‘Particle Ink’ Proves That Magic is Real (The NoPro Review)

Would you believe that there’s a dimension that exists halfway between our 3D world and the 2D world inhabited by illustrated and animated characters?

After a run through Particle Ink: Speed of Dark, you will.

The story of Speed of Dark is archetypal enough: a creator and his wife, grieving over a loss, find their world turned upside down after he finds a magical book and uses a spell to try and fix things. It doesn’t go as planned, and soon the forces he’s unleashed take over their home. It takes a group effort, between the human characters, the audience, a puppet, and the animated figures known as Lumens to bring balance back between the forces of light and darkness both without and within.

Students of religion, myth, and magick will have juicy details to dig into. Like the prevalence of imagery from the Kabbalah and riffs on the Tarot. Not to mention that the creative protagonist the “Artist” has a wife named “Lilith.” IYKYK, as the memesmiths say.

While we are very much in the realm of faerie tales, the how of the telling makes Speed of Dark far from simplistic.

This work from the group that calls itself The LightPoets has been germinating since 2017, and the long development cycle can been seen in the layers of craft and technology that are blended together seamlessly.

Animated characters dance upon the walls and quest through the set pieces thanks to the art of projection mapping. Yet it is the human performers who, with their precise execution of dynamic choreography that borrows from circus arts, parkour, hip hop and more that truly sell the reality of those characters.

Have you ever seen someone do a full tuck spin flip off a piece of furniture three feet in front of you, grab a cartoon character off a wall that turns into light in their hand, and then toss that character onto another surface all in one smooth chain of action?

You will.

There are, of course, other shows that deploy projections with live actors. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End and Broadway comes to mind, so does CAGES in Los Angeles. Yet neither of those productions deploy the blend of performance and tech into the kind of free roam, often interactive experience found here.

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The majority of the first act is a series of encounters spaced through the converted warehouse that makes up The LightHouse, culminating in a participatory magick ritual that unlocks the 2.5th dimension. At that point the audience is set free to explore, with certain scenes looping in order for everyone to get a chance to catch them.

In addition to the scenes there are interactive stations where audience members can spray paint with light, dance with projected figures, and use “magic mirrors” to bring paintings to life. The later is, of course, accomplished thanks to AR tech and iPad minis built into magic mirror props that keep to the show’s “exploded imaginarium” aesthetic. Yet the magic mirror frame goes a long way to elevate these encounters up from a tech demo and into something that serves theme and story. A little bit of tangible art goes a long, long way.

Indeed everything is bent towards serving the story. Even the station where audience members can dance with projected characters — actually digital reflections of themselves accomplished thanks to the kind of tech once found in Microsoft’s Kinect game controller — is linked to part of the narrative’s fetch quest. (For those playing that way: it’s where you find the lightning. Go get it!) For all of the visual maximalism and the sheer density of material, I reckon it would take at least two runs through to really see everything, nothing feels extraneous or wasted.

Heck, my favorite bit of the night was getting my Tarot read, after a fashion, by a puppet.

Nor are the producers done with the work yet. The day following my run through the show I was shown an AR experience that they intend to deploy. It uses a score of iPads synched to each other to reveal another animated layer in real time so that anyone holding one will see the same action unfolding in the virtual volume. They plan on having this run during an action sequence between performers. This is the same tech the team and their producers at Kaleidoco showed off at this year’s TED Talks.

Like all truly great immersive work, talking about Particle Ink: Speed of Dark sounds like trying to describe a fever dream to a friend. Which always goes better when you can add “and you were there, and you were there” to the mix. This is definitely one made for bringing your crew to for note trading purposes. Or at least a date, especially one you’d like to wow.

With the arrival of Particle Ink: Speed of Dark Las Vegas has cemented itself as a full on immersive destination. Yes, Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart has been open since last year and Majestic Rep — just a few blocks from The LightHouse in the Arts District — has been doing immersive shows as part of their season for some years now. We’ll also touch on Lost Spirits Distillery’s reincarnation at Area 15 this week. Yet until now any trip to Vegas has called for rounding out the itinerary with runs through the Strip. Now it is quite possible to build a whole immersive weekend, or mid-week trip for the cost conscious, without going anywhere near the big resorts.

The show is currently set to run through mid-July, and should be priority one for any and all immersive fans, and immersive curious, who can get there.

Particle Ink: Speed of Dark plays at The LightHouse 918 S Main Street Las Vegas through July 17th. Tickets are $49.50 per person.

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

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