Review Rundown: The One With All Kinds of Games

Squid Game takes over LA, Christmas takes over London’s Phantom Peak plus more in NYC & Toronto (FOUR REVIEWS)

Review Rundown: The One With All Kinds of Games
Watch your step: ‘Squid Game: The Trials’ has come to LA. (Source: Netflix)

This week’s edition of the Rundown features all kinds of playful experiences from the jolly to the sinister. Indeed it really resonates with one of the definitions we sometimes run around with for immersive theatre around here: “a play you can play.”

There’s a whole lot of fun to be had in immersive this week, so let’s get into it.


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Promotional image for ‘Call Us Villians’ (Photo: Katya Khromova)

Call Us Villains — The Other Side XP
$59.15; NYC; Fridays thru March 29, 2024

Call Us Villains promises “an immersive cocktail show that transports you to a magical world in an alternate New York City.” The show invites you to a magic speakeasy, where magicians meet to promote the forbidden art of magic. There, you meet the daughter of Prospero who recruits you in a mission to protect an artifact of her lost father from the enemies of magic searching for it. Unfortunately, Call Us Villains fails at just about every element.

Call Us Villains does not feel like a complete, cohesive piece. The setting was a redressed prison set from another show, ShawshankD. Each bar booth had a barely disguised toilet and sink. It was impossible to hold the fiction that you were in a speakeasy when you’re surrounded by prison bars and there’s a bathroom in your bar stall. The show promises magic, but that takes the form of two card tricks. You are supposed to solve a mystery, but the “solving” is being directed by an actor to read aloud letters that are taped to a wall. You get two decently mixed drinks, but there’s nothing connecting them to the magic theme.

Still, the immersive elements of Call Us Villains are where it falls the shortest. An immersive show of this nature should be driven by two things: the pacing and the presence of the actors. There was simply no pacing in the show — actors would openly check in with performers in other scenes to figure out whether to hold you in place or move you to another room. The acting was equally problematic. The most compelling part of the experience was a Tarot reading, but that was simply a good Tarot reading; it had nothing to do with the narrative of the show. The rest of the cast were visibly nervous, stiff, or not committed to the show.. Emotional scenes were unearned and awkward. None of the performers could command the space; indeed, members of the audience heckled the cast during climatic scenes. The whole thing felt more like an early walkthrough than a final performance.

It’s not that I can’t see what this show could or should be, but the writers, directors, and performers have simply not put in the time to get Call Us Villains up to speed. Look, immersive is hard. But when you charge people nearly $60 a ticket and produce slick marketing material, you are offering a promise of quality. Nothing in this show fulfills that promise.

Nicholas Fortugno, New York Correspondent


Source: Phantom Peak/The League of Adventure

Christmas at the Peak: The Beast of Winter- The League of Adventure
From £43.99, London, UK; Until December 30th

At the most wonderful time of the year, Phantom Peak’s inhabitants settle down with a cup of hot chocolate and dream of Father Platmus coming to town in his beautiful purple robes. Might a Wintermas Wish might be granted? Only if the constantly observing Jonas permits.

‘The Beast of Winter’, the seventh season in the ongoing narrative of Phantom Peak the immersive steampunk town, offers 10 new adventures to explore, with a commemorative playing card awarded upon completion.

Various narrative threads from previous seasons are paid off, including the Mayoral Election outcome and the capture of Father Platmus last Wintermas.

My highest commendations to the performers whose every interaction is skillfully handled as they seamlessly leap between audience members on different trails.

The food remains a delight and a stall now sells hot chocolate. This adds to the atmosphere of the town, as you sip a warm drink while promising that a rock will write postcards.

The experience is genuinely funny. You are asked to do a series of bizarre tasks around the town. The clues are full of weird images and the video voice overs constantly insult you.

Trails vary from a mission to destroy Father Platmus (for science but more importantly money) to a full grown adult just wishing to be adopted. With this last trail, the fact that you have the full range of townsfolk to ask means that you can go and speak to your favourite character.

One on ones are common and required, not something to kick and push your way to. The performers want to interact and you can talk as little or as much as you like. My companion for the evening is very shy and happy to listen and take notes while I talk and ask questions.

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The scenographic design of the town remains excellent, especially with the winter transformation. Fairy lights are everywhere. Even the arcade games have been given a seasonal makeover.

