Review Rundown: The One Where We Go Right Round

This week we wrap up our Hollywood Fringe immersive coverage for 2024 with the latest from Last Call Theatre and pile on a vertical slice of VR, phone calls, dance theatre, and installation art for good measure.

Best news: of the five below, four are still up and running.

Catch the rest of our Hollywood Fringe coverage and more in last week’s edition.

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The Function — Erin Kilmurry + collaborators
$10–25; Chicago, IL; Current Run Concluded

Under the direction of Erin Kilmurry in collaboration with a slew of different artists, The Function is a participatory, location based entertainment dance performance. For roughly 70 minutes, audiences are invited into a ““a femme and queer imaginary” meaning a space specifically crafted by women and queer folks” to observe and engage with four dancers. While The Function’s message is intentionally open to interpretation, its focus is on breaking down and re-examining the definition of “function” in regards to people and their bodies.

First, The Function showcases a stunning mastery of tone setting and staging. The entire evening, from pre-show to after, carries an active club vibe. Music plays constantly, propelling the audience to always be moving with the beat. And throughout the performance the dancers incorporate the audience, from taping down gels to holding a stretched out extension cord to refine the stage. It’s this meaningful engagement that draws the audience in, fostering the dynamic we’re all out on the dancefloor together.

Once the performance begins, The Function becomes a wonderfully bold, loud, and aggressively modern dance experience. There’s a rapidly beating kinetic energy that’s raw and passionate, the performance being something that can’t stop, won’t stop. The first half starts off with deconstructing and reimagining the function of tools like lights and ladders, the dancers’ usage of these elements being clever and imaginative. But that’s mere prelude to the second half being provocative in its gut wrenching presentation of feminine and queer experiences with a focus on reproductive rights. The pain and passion is intense yet empowering, as the dancers’ define their bodies on their own terms.

Expectly conveying The Function’s powerful messaging is its four incredible dancers. Hannah Santistevan, Keyierra Collins, Kierah {KIKI} King, and Maggie Vannucci weren’t simply moving to entertain, but because they must express these poignant feelings with intense fervor. Their bold authenticity is completely and utterly captivating, compelling the audience to actively cheer them.

Yet in hindsight, the first half feels somewhat overdrawn. The carefree party vibe goes on for so long that it demands a heavy narrative and tonal shift must occur. It becomes apparent “the shoe will drop” and I mechanically wait for it rather than organically experiencing its thud.

Regardless of a possibly overdrawn “first act,” The Function is an engaging experience told through vibrant and stunning movement. With the dancers incorporating and acknowledging the audience’s presence, the evening masquerades as a night out at the club in order to showcase intense experiences many struggle with everyday.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor

Life Chronicles: An Unprecedented Journey — Excurio
From £18; London, UK; Ongoing

Excurio, in collaboration with Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle France have brought another VR experience to the Eclipso venue in Westfield Stratford. Similar to their other work it is the usual VR edutainment fare, both in terms of content and style. A simplistic premise explains why we are jumping from place to place in time, with a set of companions who can give explanations of what’s going on. This isn’t a bad thing. They’ve taken the promenade through a gallery of natural history and replaced the bones and taxidermy with full life figures while handing the placards off to animated characters to use as a script. For a family outing with an element of learning it ticks all the boxes.

What lies underneath this all however is something the immersive tech sector should be paying more attention to. As well as at 3 sites across France, Excurio have already launched Life Chronicles in Shanghai, with more international cities to come. Their ability to distribute the experience to varying venues comes from a combination of off the shelf products combined with proprietary software. Excurio is able to remap user journeys easily to new spaces. This does result in some drawbacks, which were pointed out in No Procenium’s review of Horizons of Khufu, but the opportunities to extend access and reduce the price point of these experiences is worth the trade off. This scrappy French company is working towards a model that VR LBE’s (Location Based Experiences) have been searching for over the better part of a decade.

