Immersive Review Rundown: Stunning Sights, Sounds, Spectacle & Mystery

Things are heating up around the immersive cosmos once more, and this week’s rundown is a fun mix of concerts, site-specific plays, audio wizardry, and at-home immersive games.

You’ll find work from the SF Bay Area’s venerable We Players, and the masters of spooky audio DARKFIELD who recently had a residency in London. Plus a unique immersive concert experience that just wrapped up its stint in Los Angeles and is now on its way to Paris.

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The Case of the Curiously Correct Blueprints — Bluefish Games
$39.00 — Remote (At-Home Box) — Available Now

The Case of the Curiously Correct Blueprints is an at-home escape game for one-to-many players from Bluefish Games. As part of a book club, players are expecting a copy of the club’s latest mystery novel selection from Mr. Hinks. But as the book was destroyed, Hinks elects to summarize the novel in a series of audio clips. Knowing the club’s members still enjoy a mystery, Hinks uses random, unrelated documents to create word-based puzzles that they must solve to unlock each clip.

Blueprints is a genuinely enchanting and well-crafted experience. Segmented into five sections which are (almost) self-contained, players are guided by informative “handwritten” notes and clever markings from Hinks. Each document is different in content and design, creating a real-world authenticity to them. When paired with Hicks’ amusing audio clips, endearingly and charmingly performed by Phil White entirely for dramatic effect, Blueprints fosters a level of personal intimacy, feeling as if it’s been specifically crafted for the players.

It’s this self-aware puzzle design that the immersive community will find captivating. Blueprints’ conceit is ingenious, cleverly addressing why players receive random, marked up and alerted documents. Absent is the tired pretense that players are investigators, the sender providing papers they believe are important where parties intentionally communicate in codes. Simply acknowledging players are knowingly receiving mail intentionally designed to challenge them is an absolutely refreshing concept.

Another alluring element is the puzzles don’t require an Internet-connected device. While a website hosts Hinks’ clips and requires key solutions to be entered for progression, the documents simply must be read to identify information and make connections. I LOVE when at-home experiences forgo the modern, clever advantages the Internet allows in puzzle design, forcing the players to utilize their skills in a tactile manner. It’s a true testament to Bluefish Games’ design skills, as every element is indeed right there on the page, allowing for incredible satisfaction when successfully solving puzzles.

Unfortunately, there are two vexing puzzle choices present. One is simply annoying, where an element packaged with out-of-play items is revealed to be important, requiring backtracking to make the connection. The other is more glaring, where in the third section, I was stuck on a puzzle requiring numbers. I figured that like every previous puzzle, the answer would be within the documents. But the (spectacular) clue system informed me that these numbers were not special, meaning they were what I suspected and simply removed to add a step. While encountering far worse puzzles, the inclusion of these confounding choices sticks out in Blueprints’ otherwise pitch-perfect design.

Regardless of these frustrations, The Case of the Curiously Correct Blueprints is the most delightfully charming and utterly whimsical escape game I’ve encountered to date. It’s truly refreshing to experience an at-home game that isn’t dour and bleak, electing to focus on ensuring players have a witty, whimsical time seemingly designed exclusively for them.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator and Remote Experiences Editor

Cercle Odyssey: Empire of the Sun — Cercle
Starting at $180; Los Angeles, Experience On Tour — Next Stop Paris

Over the years, I’ve often pondered if the economics and venue structures of the live music industry could ever figure out a way to create a sustainable plan of more immersive concerts. While The XX created one of the most immersive productions with their 2013/2014 concerts at the Manchester International Festival and the Park Avenue Armory, those were practically site-specific installations limited to two locations. Coming out of the pandemic, Feist took her Multitudes tour around Europe and North America, and inverted audience expectations about gathering and listening to music.

Eventually the Sphere came online, giving artists and designers a massive canvas to envelope audiences with an experience. In the spirit of the Sphere, but with a hint of sustainability, French music event producers Cercle invites audiences in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Paris into their newest creation, Odyssey.

