Review Rundown: The One Where Spooky Season Meets Retro Future
London’s Bridge Command, a spooky pop-up in LA, the latest Walkabout Mini Golf course and more from Seattle & Chicago! (FIVE REVIEWS)
Here we are, roaring back from our week off, with five reviews across the multiverse: London, LA, Seattle, Chicago, and VR.
There’s Spooky Season surprises like Limnos, which popped up for two days in LA and seems to have made quite the impression, the latest from Chicago’s Birch House Immersive, and we’ve got a fresh review of the ambitious Bridge Command in London.
Read on for more!
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Bridge Command
From 40 GBP; London; currently booking through May 2025
I’ve never had much of a dog in the famous nerd fight of Star Wars vs Star Trek … but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t pick a side. If asked, I’m a Trekkie, give me that splendidly silly series, Klingons and Vulcans and Tribbles and all. So naturally, when the call came out to review Bridge Command, a sci-fi experience that any casual Star Trek enthusiast would recognize, I jumped.
Now, it should be noted: Bridge Command is not Star Trek. You arrive at their Waterloo location to enlist in the space navy, but there are no aliens–your biggest threats come from hostile elements among the stars who pose a threat to the planets engineered in the wake of climate catastrophe, recalling Firefly’s premise more than anything.
The aesthetics, though, are no clunky cargo ship–no, this is The Future, proper noun. You suit up in uniform, board a searing white teleporter, meet your fellow recruits (and maybe acquire a cocktail for the, um, road) in the bar, and, after a briefing from your superior officers, board ship for a mission.
Everyone has a role to play at Bridge Command, and I’ll admit I did a little shimmy in the big chair when I got to be captain. You’re assigned a mission, but there are choices to make along the way, and even in a group of strangers, you’ll end up collaborating in unexpected ways.
I don’t want to say too much, as the surprises of the show are truly wonderful, but Bridge Command sets out to take you on a science fiction adventure and thoroughly succeeds. The attention to detail is especially impressive–you sign in on a pad upon arrival, and if you’ve been there before, any ranks or medals you’ve earned are remembered and reflected in your uniform and the role you play. The devoted fan base is proof of concept here–we met several longtime fans.
Is Bridge Command for everyone? Well, no. It’s a sci-fi show for sci-fi people. But if you’ve ever thought about what it might be like to dodge an asteroid in the ship you’re piloting, or defeat a vessel of space pirates, it will leave you starry-eyed.
–Ellery Weil, London Correspondent
The Last Days of Eden Creek — Birch House Immersive
$75.00; Chicago, IL; Through Nov. 2nd
Performing on Chicago’s northside, The Last Days of Eden Creek is a site-evocative live musical immersive experience from Birch House Immersive. With her father’s passing, Charlie (Natalie Rae) contends with not only her new role representing one of Eden Creek’s three founding families but the return of her longtime summer romance Harper (Janie Killips). And when a dark secret from Charlie’s family history emerges, it threatens to shatter the hopes and dreams for the youngest generation in each Midwestern family.
Unquestionably Eden Creek is a masterfully moving triumph, a true testament to the power of a well-crafted experience and the creative potency of Chicago’s longest existing immersive company.
The experience’s vital backbone is its music and lyrics, as key narrative moments are conveyed through song. With music by Killips and lyrics by co-director Lauren N. Fields and Killips, each song is vibrantly vivid for the characters and heart-wrenchingly reflective for the audience. The songs are an amazing embodiment of the American Midwest — kind and thoughtful while laced with truth and pain. As Eden Creek’s struggles mirror those of my Kansas hometown, the songs bring me to tears as life’s most challenging struggles are always those of family and home.
Empowered by an excellent book, the cast fully embodies each song, bringing them to life. The only instrumental accompaniment comes from a piano and a guitar, yet several songs don’t utilize the instruments, relying solely on the cast’s vocalizations. It’s utterly impressive how the cast commands each melody, making the beat resonate deep within me. Luckily, these performances will live on and continue to move audiences with the release of the cast recording.
And while character interactions are quick and quiet, a majority of the cast are Birch House regulars who use every physical and theatrical element available to make interactions tremendously meaningful. Be it a whispered comment seated upon a bench or a squeezed hand during a deeply emotional song, I easily feel like a close, lifelong friend. I’ve never felt so at ease in any live or remote experience as I have with Eden Creek’s performers.
Tying Eden Creek’s brilliance together is its ingenious production design and staging. Mirroring the music’s minimalist nature, the production only utilizes several benches, a table-like structure, and (mostly) handheld lights. Throughout the experience, the crew quietly moves around, placing and switching on lights to great, dramatic effect. It’s impressive how masterfully a sweet family dinner is manipulated into a sinister flashback by stark, crimson light filling the space from harsh, low angles underscored by audible “clicks” thundering around the audience. Eden Creek is a fantastic showcase of less is truly more, especially when intentional sensory awareness is laced within an experience’s spectacle.
With a powerful narrative that is exquisitely performed and presented, The Last Days of Eden Creek is a profoundly phenomenal experience. It’s a testament to Birch House Immersive’s growth as a creative ensemble, confident in their skills and their understanding of the craft, rivaling any of the greats working today.
- Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor
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Editor’s Note: Dean Corrin, a Birch House Immersive company member, was the reviewer’s professor at DePaul University and previously served as NoPro’s Midwest Curator.
Limos: An Immersive Psychic Experience — Jackson Mancuso
Free; West Hollywood; Run concluded
This haunt season, Jackson Mancuso, an Associate Production Designer at Universal Studios Hollywood, created Limos: An Immersive Psychic Experience for audiences of 1–4 in West Hollywood, CA.