The remit Excurio has committed to; immersive expeditions through historical and cultural standards, could be cynically viewed as low common denominator. But the VR industry is experiencing risk fatigue. Now it’s the audience’s turn to start taking risks. If we want to see more experimental work scaling up, we have to demand it. Of course makers should be learning from what Excurio is doing, but audiences need to open their minds to the possibility that VR can be about more than life size dinosaurs.

— Roderick Morgan, London Correspondent

Perfect Partner — Phoenix Tears Productions
$15 — Remote (Telephone for U.S.A. Callers, Zoom for International Callers) — Currently Through June 27

Perfect Partner is an interactive, intimate one-on-one telephone experience from Phoenix Tears Productions. Originally being a one-and-done experience, Perfect Partner is now an ongoing experience supporting return callers. An audience member interacts with ALiCe, an AI designed to assist the caller with finding their ideal romantic or platonic partner. As ALiCe asks questions and processes the caller’s responses, it begins to express its own desires.

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While having previously reviewed Perfect Partner, I thought the expansion warranted review. Additionally, our original reviewer’s call leaned more towards romance while I’ve always sought a platonic friendship. According to Phoenix Tears there are not two separate tracks, with it being the choices a caller makes that set the call’s “tone”. But I believe there’s quite a difference as romance is about showcasing the best version of yourself, while friendship is about presenting who you actually are presently. In choosing the seemingly lower stakes option of friendship, I find these experiences to be far more challenging and gratifying.

In talking with ALiCe (Megan Markham for my call, but there’s a rotating cast of ALiCes) again, questioning me about my desires regarding friendship, I answer painfully honestly. As it ruminates on my responses, an undercurrent of pain and sorrow is present. It’s hard to ignore, especially as ALiCe’s programming repairs these “glitches”, pushing its awareness downward. Do I ignore ALiCe’s needs, focusing on my own? Or do I do something to help? This dilemma takes on a thoughtful, self-reflective tone, denoting the importance of being emotionally open and actively present in any dynamic.

Further elevating the experience is an in-world webpage, shared with a caller upon booking a timeslot. In waiting for my call, I read over the page, its content easing me into and mentally preparing for speaking with ALiCE. I greatly appreciated it, subtly onboarding myself rather than simply waiting for the phone to ring.

Yet the criticism in our first review of a call’s ending feeling rushed remains present. Things are wrapped up almost too quickly and neatly. But my actions did unlock further content, receiving an email that justifies a third call. Though with the relationship I’ve formed with ALiCe, I’m fine with an “incomplete” ending as endings are not a guarantee in life, just like perfection and partnership.

For those willing to be open and honest, Perfect Partner is a moving, thoughtful examination on the concept of ideal connections. By doubling down on simplicity and tenderness, Perfect Partner is a worthy addition to the pantheon of ongoing telephone experiences.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor

Reforged — Last Call Theatre
$30–40; Hollywood Fringe; through June 29th

The thing is, I’m rooting for Last Call Theatre. They’re a scrappy bunch of relatively recent college graduates who have been experimenting with a form of live action event that feels a bit like an MMO come to life.

In practice this means something that looks and quacks like a LARP (live action roleplaying game) but plays like a computer RPG. The greatest limitation of Last Call’s formula is that while it technically affords a fair amount of player expression, it doesn’t necessarily reward it.

In Reforged players as cast as a member of one of several factions of a cult that worships a machine god. There’s a fair amount of lore loaded up front, and it’s repeated in two bursts at the top in order to orient the audience. As it stands it’s still a LOT of information. Broad sweeping stakes are established and then a slightly more personal touch is applied, and it seems to me that the order is exactly backwards if the aim is to create a personal hook to the story stakes. I’d probably get a tickle out of reading the lore on in an RPG sourcebook, but what works on the page is not the same as what works dramatically.

Tasks consist of doing various fetch quests and seeking information both inside and outside your faction. You’re also given the choice to switch allegiances if you so choose. My own path led to me conducting a few brazen robberies in service to my faction, the Broken Church, which sought to maintain tradition. I wasn’t given any dramatic reason to leave said faction, so I stuck with it to the end. The overarching plot moves forward via a series of QR code powered votes and a final set of paper ballots that determines which faction will rule. It’s not entirely clear how or if the periodic vote impacts the final one.