Transforming a convention center hall into an immersive live music venue certainly impresses, even if the results (and the programming) leave something to be desired. Entering the environment, the space is set up like the most interesting center-staged concert around, with the walls being projection surfaces. Over the course of the opening act’s set (in my case, South African electronic act Roi Turbo) the walls went from a cold blue to a warmer orange over the course of 30 minutes. While the brief set change happened, excerpts from Godfrey Reggio’s iconic film Koyaanisqatsi were shown, commenting on how members of Ridley Scott’s Creative Group (who are responsible for the visuals of Cercle Odyssey) were greatly inspired by that film.

Then Empire of the Sun, with their trademark Australian electro-pop sci-fi gesamtkunstwerk, began. Now, having seen Empire of the Sun before, I was curious as to how their extensive visual language consisting of proscenium presentation and choreography would work in an environment where there was greater collaboration and an in-the-round experience. Frankly, I was unsure of where the Empire experience ended and the Cercle experience began, as it was all quite enveloping. While it was cool to see an artist in a small space where one was only 50 feet from the stage at all times, it was slightly underwhelming, with a lack of focus for the patrons, and due to the nature of the half filled convention hall, a harshly abrasive sound mix that did not take advantage of the L-Acoustic L-ISA immersive audio platform, and just diminished an experience that is advertised to be all about the music.

Perhaps with a different artist, one with a less clearly defined visual language, it would be a better judge of how the Cercle experience functioned. In each city, at least four or five artists play in the Odyssey, and perhaps a more purely electronic artist (Moby, for instance, had a day of shows in LA), or a classical crossover act (Polish composer Hania Rani played in Mexico City and Max Richter will be performing at their upcoming Paris dates) would provide a more satisfying experience.

On a whole, as concert venues can’t be repurposed into 360 environments, creating venues at convention centers feels like the correct response. That way both music fans and artists can create new experiences for the environment. While their stop in LA had a few hiccups, I’m curious how this concept of a touring venue develops and gives artists an opportunity to create more immersive concerts.

— Martin Gimenez — Reviewer at Large

Darkfield at the Ditch — Darkfield Radio
£14; London UK; run concluded

It’s always good news when Darkfield comes to town. Whispers spread amongst the knowing: “Which are you seeing? What have you seen?” And while London is usually graced with only a single new and shiny toy they’re touring, this season Darkfield Radio spoiled us rotten with a showcase of 3 existing pieces to fill their originally-two-weeks residency at Shoreditch Town Hall. Demand was such that they extended for five days just to fit the bodies in.

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As it were.

We’ve recently covered ARCADE so turned our focus to DOUBLE and ETERNAL for this visit. While NoPro has covered the remote version of both these shows in the past, the in-person iterations are, as expected, notably different…

DOUBLE as an experience for two people is promising; both wearing headphones sat opposite each other in chairs at a small table and plunged into full darkness before hearing the story of how our companion may have just changed into a doppelganger demon. It’s certainly disconcerting to be in a pitch-black room next to another person — or monster — which you can’t see or hear, but while the narrative is structured cleverly for any participants (no gender identifiers, no relationships inferred or pressed), I admit we both felt a tad disappointed in some wasted potential. At no point were we invited or compelled to reach out and touch each other in the darkness, or play one of us off the other, feeling or dreading that tactile sense forthcoming. As it was, my companion notes a sense of “And then what? What next?” throughout the experience. We appreciated the high fidelity soundscape/darkscape that Darkfield is known for but found ourselves wishing we, as living bodies, had more demanded of us.

ETERNAL, on the other hand, lives up to and exceeds memory. The last time I experienced this one was in my home, during lockdown, laid out on my own bed in the relative “darkness” of a London flat. But residency in a town hall basement means full dark, no stars: a wide space full of spartan beds on which we’re invited to lie down alone — on the right-hand side — and experience the piece commissioned by the Bram Stoker Festival (which gives a heavy hint to its content).

Having seen the beds in the low light upon entry, we the audience know they’re up on pole legs with nothing underneath. We the audience know that following Darkfield Radio’s standard practice, nothing will come into the room and no one will touch us.

This does not comfort me much.

Such is the vulnerable nature of lying on your back in a bed with space to the side, underneath, throughout the room, while a voice drifts between your headphones and at times is speaking near you, lying beside you, growling above. The intimacy, the urgency, the violence, all punctuated by your own physical vulnerability as you lie in the dark with your gut exposed. ETERNAL is one for the ASMR junkies with horror proclivities.

