Review Rundown: The One Where We Go BACK To Vegas

Plus NYC, because that city NEVER SLEEPS and more (Six Reviews)

Review Rundown: The One Where We Go BACK To Vegas
Promotional Image: Lost Spirits Distillery

This week finds us back in Las Vegas, checking out new things to do at Area 15 after we took in Particle Ink: Speed of Dark. You’ll find a capsule for that show (and a link to the full review) below. We also throw in a capsule review for last week’s feature review The Burnt City, and a brand new review for Homeland, which closed in NYC.

Let’s get to it!


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Chihiro Kawasak in iPunchdrunk’s the Burnt City (Photo: Julian Abrams.)

The Burnt City — Punchdrunk
£78.50-£151.50; London, UK; through Dec. 4

The host with the most, the absolute toast of the realm: Punchdrunk welcomes the world into The Burnt City, a sprawling labyrinth built on the banks of the Thames, offering a monumental adventure through a mythic war.

Close to a hundred luxuriously detailed rooms and spaces to explore while the narrative plays out. Donning Punchdrunk’s signature white domino mask, guests are turned loose in the middle of the Trojan War and left to find their own path. A sharp visitor might pre-study the Wikipedia summaries of Euripedes’ Hecuba and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon before arriving just to have an idea of the narrative, but even without the research there’s nothing inaccessible about the enthralling visuals of the choreography once wandering the main set.

The performance movements are vertical as well as horizontal — aerial and rope work, ladders, stacks of props all serve as ways to lift the cast up out of the crowd in dozens upon dozens of scenes both intimate and expansive, and yes the famous one-to-one scenes remain present.

The scale and scope is dizzying: town squares, shops, war-torn plain and encampment, dilapidated hotel, tenements. Masterful work between light, scent, props, and razor-sharp sound design draws audiences down into the murky depths of the space and sends them either on mad chases after the narrative action or rifling through drawers to read private letters, prayers, and graffiti scrawled in Linear B.

While it remains an enforced requirement to wear a face covering under the domino mask, this isn’t a show for the Covid-concerned given the close quarters, engaged crowds, and the tactile nature of the production. Visits are recommended only for those with an adventurous spirit, the keen desire to go looking for the action, and a brazen willingness to abandon their companions at the first hint of excitement.

Shelley Snyder, London Curator, see her FULL REVIEW


Homeland — Linas Kairys
New York, NY; Run Concluded

Family heirlooms lay on a table, atop an intricately woven rug. Combing through a photo album, a diary and the other trinkets, we are invited into the home of an unseen family. Just as we begin to grow comfortable in the space, the lights flicker and we hear the sound of a missile detonation in the distance.

Homeland, a student project by Berklee NYC masters student Linas Kairys, is a striking experiential theatrical response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Sound and lighting design are used in a fantastic way to turn what appears to be a very simple scene into the front lines of battle. Once the table is rushed away from us, the rural design on the rug morphs as we stare at it, as the patterns turn into a 3D cityscape.

Military footsteps approach and then actually appear, marching over the canvas as other panicked footprints run as fast as they can over them. Chaotic noise envelopes the space and we hear the desperation of those in war, before a call to action begins to resonate around us in its place.

Lights flash again, but this time the same pattern from the rug appears on the walls around us. While I look, words appear in the middle of the pattern, as a blacklight reveals messages that were surrounding us all along. We in turn are bid to leave our own mark on this experience, as a bowl of paint is invitingly left for us.

While the current political turmoil is clearly the focus of the piece, Homeland feels open enough to be able to be understood and relatable about any number of conflicts that have existed in the world. It is an impactful and unfortunately timeless piece, one which transports the audience, and reminds us on a personal level of those who are in conflict right now. I leave the space moved, and haunted by the final question that the show leaves us; what are you prepared to do?

Edward Mylechreest, New York City Correspondent


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Illuminarium: Wild
$40+; Area 15, Las Vegas; Open Daily

To do the Illuminarium any real justice we need to talk about it on two fronts. Starting with the technical.

A projection venue similar to those that show the ubiquitous Immersive Van Gogh projects, filling the walls of a large gallery space with floor to ceiling projections and then some.

The big difference here is a haptic floor that allows for force feedback underneath your toes. This is tech that VR shops like The VOID have used to great effect. There’s also a truly impressive array of Panasonic projectors slathering every available surface with crisp high definition images. You wish you had one of these things for your living room wall.

