounds pre-recorded as I settle in, expecting to be read another story and this time on my own cell phone plan’s minutes. The narrator begins asking me to fill-in-the-blank on a couple items in the story, a call-and-response — similar to Dora The Explorer — but I don’t feel like what I say will have any effect on the recording, so I begin to respond with detailed and outlandish contributions. To my surprise, the narrator begins to speak back these unique answers and incorporates them into the narration. There’s a real person at the other end and I begin to trust the story-making process. For 15 minutes, I am guided down a narrative with several branches wherein I choose which direction the story will go. And when we hang up, it’s uncertain to me how many endings there could have been. But I finally feel the satisfaction of engaging with the experience rather than just consuming it. The fact that I am the one to initiate the call makes me feel like I am indeed the one who controls the story, rather than having it imposed upon me.

Get Shelley Snyder’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

SubscribeSubscribe

At its core, We’re All Strangers Here feels more like a soothing ASMR therapy session of being on a plane, or on a train, or in a coffee shop, or in a park, rather than delivering a performative immersive experience. The sound effects and B-roll of the environmental atmosphere are well-presented; however, the editing is choppy at times (slightly breaking the flow of experience) and the characters’ dialogue feels like actors reading prose off a page rather than true characters interacting in situ. Part of this is likely a side effect of the actors being unable to record in the same space and therefore unable to react naturally to one another, but the script feels a bit pedantic and stilted for anyone other than the omniscient Narrator (voiced by Ellie Cansdale) whose gentle tones are well-suited to the therapeutic nature of the experience.

Hitcher Encounters’ mission statement of leading participants to experience stories through gameplay also fell a bit flat here: perhaps more calls to action and tactile/verbal engagement (similar to the invitation to have a hot drink in hand) might help We’re All Strangers Here to be a more sensory and embodied production which allows for the participant to feel more present in the world of the story. And there isn’t much interactivity involved in the experience as a whole. While the phone call was indeed a choose-your-own-adventure style storyline, the lion’s share of the five-part production was lacking in notable audience agency: a participant choosing the order of recordings doesn’t matter when their choices don’t affect the narrative and aren’t even acknowledged within the world of the performance.

All in all, We’re All Strangers Here is a good choice for the voyeur who enjoys ASMR, full flexibility in access, and wants minimal responsibility within the experience. We’re All Strangers Here is Hitcher Encounters’ sophomore production. Should the company wish to curate more immersive experiences in the future there’s excellent groundwork to build off. But even if they don’t, they’ve made positive inroads toward delivering enjoyable (and hopefully profitable) audio experiences.

We’re All Strangers Here is currently sold out.

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.

NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!

In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.

Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.