‘Oasis Time Travel’ Leaves It All on the Dance Floor (Review)

Immersive performance and the nightlife scene seem to have intrinsic ties to one another. Something about crowded, dimly lit spaces with pounding music just screams “do experimental work here!” Venues like House of Yes and The McKittrick Hotel, as well as companies like The Neon Coven and Company XIV, come to mind as those blending the two worlds in NYC. With more and more immersive productions seeking non-traditional performance spaces, existing bars and clubs seem to be the go-to solution, and Bushwick’s 3 Dollar Bill is no exception. The venue has a bar, a patio with a taco shack, and a massive performance stage, making it an attractive space for immersive performances, in addition to the usual parties, concerts, and DJ sets that hold residency there. Silver Dream Projects’ Oasis Time Travel takes advantage of the huge space in their sci-fi-esque quest to bring everyone back to the past to right some wrongs that are affecting the present.

The story is led by the many sisters of Oasis Time Travel (the company, as opposed to the show) who were born across various decades and were only able to find each other after their father invented a time travel serum. The second chapter of the Oasis Time Travel story brings us back to the 70’s in search of the sisters’ father, as well as the hidden serum recipe which was stashed somewhere in the bar during a raid in the past. Apparently, one of the sisters went missing after the first chapter of the ongoing transmedia narrative, so we attendees of the party are also looking for answers about where she could possibly be, but (spoiler alert) no answers are ever found by the end of the evening.

The night begins with a vague, unstructured pre-show. The audience can get drinks and hang out in the bar area of 3 Dollar Bill while the sisters, dressed in matching trench coats and neck scarves, wander around the room. I arrive early and end up having to hang around for a while, which felt pretty awkward. The actors were “around” but mostly interacting with each other and randomly picking and choosing audience members to engage with, so I was left standing by myself just kind of waiting for the show to start. Eventually I caught an actor’s attention and we played a game of giant-sized Connect Four, but the interaction was unstructured and improv based. It didn’t include any significant worldbuilding or breadcrumbs about the plot or the characters. Soon, everyone is ushered into the club space in the back of the venue where we watch a powerpoint presentation by Mae, the sister who is the CEO of Oasis Time Travel. Mae explains the basics of how society is abusing the time travel serum their father created and that both their father and one of their sisters is missing. Then we all toast, as the serum has secretly been added to our glasses when we ordered our drinks at the bar, and everyone “travels” to the past while lights flicker and a rumbling sound plays throughout the club. The sisters all rip off their trench coats to reveal bell bottom pants and swirly 70’s dresses. This sequence was probably the most theatrical part of the night. The elements of storytelling and design were super clear in this part of the experience, but that’s where the narrative structure ends. The sisters introduce the first act of the night, a cover band who plays on stage while the audience bops along. The sisters then disperse and seem to be intermittently chatting with members of the audience, but I don’t see any central action or anything that clearly communicates “this is a scene!” throughout the rest of the night. The night continues like this as a variety of different acts take the stage.

I eventually find myself standing in the back, inadvertently shrinking further and further back as the crowd thins out. I search the room for the sisters and eventually find my Connect Four gal. We share a moment in one of the booths in the bar and she tells me about the hidden serum recipe and encourages me to search for it. I spend some time doing so but to no avail. I’m all for a secret mission but this one felt strange and disorganized. I felt out of place looking around the club and didn’t know where I was allowed to look or what was off limits. I also had no idea if any other audience members had been clued into the search; it felt like I was the only one searching for the serum recipe while everyone else was partying around me.

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Eventually, I make my way back into the club area to find the stage empty and groups of people standing around, sisters nowhere to be found. At this point I am worried that I am missing something, so I ask the bartender when the show is expected to end — he replies it already had. I stick around for another fifteen minutes or so without anything happening, so I eventually leave.

I struggled with the Oasis Time Travel experience because I feel like the idea has a lot of potential. Time travel plus secrets plus an awesome girl gang in 70’s garb? Count me in! But the execution of the event left the audience lost and confused. The structural shortcomings in the show and the lack of consideration around the audience experience was really disappointing. As an audience member, I felt unguided and the whole performance had a meandering and unplanned energy, which caused moments that may have been purposeful to feel random and unintentional. Combined with the fact that I wasn’t drinking and had attended by myself, I felt left out and like I was a wallflower at the party (which, as a Sagittarius, is a hard feeling to evoke).

Oasis Time Travel honestly felt more like a lightly themed party than any sort of structured performance. An immersive production doesn’t need to include participation, but it does need to include engagement. There should be an invitation into the world and a clear path of where to go and what to do, both of which Oasis Time Travel lacked. There also wasn’t a clear need for audience members to be there other than the typical theatrical raison d’etre (without audience is it really a performance?), but immersive theatre calls for a reason for the audience to exist beyond that. In an immersive piece the audience might be cast in a role in the world, they could be witnesses or observers, or they have an important action to do. Either way, the show cannot happen without them. That’s part of what makes immersive work so exciting, the audience doesn’t just watch it, but gets to experience it, and even gets to be a part of it sometimes. I think that’s what I missed most about Oasis Time Travel. With additional structure and more consideration for the audience experience, this could be a really successful immersive theatrical event, more than just a groovy themed party which includes some immersive elements.

Follow Oasis Time Travel on Instagram for updates on future events.

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