Review Rundown: The One Where We Van Gogh Get Funky

There’s no time to waste: NINE REVIEWS await. All over the country. Even one you can do at home. Let’s Goooooo.

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Brassroots District: Live in the Lot Summer ’73
$55+; LA Arts District; Through Aug 8

When I first read about Brassroots District I wondered, would it be immersive? Would it be a concert? And most importantly, how would those elements play together?

I’m pleased to report that Live in the Lot is both a legit concert and immersive show, where those two parts work together to create a welcome return for live immersive performances in Los Angeles.

The show follows funk outfit, Brassroots District (a real band, sort-of, though not one from the 70's) through the night of their big performance opening for Sly and the Family Stone in 1973. Over the course of the show, they’ll deal with what it means to grow as a band, hobnob with slimy record execs, and get down with their fans (that’s you) and groupies. The concert performed by Brassroots District is the focal point of Live in the Lot, and pauses in their set provide opportunities to interact with the characters in this world and learn more about what’s going on with the band as they’re on the verge of their big break.

It’s a simple format, but it’s an effective one. The immersive stuff is relatively light (which actually makes it more accessible for people newer to immersive work), but does enough to give weight to the band to enhance the concert portion of the evening. And that concert, is, like, really good, man. I’m not normally a fan of funk, but the nine-piece band groove their way through an outstanding and energetic performance.

By the end, those immersive moments throughout Live in the Lot Summer ’73 make the concert’s finale a raucous burst of cathartic joy.
— Kevin Gossett (look for his Full Review soon)

Cluster — Playmodes Studio
$17; Museum Fiasco at AREA15, Las Vegas, NV; Ongoing

Presenting its inaugural exhibition, Museum Fiasco is a permanent art installation space within AREA15. Created by Playmodes Studio, Cluster is an immersive light and sound experience within a 4,000 square-foot “mirror box.” The entire program consists of three chapters, “Kernal,” “Railwave,” and “Stellar,” each rotating every 45 to 60 minutes. I experienced “Stellar,” which moved through a range of abstract combinations, including moments of recorded dialogue.

First launched in 2017 at the Day for Night festival in Houston, Cluster was previously produced without the mirrored environment, which is transformative; the infinity effect distorts spatial awareness and amplifies the coordinated oscillation between the sound and lighting design. Located in a city known for its neon signage, Cluster fits right in, while also carving its own path.

On the light-and-sound-installation spectrum, Cluster lands closer to Kyle McDonald and Jonas Jongejan’s Light Leaks, compared to Chromasonic’s Satellite One. The meditative quality has an energetic edge and induces a visceral desire to move — not just within and throughout the space, but a real need to feel movement generated by the body. It’s a sensorily rich experience and my only wish is for the chapters to be programmed so that visitors can experience all three without spending hours in the exhibition.

(Content advisory: strobing lights)

— Laura Hess

Dragonbutter — Brian Sanders’ JUNK
$50; Philadelphia; Sold Out for July, Tickets Available September 2 through October 3

Calling a show “video-gamey” can often be an easy form of derision, speaking to a show that uses Skinner box techniques to paper over otherwise mediocre work. But as video games have become more sophisticated, so have the shows that embrace their form and aesthetic. Dragonbutter is a surreal combination of Valve’s seminal Portal, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and avant-garde dance all filtered through Brian Sanders’ unique lens.

Despite the fact the dialogue was largely unintelligible over blaring music, the play functions spectacularly as a nearly silent comedy adventure, climaxing with literal, physical combat between the audience and one of the dancers. The abandoned warehouse the show takes place in is perfect for a video game labyrinth, looping and revealing hidden passages for dancers to pop out of and audience members to pop into. I kept thinking of Dark Souls every time a new passage would open back up, returning us to a previous stage from a new vantage point. Game elements, such as conducting a scavenger hunt throughout sets for XP-granting items, or playing laser tag against undulating lizard people, manage to make dance that would otherwise largely inaccessible to an audience of laypeople tangible and engaging.

Brian Sanders’ gift as a choreographer and director is to mash wildly disparate aesthetics into a cohesive and vibrant whole. Dragonbutter follows this pattern exactly, creating an audiovisual thrill ride not to be missed.
— Blake Weil

Shadow of the Run Presents: DreamWalkers — Shadow of the Run
$45, Bedford Heights, OH, Run Concluded

With her grandmother’s passing, Chloe’s uncovered the horrific possibility that her family was involved with the Cleveland Torso Murderer. While becoming obsessed with discovering the truth, Chloe is at a personal crossroads too, where the parallels between her life today and her family’s past are striking. Now her dreams have become plagued with moments, conversations, and imagery she struggles to understand.