The scrappy, but highly polished, production used live performers, custom lighting, and sound design to immerse guests in the world of a tarot card reading gone wrong.
Upon entering a backroom shrouded in tapestries and blankets, audience members are seated at a psychic table and begin the reading led by actor Malee Callahan. She picks three tarot cards representing one audience member’s past, present, and future — the last of which spins her into a frenzied story joining Greek mythology and Christian scripture.
She paces around the table and tells a dramatized and well-acted parable about human greed and environmental destruction, as the lighting dims and music swells, until a personified end-times reckoning (performed by a monstrously masked Michael Guarasci) appears in the space and menaces the audience members into the finale.
Limos marks Mancuso’s first solo experience, designed for just a two-day run. However, in a discussion after the show, Mancuso said he hopes to potentially turn Limos into a trunk show, which could travel to different locations. In an industry filled with large-scale productions and attractions, lower-lift touring experiences offer a smart, low-budget way to highlight new talent.
It’s clear that Mancuso has studied his immersive theater and hand-selected some of its most effective technical and narrative elements — including Frankensteined source materials and a strobe lights finale delightfully reminiscent of Sleep No More’s Blood Orgy. And his show is stronger for it.
Limos is an impressive debut from a talented new voice in the immersive industry.
— Alec Zbornak, NYC Correspondent
Ghosts of Nebula: The Missing Six — Nordo
$60–110; Seattle; through Nov. 2
Nordo’s Ghosts of Nebula: The Missing Six bills itself as a “spooky treat” that invites audiences to explore an abandoned steam plant in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. Existing somewhere between guided tour, site-specific immersive, and escape room, the 90-minute experience moves participants through the steam plant as the story of six missing people slowly unfolds. ‘Ghosts’ is the second part of Nordo’s Nebula series, but can be seen as a stand-alone show. For those hungry for content, a companion app has additional videos on the 1921 disappearances and helps pull the thread.
Ghosts is a welcomed departure from Nordo’s usual approach of including a full dining experience that weaves into a story that creates an experience; instead, a single elixir kicks off the complex narrative overlaying a simple story arch in a site-specific show. It is apparent that Terry Podgorski, Artistic Director, Nordo & Nebula, took the historic location into account when working through the pacing and blocking and his best choice was selecting Ben Zamora as the lighting designer. Beautifully and expertly lit, the engineering of the Steamplant, a National Landmark and Mechanical Engineering Landmark, shines through in every moment — with curves, rivets, and dark corners that beg for deeper exploration. For first-time visitors of the steam plant, walking through this show will be memorable, including one room that screams “art installation” but is detached from the show — driving more questions than answers. This, paired with Evan Mosher’s sound design, brings the plant squarely into the center of the show instead of merely a backdrop.
Eavesdropping on our group’s conversations (many of whom were first-time immersive participants) the plot was deemed “too complex” for some, many had to be reminded to stick together, and the climax of the show felt like a “dark crystal” fever dream mixed with an escape room. Luckily we did find all the components to escape…mostly in time. Although it is atypical for me to include other guests’ comments in a review, the mixed chatter was inescapable and part of the dynamic of our rowdy group.
Unintentionally, Ghosts was overshadowed by the venue itself and participants were lost in the plot. Choose your group wisely and be prepared to marvel at the ghost of American Exceptionalism.
— Rachel Stoll, Seattle Correspondent
Walkabout Mini Golf: 8-Bit Lair — Mighty Coconut
DLC $3.99, Base Game $14.99, Quest, PC, PS2VR (Reviewed On Quest)
As big of a fan of Walkabout Mini Golf as I am, I will confess that until now I have yet to play any of their “Evil Lairs” series of courses.
After having explored, and been exceptionally delighted, by the 8-Bit Lair I’m going to have to rectify that.
For those just joining us: Walkabout Mini Golf is the VR (and now iOS) mini golf simulation that features over two dozen courses both semi-realistic and wildly fantastical, ranging from garden-like courses to gardens-like courses on Mars with stops at Meow Wolf and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth for good measure. It is a constant NoPro favorite and our favorite way to socialize in VR. (Sorry literally everything else.)
The latest course, 8-Bit Lair, is both incredibly inventive from a gameplay standpoint and has created a space that I just want to hang out in with friends. Along with the 18 holes of mini golf there are a few working 80’s style arcade machines whose simplistic games are fun, if a bit tricky to control.
This is also the most story-forward Walkabout course I’ve encountered, which is one of the reasons I want to go back into the Evil Lairs series, to see if this a a hallmark of the subset. If you want to see some solid environmental storytelling backed up by interactions and pop-up moments, then 8-Bit Lair has you covered. It’s basically a clinic in how to do themed storytelling.
The twists on Walkabout’s core gameplay are also a delight, making for challenges that live just on the edge of frustration, which is where mini golf is supposed to live in my experience.
If I have any complaints it is this: the Lair is such a compelling space, one that I really would hang out with people in, that I found myself wishing that there were alternate, more expressive avatars that could be used just for hanging out and grooving on the light up dance floor.
Walkabout’s avatars are limited to a head and the hand that you’re holding your putter in — complete with said putter — which is all you need for the game and is indeed part of the charm. Yet the longer I stay inside Walkabout the more tools for expression I find myself wanting to have access to. Which is more a function of how much I love the spaces they are making than it is some kind of failure on Might Coconut’s part.
From a certain point of view I guess you could say the world-building here is just TOO GOOD. But if that’s the worst thing I can say about this, then why aren’t you downloading it already?
— Noah Nelson, Founder & Publisher
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