‘Natatorium’ Offers Players a Goofy, Charming Examination of Wealth Inequality in America (Review)

Once, when I first moved to New York, I heard the city described as a playground for the rich and living quarters for their servants. It felt like a snappy little bon mot at the time, but I remember realizing that it was true when I went home to my cramped, overpriced bedroom in Brooklyn where I couldn’t keep even the hardiest of plants alive due to the lack of sunlight that filtered through my scaffolding-covered window.

New York struggled with inequality well before COVID-19, but the pandemic’s unequal impact on both the health and wallets of people of color and low-wage workers has only widened the enormous gap between the rich and the poor. The events of the past year have stirred a class consciousness in many people — and shows like American Berserk Theatre’s Natatorium provide a medium through which to explore it.

Natatorium follows two couples who live in a run-down neighborhood across the street from a ritzy, gated community called Natatorium. Natatorium is home to the rich and famous, including two billionaire CEOs. Charles Lowrey, described as the “Elon Musk of all things wellness”, has made his fortune from a line of feline aromatherapy products, and Maxine Cooper-Grossman heads a makeup empire and spends her free time seducing married NBA players and posting Instagram stories from their homes. Our heroes — two couples, Jules & Ash and Devon & Kris — however, represent the everyman. Jules works in a daycare, and Devon supports his boyfriend’s dreams of being a videogame streamer by selling weed to the neighbors.

They’re just trying to get by when they find out that their neighborhood is to be bulldozed to make way for a new Natatorium condominium. As a consolation, they’re offered first dibs on the condos, but it’s impossibly expensive. The four heroes are angry, they need money, but they also just want a taste of the good life — and they know they can find it in the mansions across the street.

Much like a choose-your-own-adventure game, Natatorium follows a linear structure that branches according to player choices. The narrative unfolds live via an unlisted Youtube stream and participants are encouraged to use the chat to speak with each other and vote on the character’s actions. The actors in Natatorium improvised dialogue, often hilariously, in response to both one another and participant input.

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Players had dozens of opportunities throughout roughly 2-hour runtime to impact the plot. Before the show, a quiz was sent that allowed the audience to collectively decide on character traits of the main characters (is Jules an introvert or an extrovert? Is Devon a leader or a follower?) and plot points for our villains (does Charles sell vitamin mustard? Does Maxine have a no-eye contact mandate for her staff?). Audience suggestions were clearly taken seriously in Natatorium. We chose which of the two villains’ mansion to rob. We even had the opportunity to crowdsource the expensive item hidden in our villain’s home that the heroes would find during their heist. After carefully weighing excellent suggestions including a Faberge egg and the original Wendy’s beef, we settled on Van Gogh’s severed ear. At the end of the show, when our characters found their treasure, there was a tiny box labeled “Van Gogh Ear”. Additionally, at key moments during the plot, the action paused to allow the audience to choose from a number of options for what to do. We got to collectively decide what the characters should do: run or fight? Flatter a guard or push him over?

The actors rolled with the (virtual) punches admirably, but they weren’t the only ones improvising at Natatorium. The show also included music performed live by Density512, an Austin-based orchestra, which improvised music to accompany the story. Live, responsive music was a first for me on an online immersive performance and I was pleasantly surprised by how much it added to the overall show.

My only real complaint with Natatorium is that it simply goes on too long, and though I was enjoying it, I found my eyes drifting to the clock, wondering when it would be over. After our heroes successfully steal Van Gogh’s ear, I expected a resolution and the virtual curtain call. Instead, I got another half hour that included a dream sequence for each character in which multiple people from their past came back to shame them for the theft, a visit from a cop and FBI agent to investigate the theft, and then, strangely, a conversation between the villains that transitioned to a yacht party. Not only was it too long (and, frankly, a little boring) but I feel like Natatorium almost lost the plot by letting the ending meander. I think that this is something that all improv shows, immersive or otherwise, struggle with and Natatorium was able to pull it together and wrap in a satisfying way — I just wish it would have happened about half an hour sooner.

Overall, I found Natatorium to be a tech-savvy, participatory, fun way to engage with a concept that has been troubling me — and many others — recently. And, after all, isn’t that the point of art?

Natatorium has completed its run. Tickets were $10.

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