Overall, Shadow of the Run Presents: DreamWalkers is a gripping experience riddled with fascinating characters and ingenious usage of space, theatrically and thematically. Each moment of interaction, typically a performance for a small audience grouping or as a private one-on-one, is top rate. Whether it’s building a house of cards or receiving a tarot reading, I’m left with thought provoking ideas both about DreamWalkers and myself. There’s also some damn fine performances too.

Yet, DreamWalkers is impenetrable at times. Part of it is absolutely because I’m an out-of-towner. I have no sense of local history, unable to pick up on things undoubtedly obvious to everyone else. But for as important the Torso Murders are to the narrative, DreamWalkers doesn’t make much effort to teach, inform, or guide me into any understanding either. Also, DreamWalkers asks either too much or provides insufficient guidance on how the audience can engage with the experience. Several audience members seemed lost, oblivious, or overwhelmed during moments of agency interaction.

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While audiences might need to give themselves a crash course in local history or immersive theatre, if you live within driving distance of Cleveland, you need to check out Shadow of the Run’s work. If immersive theatre is to reach and become known to general audiences at large, especially those outside of NYC and LA, we need more regional companies like Shadow of the Run creating such engrossing work. Cleveland is lucky to have them.
— Patrick McLean

ECLIPSE — Oz Experience by BackLight
$120 total (2 to 4 people); AREA15, Las Vegas, NV; Ongoing

Located inside AREA15, Oz Experience currently offers three VR options, including the award-winning ECLIPSE. Co-created by BackLight and Virtual Adventure, ECLIPSE is a collaborative VR escape room set in space. Designed for two to four people, players divide into two teams, Explorers and Supporters, to investigate what happened to a sister spaceship and its non-responsive crew before a nearby red giant star explodes, destroying both crews and vessels.

The experience consists of full-body avatars and free-roam movement. Gameplay runs 35 minutes and a game master is available for guidance as needed. Our team was just two people and once we established player roles, we were physically separated into different rooms and also visually separated within the game for the majority of play.

Visual elements are beautiful, especially the red giant on the verge of supernova; I wanted more time to absorb and appreciate the extraordinary sensation of being that close to a massive, dying solar body. The free-roam aspect allows players to feel completely immersed in the experience, without tethers or other physical restrictions to pull focus.

The crux with ECLIPSE is player interaction. While the game is presented as a collaborative challenge, teams of two primarily work as individuals. One example involves the “puzzle” of a sudden fire on one of the ships, which prevents interplayer communication; while a clue is revealed in the process, the fire’s full design, and how to extinguish it, presents as more of a stalling tactic. With a team of four, ECLIPSE is a worthwhile experience, balancing player agency and communal problem solving.

— Laura Hess

ENDURE: Run woman show — Melanie Jones
From $45; Central Park; through August 2021

From its wonderful pun of a subtitle, to its ingeniously designed program which doubles as your runners bib, a lot of thought has been put into this immersive piece taking place in Central Park. The show has been over ten years in the making, being performed in five cities and four countries, to get to its current state — clearly a marathon project, not a sprint.

But this fantastic piece of immersive theatre is absolutely worth the wait. It is a simple premise, following the inner monologue of a long distance runner in training, but it is ripe for exploration in this semi-autobiographical story from creator Melanie Jones. We follow our nameless runner (Casey Howes for our run) through central park, as she tackles the logistics and various forms of motivation for her training, with all of the personal struggles that come with it. Using headphones and synced audio, we chase our runner through the park on a bright afternoon, even as we explore the darkness behind the run. An evolution of audio plays, with a live performer adding so much to the site-specific story, her movement is not limited to running, with expressive dance taking over as the story demands. The rest of the park may stare at this strange convoy of runners, but I am totally immersed in the drama of this pursuit.

A word of advice: go to the show prepared to run. True, you don’t have to run to enjoy the show, but the momentum is truly infectious and adds to the overall experience if you do. The classic immersive FOMO kicks in quickly, so I am sure you will want to take chase just like I did.

This is a simple, but impactful show, with a whole host of emotion delivered through the 75 minute/5k run-time. Forgive the pun, but this show has real legs to last. It is a beautiful story, told in an exquisite manner, that I think can connect with so many people. Lace up your shoes, and run to get a ticket for this truly excellent show while you can.
— Edward Mylechreest

Reboot — Walking Shadow
$30-$60; Online; Ongoing, currently booking through August 3

Walking Shadow’s Reboot bills itself as an online play with puzzles and, well, that’s exactly what it is. It combines the gaming mechanics of a team-based virtual escape room with a sci-fi story, its end ultimately determined by players’ choices.