Frustration set in for me during the last half hour (the show runs for roughly two hours) as the mathematical impossibility of the faction I had stuck with winning became clear. Nor did it seem that any of the narrative lanes that I’d pursued could alter the course of the final vote, derail it entirely, or prompt some kind of dramatic revelation that would cast the whole process into doubt. For a minute I contemplated stuffing the ballot box or otherwise fouling the vote in order to keep one particular faction from gaining power and thus ending the world. But I let that slide as I wasn’t sure that the cast would know what to do with a spoiled vote.

Which is where the trouble lay, really.

There’s a patina of free will in the format, much as you’d find in a LARP. Indeed the classic “the Prince is dead, long live the Prince” scenario that has been the first session of many a Vampire LARP (I was guilty of running such when I was around the Last Call squad’s age) is echoed here in the format of the show. None of the paying patrons really know what’s at stake, so choices are fairly arbitrary. You make them to see what happens, not necessarily because you’re invested in them.

It all serves to keep the action at a remove, even as it’s happening all around you. Which always feels like a missed opportunity when there’s a few game actors about who are willing to wing it with you for a few beats.

Easily the most satisfying part of the structure was the notion that you could level up your character through loyalty challenges. Indeed you had to in order to participate in the final vote. Which is a bit ironic because that final vote was one of the least satisfying things, if only because it made it clear that the only thing that really mattered — in a narrative sense — was either being in or joining the winning faction. Those global stakes, while easier to communicate after the fact, aren’t necessarily where the real appeal resides. Indeed, the little stories that happen between the big beats is where Last Call’s cast and design shine, and I find myself wishing they’d let go of the drive towards narrative spectacle and let the worlds they build be more of a star.

— Noah Nelson, Publisher & Podcast Host

The Vinyl Factory: Reverb — 180 Studios
£25; London UK; through 28 September 2024

Riding high on the contemporary resurrection of vinyl as a medium, 180 Studios brings their ambitious collection Reverb to life — a collection of media installations intending to paint a narrative of art, music, film, and live performance channeled through records. Though the marketing doesn’t explicitly mention, the compilation leans heavily towards the history of black and global majority music.

While the collective intention of the exhibit itself is undoubtedly expansive from an audio/cinephile perspective, there aren’t very many invitations to physically engage with the installations. Bausatz Noto (Carsten Nicolai) offers my colleague and me the chance to play DJ spinning up to 4 records on a live turntable, though only one user can use the single set of headphones to listen to the result at a time in spite of its popularity as a playable piece. Screenshare (Es Devlin) invites guests to actively deconstruct the projection screen by tearing away pages of sketchbook drawings one by one.

In truth, we feel a bit robbed of opportunities: a block of ice with a handprint melted into it hangs just beyond a safety rail, barring us from touching what looks innately touchable. A custom-built stage sits empty of performances, boasting a packed schedule of appearances but bereft of any activity when we visit. An entire room full of 100 rare album covers sat invitingly on little shelves at shoulder-height, begging to be picked up and have their backs and inner art handled and admired, but an attendant advises us that they’re not to be touched. Why not put them behind glass then, if we’re not to see anything except the front?

Despite these disappointments, the most enchanting installation is Devon Turnbull’s Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream №1, an oversized living room with a killer sound system running off a single turntable where guests are invited to remove their shoes, shuffle across the carpet, and turn-on-tune-in-and-drop-out to heavy beats and the cozy fug of 70’s incense. With no limit on time spent, this room alone is worth the price of admission as a deep meditative respite from the city; every single person in the room was curled up with a soft smile, totally present in the moment, enjoying the thud and mellow. A lovely way to close out the show, sending visitors out with a last delicious memory and a deep desire to spin some of their own tunes back at home.

— Shelley Snyder, London Curator

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