There is good pacing to the evening, allowing us to complete three quests but also wander past other small events. Queuing to speak to townsfolk was not too bad and the performers strike a balance between keeping the stories going and allowing people to chat.

After the recent loss of ‘The Burnt City’ there are no other immersive shows this size in London.

So if you want to enjoy a festive adventure, come along to Phantom Peak.

Thomas Jancis, London Correspondent


Promotional image from ‘Squid Game: The Trials.’ (Source: Netflix)

Squid Game: The Trials — Netflix
$39–99; Los Angeles; Dec 6 , 2023— Jan 31, 2024

I wasn’t expecting desperation to be so fun.

Squid Game: The Trials is both the latest immersive experience to bring a Netflix show to life and the first to be released directly under Netflix’s own Tudum brand. While some of the creative lessons, and the actual creatives, involved in the earlier hit Stranger Things Experience have been retained this event marks Netflix’s experience team calling their shot in a big way.

Going into The Trials, I was expecting something akin to a linear set of challenges that echoed both the original series and its reality TV spinoff which recently launched. While that is the bones of what we got what I wasn’t expecting was that it would be so damn fun.

This is a blast, y’all.

The mix of challenges both evokes the original series, at times in unexpected ways, and branches out into new territory for some challenges. It’s all harder than it looks at first, and if you have a competitive streak it will manifest gleefully over and over.

What surprised me most is that there was still a clear narrative thread, and while it wasn’t a tale filled with nuanced performances The Trials is more theatrical than it has to be, to its benefit.

Thanks to the source material this is also a far more interactive experience than Stranger Things Experience was, and that leads to a more social experience by far.

On top of that, Netflix has evolved the “exit through the gift shop” pattern of Stranger Things so that one enters through the gift shop as well. That ads to a carnival atmosphere, without sacrificing the somewhat sinister vibes of the core experience itself.

Whether as a solo player or in a group, this is great time out for fans of the show and those who like game challenges. (If you’re wondering: no, they don’t require heavy athletic ability.)

— Noah J. Nelson, Founder and Publisher


The Wedding Party — Secret City
$128.75 CAD; Kleinberg, Canada; Until Dec 30

In Secret City’s latest show, The Wedding Party (based on Canadian Caper’s 2016 show, Night at the Wedding,) the audience is invited to the wedding of Jack Rogers and his puzzle-loving bride, Norah Lane. While enroute to the venue in my cocktail dress, I found myself confronted with the first puzzle of the evening — explaining to my Uber driver that I was going to a wedding, but that it was a fake escape room-inspired wedding.

Like immersive theater performance, weddings employ a degree of camp and roleplay. Thus, the premise lends itself remarkably well to the form. Between the setting (Kleinburg’s The Doctor’s House — a popular wedding venue just outside of Toronto), the stellar cast, and general atmosphere, I genuinely felt like I was attending a wedding. The only thing that differed (other than us running around like puzzle-crazed maniacs), was that the meal was better than your standard wedding fare.

While the escape room-inspired portion started as a light-hearted affair, the evening’s tone shifted as we uncovered more information. The puzzles worked well within the evening’s theme, but a few felt clunky, resulting in our team brute-forcing them to preserve time. We completed the game with only a few moments to spare; I suspect the difficulty may be too high for casual puzzle-lovers drawn in by the faux-wedding theme, but the cast also helped nudge groups in the right direction.

At 120 minutes, The Wedding Party could have benefitted from a slightly extended run time. As we were the last table to be served our food, I found myself scarfing down my entree between puzzles. Throughout the evening, the waitstaff kept checking on our drinks, and each time we quickly brushed them away so as not to mess with our puzzle-solving flow. An additional half hour would have allowed us to better enjoy the dinner portion of this dinner-theater experience.

One of the things that Secret City does remarkably well is creating fascinating crossover hooks — a pirate boat cruise at sunset, exploring the inner walls of an actual heritage castle, and now a wedding reception. In doing so, they’re able to ease in those who might be hesitant toward immersive or escape room experiences, and convert new fans along the way. Of all recent Secret City productions, The Wedding Party, with its accessible premise, engaging storyline, and well-themed puzzles has the potential to do this the most successfully.

— Katrina Lat, Toronto Curator


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