Immersive Review Rundown: The One With Sci-Fi & Romance

This week it feels like we’re clearing the decks for Spooky Season, with two site specific pieces that zero in on romance and one science fiction mega game that played out over three weeks this summer.

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CATACOMBS — Dorothy/Whitney LaMora
$19.76–37.28; Chicago, IL; Through Sept. 27th

Performing in Chicago’s West Town, CATACOMBS is a live scripted, site-specific/evocative production occurring at Dorothy, a lesbian bar. With only an hour to prepare for bar service, Ari (Haven A.J. Crawley) finds themself without any support staff. Fortunately, Ari finds help in Beau (Wisterman), believing their arrival coincides with posting on a work service app. But complications arise when Beau informs Ari the couple is reincarnating romantic partners, drawn together constantly over centuries.

To begin, CATACOMBS is an expertly written narrative as playwright Katherine Gwynn has crafted a terrifically tightly tuned script. The dialogue clips along yet is impactful, as the weight behind each spoken word and thematic messaging lands perfectly. And while extremely steamy and flirty, the script pushes past basic romance to focus on sustainable companionship. It’s a beautiful, honest depiction of true, universal love and the desire to be seen and feel safe.

Additionally, with being commissioned by director Whitney LaMora to be performed as a site-specific production, further elevating CATACOMBS is the bar itself. Having previously visited Dorothy, I have a decent understanding of the space. Yet, LaMora and the production team utilize clever, dynamic staging to theatrically transform Dorothy. There are several flashbacks to the couples’ previous incarnations, and upon returning to the present, I’d bought into the staging, forgetting I hadn’t left the bar.

And with the script and Dorothy fueling the time traveling aspect, CATACOMBS perfectly delivers a subtle yet important thematic message that lesbians and queer people, and by extension the entire LGBTQIA+ community, have always existed in human society. At a time when these communities are constantly under attack, CATACOMBS is a proud reminder to those who believe otherwise or those feeling alone and isolated that LGBTQIA+ people did, do, and will exist, desiring and deserving a life full of love and companionship.

Now, like all time travel stories, the moment the logistics are pondered, questions emerge. It’s not clear if the flashbacks are being retold or recalled, and if Ari and Beau’s previous incarnations are aware of their long history together. Compounding the problem is production limitations, as flashback props and set items are visible and/or utilized in the present. It’s challenging to make sense of the time traveling details.

Yet, those issues are easily forgotten when watching the insanely amazing performers. Crawley and Wisterman share a unique, once-in-a-lifetime chemistry rarely witnessed. They’re simply not just elevating the script or playing their parts; they’re transcending to a level of palpable realism seldom achieved, clearly giving it all but doing so with a natural ease. These performers clearly care for these characters, allowing the audience instinctually to do so as well.

While dealing with time travel logistic issues, CATACOMBS is a fantastically crafted queer narrative vividly brought to life by captivating powerhouse performances. It’s a production with daring focus and impactful purpose, a dynamic combination all art should pursue to naturalistically draw audiences into the experience.

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

Slanted Floors — by Billy McEntee, directed by Ryan Dobrin
NYC; $55; Sep. 9th — Oct. 10th

Slanted Floors is a new play by Billy McEntee and directed by Ryan Dobrin that takes place in a real apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The play performs for only six audience members at a time, who are seated around the apartment on the couch and in chairs, making the experience feel like any friendly get-together happening anywhere else in NYC. The play explores the idea of creating art, but it is also an intimate look at what it means to be in a relationship in today’s world. Slanted Floors takes the audience through a night in the life of a couple, Teddy and Kaplan, in real time, from getting home from work all the way to going to bed. To quote an audience member I overheard outside after the show, Dobrin and McEntee are “the dream team of small space theatre,” and it shows in this piece.

While not marketed as immersive, this piece is deeply site-specific and flirts with the idea of immersivity. Participation is limited to eating dinner, which is served during the show, and matches the dinner that the couple eats in the piece. Other than this, the social contract of theatre is in full effect, but there are some moments that gently fracture this. In a lengthy monologue, the audience are sort of “cast” as characters in an artistic idea Teddy is sharing: audience members are gestured to, receive eye contact, and even receive some direct address that could prompt a verbal reply from an audience member. In other circumstances, I would read this as confusing and careless of the audience experience, but in this moment, the rules of the experience felt clear. What resulted instead was this bizarre sensation of being included but outside of the action at the same time.

I think this is what makes the piece special — it is able to offer a deeply personal experience while letting the audience be just an audience. Something about the small space and how lived-in and thoughtful the curated details of the apartment environment felt places the piece in a state of heightened immersivity that I don’t always experience in site-specific work. With perfectly scaled performances from both Kyle Beltran and Adam Chanler-Berat, the audience is invited to lean in instead of being pushed away, almost like we’re being told a secret that’s just for the handful of folks present in the room. While Slanted Floors is not immersive in the way a Punchdrunk fan might expect, I think any deep immersive lover will find its invitation to be a part of Teddy & Kaplan’s life for an evening in such a close way very compelling.

— Allie Marotta, NYC Curator

Space Opera — Obvious Agency
PWYC; Philadelphia, PA; Run Concluded

Space Opera by Obvious Agency is an experimental production, combining immersive theatre elements with tabletop gaming, and over-the-top storytelling. Played over the course of three weekends, each session follows the lives of one generation of space farers, seeing what impact their choices, mistakes, and successes have on this imaginary galaxy. Each of the worlds sit around tables in the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia, made up of different people with different values and needs.

Being only able to attend the second session, I felt that I was given more than enough information to be able to jump in, understand what was going on, and get to play quickly. One hitch in the onboarding was that what I had perceived as a warm up/getting to know you activity of “space mad-libs” would be me creating my character for the entire game, which was not particularly clear upfront. Other resources that could have been useful appeared far too late in the game, including a universe map and list of the other factions in play.

Obvious Agency has put together an exciting “mega game” for 40+ players, which works well, elevating it with a wonderful usage of technology, sounds, and lights. A simple dice roll suddenly becomes far more exciting and intense when it is displayed dramatically for all to see! All of the facilitators brought their characters to life with great intensity and earnestness. Our world’s facilitator, KC Legacion, was wonderful, expertly guiding players but always holding enough space for us to make decisions. The excellent stage design, layout, projection mapping, and costuming helped to create the sense of urgency and grandiose of a universe in peril.

The players for each planet vote on matters and present our decisions to the rest of the galaxy — a roll of the dice, with modifiers based on how well we present the idea, and any assets we use to bolster the plan, determining our success or failure. The dynamics between my cohort of eight fellow players around the table would shift over the course of the day, leading to some fantastic roleplay moments. Through ambassadorial missions to the other planets, it was fascinating to chat to other players from other worlds, to see how widely different the play experience was based for them.

Tonally the experience shifts from the light hearted to the severe, which feels jarring as the discussions we had at the start of the day felt truly trivial compared to those at the end. Also from a logistics point of view, Space Opera runs for seven hours, requiring players to wear KN95 masks. Though clever breaks allow the audience to explore the ramifications of their choices on individuals, the time flowed quickly.

I had a great time at Space Opera, impressed by Obvious Agency’s excellent combination storytelling, tabletop roleplay, and immersive theater. To be able to meet with a group of strangers to collaborate, betray, debate, and play together is an out of this world experience that I hope more people get to try.

– Edward Mylechreest, Philadelphia Correspondent

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