Review Rundown: Conspiracies, Folklore, and History

It’s a brief week here, kind of.

You see, Kathryn & Noah are off, virtually, at Venice International Film Fest exploring Venice VR Expanded. You can find the running Diary over here.

Actually some of our IRL friends are IRL at Venice. Which gives us IRL jealousy because we are only URL and we’ve always wanted to ride around the canals in IRL and the URL isn’t quite the same.

Double dare me to type that again. Our SEO expert needs to be punished.

In any case: THREE other reviews this week. Two remote shows and one in NYC. A nice cross section of the immersive world when you add it all up.

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Conspiracy — Deadbolt Mystery Society
$26.99; Remote (At Home Box); Ongoing

Deadbolt Mystery Society’s Conspiracy box experience falls into a category that’s more murder mystery novel than sprawling whodunnit (Hunt A Killer is the latter). It plays similar to many other mystery boxes as you sift through clues, solve puzzles, discover new information, and work towards the end of the box and story. Where Conspiracy, which I worked on with Patrick McLean via Zoom, differs is in how it feels like a pulpy, twisty mystery novel.

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Most of that is due to the sheer amount of documentation throughout the box (and your phone) that reveal details about the characters and the story as if it were a mystery novel. Indeed, there are parts where a new twist is revealed that make the experience feel like you’re reading a good old fashioned page-turner. It bears mentioning that Conspiracy is heavily reliant on QR codes; neither Patrick nor I ever had an issue reading one and it’s a method that lets Deadbolt accomplish their goals, but if you’re not into that, you may want to steer clear.

That covers the narrative side, but the success of a mystery box is largely dependent on its puzzles. Conspiracy delivers on that front as well. It offers a healthy variety of puzzles and logic games that are well-tuned to a medium-ish difficulty, frequently enough to offer a good challenge without turning into something frustrating.

While it doesn’t look like Conspiracy is currently available for purchase from Deadbolt Mystery Society, I would guess that their other games are similar in style, if not subject and will offer you a fun evening or two solving a murder mystery novel.

— Kevin Gossett, Reviews Editor, Los Angeles

Return the Moon — presented by Third Rail Projects
Starting at $15; Online/Zoom; through Sep. 30

Return the Moon claims to be the “one part toast, one part ritual, and one part retelling of a very old story of how the moon was lost and found again.” However, while I found myself entranced by the retelling itself, the resolution of the narrative feels incomplete. How are the collective actions of our villagers going to bring the moon back? What method will actually work? Has the moon finally returned? If you’ve got an activist’s heart, it’s difficult not to make the obvious comparison to the fight of the individual versus a governmental system or a single protester against The Machine. And against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic, it’s clear to me that our collective story isn’t yet done; no, no, not yet. Asking what a single person can do against the will of the world often feels futile when considering the scale of the fight. So how can we possibly imagine the inevitable ending or preemptively write down its resolution? Maybe our moon will return. Maybe it won’t. Maybe we just need to learn how to live with the uncomfortable uncertainty, spending perpetuity in limbo.
— Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor from her Full Review

What Lies Beneath — On Site Opera
$40.00; New York, NY; Run Concluded

What Lies Beneath is a site-specific opera taking place on the majestic Wavertree ship docked at NYC’s South Street Seaport. The piece tells the harrowing tale of the history of slavery in the United States and the effects this tragic inhumanity continues to have on the Black and African American populations today. Throughout the performance, audience members move through three different sections of the deck of the ship and witness stories from both the enslaved people and those who enslaved them.

Using the ship as a site-specific venue was a clever choice considering the role sea vessels played in the trading of enslaved people. While the piece is very successful at achieving a site specific nature, I wouldn’t call this immersive as the fourth wall remains intact, audiences are seated aside from moving locations, and there isn’t any significant interaction or acknowledgement of the audience as more than a spectator.

However, this did not detract from my overall experience of the performance — I found What Lies Beneath to be full of stunning imagery, compelling storytelling, and excellent performance from a highly talented cast of singers. The dramatic severity of opera as a form complimented the nature of the piece and, in conjunction with the majestic beauty of the ship, framed the piece in a beautiful light.

While I wouldn’t recommend this piece for someone looking for a trademark “immersive” style experience, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a beautifully told, site specific story. Plus, what better way is there to spend a Monday night than watching opera on a boat?
— Allie Marotta, New York City Correspondent

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