Regardless of their actual computer savvy, players (up to 10) are cast as hackers who’ve caught the attention of the feds. Log on and meet Agent Halo (Jamila Joiner), a government defense agent. She promises a clean slate if you’ll help her uncover the secrets of a laboratory where two scientists seem to have been building a powerful AI.

To access the lab as well as the scientists’ computers and personal belongings, you’ll need to solve a variety of puzzles. They’re clever and even a bit challenging (hints are available), and absolutely rely on teamwork to solve. Many also require players to look at external documents and websites so you may want a dual monitor. (If you’ve played any of the Swamp Motel games, it’s a similar setup.)

Correct answers unlock narrative, which mostly moves along briskly via Halo and her AI helper, a cartoon robot named Bernice (voiced by Suzie Juul), and less so via pre-recorded videos. In the end, players must use the knowledge they’ve gained to vote on a final choice with lasting implications. Games run ~100 minutes.

Afterward, you’ll get a bonus text adventure game to play whenever. It’s recommended for Windows else it might crash. On a Mac, I got a good chunk through before it locked up on me. It was compelling (and nostalgic) enough that I’ll probably try it on my PC later.
— Juliet Bennett Rylah

Sanctuary — Lindsey Hanson Collective
Free; Redeemer Church W83; Run concluded

Sitting where the pulpit should be, I look out into the empty pews. The sound of ocean waves reverberates where the congregation should be. As lights fade in, a dancer appears from behind the long wooden bench, and begins to move with grace through the empty chapel.

Taking place in the sanctuary of an Upper West Side church, Sanctuary is the latest project from director/choreographer Lindsey Hanson. Postponed throughout 2020 until now, the piece is a meditative exercise on finding sanctuary, a site specific dance performance, with a stellar cast of eight of the most talented dancers in New York City. In addition to the dance performance, an art gallery was set up in the foyer of the church with the artist (Margaret Ferrec) present to answer questions on her work, detailing the sacred yet functional spaces that have come to represent the contemporary suburban church. Although not explicitly Christian, the two pieces emphasize a search for spirituality and connection, a most fitting pursuit in our post-pandemic world.

A pre-recorded segment of the dance is of particular note, filmed from a bird’s eye view of the pews. Utilizing every aspect of the pews (and the concrete floor beneath them), the talented athletes are able to play with gravity in a truly breathtaking way. Although there is no direct narrative to the piece, the movement, lighting and sound design create a wonderful atmosphere that invites contemplation and a search for personal meaning as the audience watches the work. We all bring our own stories into the sanctuary, and we are each able to take away from the performance what we need.

My only gripe with the performance was an overzealous usher, who loudly told us when to get up and to move to another area of the church to watch the next part of the performance. This really took me out of the zen-like atmosphere which the show had worked hard to create, and I feel instead could have been a simply choreographed move by the performers to gently move us to the next space, particularly with the well versed immersive performers who were in the show.

There are plans for Sanctuary to be performed in other sacred spaces around the country, which I would highly recommend attending if you are able, to find your own definition of sanctuary in these turbulent times.
— Edward Mylechreest

Van Gogh Alive — Grande Experiences
$0 (for children under 4) — $55; The Hangar at Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, CO; through September 26, 2021

Van Gogh Alive, a touring immersive art installation currently in Denver, has two major components: a well-lit pre-show gallery and a large, dark room that projects a 45-minute looping show set to instrumental music.

The pre-show gallery provides the necessary context for the parade of artwork that follows. Whether you’re a die-hard Van Gogh fan or relatively unfamiliar with his work, it’s worth spending the time to read everything presented. Van Gogh’s short life and even shorter career are presented across five different periods and well known pieces from each of those periods are highlighted. It looks like a traditional gallery, but with no original art on display. There is, however, a three dimensional replica of The Bedroom that you can step into, complete with staff ready to grab your camera and snap a photo for you.

The next room is the main attraction where you’ll spend 45 minutes watching a beautiful slideshow of piece after piece of Van Gogh’s work. The format is immersive in the literal sense with towering trusses wrapped in white fabric for projecting upon, encircling the space holding viewers. Even the floor projects animation and art, completing the immersive feel.

Sporadically, two dimensional animation brings certain imagery to life in a timid, yet tasteful way. The classical instrumental music selections were appropriate and fit the themes, though I did not notice any “multi-sensory” storytelling that was advertised in the pre-show gallery; natural fragrances such as cypress, sandalwood, cedar, and nutmeg were supposedly infused throughout the space.

This was a fun and unique way to experience famous works of art, especially for anyone who might be intimidated by an art gallery, or who simply is not “all that into” art. But if you are into art, you might be disappointed by the lack of opportunity to learn about the art and artist, the absence of original art, and the light-hearted, somewhat gimmicky shroud that’s been draped over the tragic story of an artistic genius.

— Danielle Look

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