Nor is it limited to the wall. The floors are projected upon, all be it at what looks to be a lower resolution, but with the added benefit of being interactive. Know those little spaces in the mall where you can splash through a puddle or chase butterflies, well that’s the entire floor of the Illuminarium.

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All in all a technical marvel, if only the content lived up to it. In this case I got to see the Safari experience WILD.

Given all that it could be with the technology at their disposal, WILD is disappointingly tame. While the vista sequences — which allow us as a group to imagine that we are standing on the African savanna surrounded by lions and rhinos and more — look and sound great, and let folks grab a few selfies without risking life and limb, that’s about it.

I was actually distressed by the lack of imagination on display in the transitions between landscapes. The walls would get divided up into multiple conventional nature videos. Giant gorgeous nature videos, but giant nature videos nonetheless. Whatever sense of presence was engendered by the true to life scale of the scene-scape projections was erased by the looping films. It seems like a real case of Illuminarium curators not knowing what do with the technical wonder they’ve constructed.

All is not lost. It’s entirely possible one of the other selections takes advantage of the true scale of the space, and all the high tech goodies that lie within. Otherwise; the best thing about the Illuminarium is the restaurant — Lumin — that’s attached to it. Really great onion rings, for one.

— Noah Nelson, Publisher


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Liftoff @ Area 15
$18+ (adults)/$14 (Child / Sr. / Local / Military); Las Vegas; Open Daily

One of the latest attractions at Area 15, Liftoff is a slow moving “floating bar” that hovers more than 100 feet in the air to give guests a view of the Las Vegas skyline. It’s a rather pleasant experience, unless you’re terrified of heights. I’m not a big fan of drop towers, but this isn’t that. It’s just the part where you go up and then look around. It even rotates so everyone gets a nice look at the view.

It’s possible to take a drink up with you. There’s a bar conveniently located right next to the tower. Some of the tickets even come with a drink. This is Vegas, after all. Not a bad way to spend a bit of time if you’re waiting for your Meow Wolf or Lost Spirits entry time, or are waiting for the loop to cycle at Museum Fiasco. The ride itself is just ten minutes long, but the lounge area around it is open and will let you start/finish/get another round.

PROTIP: apparently the trick is to go at DUSK, if you can swing it. This is also part of an “experiences pack” that bundles it with a bunch of the Area 15 offerings in one go.

— Noah Nelson, Publisher


Lost Spirits Distillery: Las Vegas
$59; Las Vegas; Open Daily; 21+

The original Lost Spirits Distillery in Los Angeles was practically an urban legend: a functional distillery that made artificially aged up booze through scientific wizardry that also housed a funhouse worth of themed entertainment shenanigans. Tour tickets were very popular. Then it burned.

The second Lost Spirits Distillery added some elements and took away others. One big addition: a small fleet of themed buses that had everything from holograms to portholes on a submarine that made it look like you were diving under the water as you were whisked from the LA Arts District to somewhere presumably on the other side of the river.

That one was shuttered during the pandemic. Could the third time be the charm?

The latest incarnation sits across the parking lot from Area 15 in Las Vegas in a large warehouse style building. At present there’s hints of the vibe guests will find inside on the outside: pedicabs and sculptural pieces moored in sand next to a big tanker that’s part of the operation. It’s incongruent to the rest of the Area 15 space, but the curious are well rewarded within.

Inside the Distillery a lot of the funhouse shenanigans are back, computerized sight gags and the functional tour of the operation which previous guests will recall. Guests get a passport card that lets them grab four pours along the way, sampling the wares. Yet the tour isn’t the only thing here. In fact what the Lost Spirits crew has done is effectively built a Magic Castle for vaudeville and burlesque, with stages peppered throughout the surrealistic set. At times it feels like one is skulking about a papercraft labyrinth with drink in hand. Once the tour is done you can linger. For those who want to get fancy, there are some fine dining experiences to be had. (Those aren’t included in the base price.)

Now if that sounds like your kind of a good time then it is a very good time indeed. Yet if booze isn’t your thing, then I’m not really sure why you’d want to hit up a distillery. Me? I’ll be headed back.

— Noah Nelson, Publisher


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Particle Ink: Speed of Dark
$49.50; Las Vegas; Through July 17th

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.

— Noah Nelson, from his FULL REVIEW


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