The Darkfield at the Ditch residency was a special treat for Londoners and we can only hope a revival/return is already scheduled; fingers crossed this may bode well for future runs given its extension. Who knows; maybe as the immersive festival scene recovers we might see a happy partnership evolve.

Any way it goes, immersonauts get ye to a Darkfield Radio any time it broadcasts through town.

— Shelley Snyder, London Curator

Drink the Past Dry — Ghostlight Ensemble
PWYC — Chicago, IL — Through June 1st

From Ghostlight Ensemble, Drink the Past Dry is a site-specific framed play performed on Chicago’s north side. On the second floor of Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro is a quiet, little bar where patrons can request a magical drink that enables time travel. Yet, traveling only lasts the length it takes to finish the drink and is restricted to the bar’s interior. The audience witnesses four vignettes of patrons navigating their past, setting out for specific answers yet making surprising, thoughtful discoveries instead.

For the record, Drink the Past Dry isn’t all that terribly immersive from an audience agency perspective of having a direct impact or influence on the experience. We are in site-specific territory here. I spent the entirety of the play sitting in a chair, quietly staring straight ahead. Additionally, the inclusion of several act breaks, collectively a whopping 25 minutes in length, constantly hindered immersion (and the play’s forward momentum).

That said, the site-specific execution was incredibly captivating. I’ve seen much work at Murphy and Sons, from play readings to immersive experiences, yet no work has ever acknowledged this well-known bar and restaurant as its setting. With the play specifically calling out the restaurant by name, a palpable level of credibility is created with legitimizing the time traveling element. I’ll never be able to think about Murphy and Sons the same again, forever wondering if I go upstairs and order a unique drink, I could be transported in time.

Furthermore, there are charming moments of audience interaction sparsely featured throughout the play. A good faith effort is constantly demonstrated to make the audience feel like patrons, both in the script and through their personal agency. Each vignette begins with both performers and audience members wandering around, the latter returning with food or drinks they’d ordered. Additionally, constant, enjoyable improvisation by the great cast, particularly The Bartender tremendously performed by Khnemu Menu-Ra, further elevates the material and immersion.

Finally, writer and director Maira Burnham’s take on time travel is highly original. I greatly appreciate how this act of time travel is publicly and historically known but its limiting constraints and requirements make traveling rarely utilized and even unpopular. This concept pairs nicely with the play’s themes on understanding the past and life not working out as expected to elicit reflective, moving thoughts on living life.

While not a high agency immersive theatre experience, Drink the Past Dry’s hyper-specific usage of location and poignant audience engagement is intriguing enough. And when paired with the play’s unique take on time travel that’s brought to life by dynamic performances, it makes it a worthwhile play to experience.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor

Macbeth at Fort Point — We Players
From $45; San Francisco, CA; through May 18

We Players is a San Francisco institution in immersive and site-specific theatre, and their production of Macbeth at Fort Point does not disappoint. The all female and non-binary cast transforms San Francisco’s Civil War-era fortress into a medieval stronghold, not hesitating to spatter blood and potions onto the historical grounds, as any true telling of Macbeth would require.

The natural setting provides dramatic enhancement, including blustery winds, stone spiral staircases, and cold, dirty corridors. Several scenes are particularly transporting, including the discovery of King Duncan’s murder — with different characters emerging surprised from different parts of the castle — and the final battle scene — with the audience lining up as warriors in Fort Point’s open-air courtyard.

While the sound of the Golden Gate Bridge above sometimes drowns out the performers, Shakespeare’s language is, in any case, something to let flow through one’s mind in broad strokes, so the occasional gaps in audibility don’t hinder the story. This is especially the case because of the actors’ excellent use of body movement, staging, and facial expressions, which make the overall flow of the story clear, even when the same 10 or so actors play different parts in the story. In fact, the actors’ portrayal of multiple roles is a delight, allowing them to show the breadth of their acting skills. In addition, the Golden Gate Bridge above, and the mid-1800s battlements around, together are majestic and well worth the trade-off in audibility — there’s no more awe-inspiring combination of old and new, both in story and in locale.

Fort Point proves the perfect vessel for this bloodthirsty tale — its stone walls, winding staircases, and military history resonating with the play’s themes of warfare and betrayal. This site-specific Macbeth offers a compelling theatrical experience that traditional venues simply cannot match.

— Corinna Kester, Contributor

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

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