Review Rundown: The One With So Much Immersive (Even Tomb Raider)

So many shows. So many words. Let’s just get into it.

Last week’s Rundown, the one that went Coast to Coast Across the Immersive Spectrum? Ride the synchronicity wave to those seven reviews.

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Common Measures — Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Free; New York, NY; Through 22 October, 2022

Common Measures, the latest installation from Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, has transformed the Pace Gallery into a twinkling, golden-hued wonderland of light.

Upon stepping into the gallery’s Chelsea locations, visitors will first see Lozano-Hemmer’s Pulse Topology, a visually-striking collection of 3,000 Edison bulbs suspended from the ceiling in undulating swoops. The bulbs gently pulsate with light, some brighter and faster than others.

The room is quiet but for a womb-like soundscape. Two large bulbs hang separate from the others. If a visitor places a hand beneath the bulb, the soundscape changes — loud, muffled beats like a mother’s heart fill the room and the lights grow brighter.

In a second room, two bright, white lights illuminate a black trough filled with white fog. The fog roils the surface of the trough and spills over the edge and across the floor before eventually evaporating. Occasionally, delicate streams of water shoot up across the surface.

Guests float quietly through the gallery space, some looking contemplative, others playing with the lights, and the rest taking photos of themselves against the beautiful backdrop Lozano-Hemmer’s art creates.

Common Measures is beautiful, but falls short of being meaningfully immersive for its viewers — the only interactive piece in the entire installation are the lights in Pulse Topology that react to movement, and the reaction is the same every time, no matter what the viewer does.

More importantly, though, Lozano-Hemmer’s work does not have the emotional resonance of other light-based interactive art exhibits, like Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms, which use lights and mirrors to create a private, seemingly-endless kaleidoscope of space, and ask viewers to think about themes like death, obliteration, and the possibility of an afterlife.

Whether it was the open gallery setting or the work itself, Common Measures didn’t really land with me, or inspire me in the way that Kusama’s work has.

– Cheyenne Ligon, NYC Correspondent

Hocus Pocus (The Circus Picture Show!) — Alterra Productions
$15 with two drink minimum, $55 VIP; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Kaitlin Chin, head of Alterra Productions, often says that Alterra makes “fun, stupid art”. While this is true, and Hocus Pocus (The Circus Picture Show!) is both fun and stupid, it’s maybe not an entirely fair evaluation. One of the pleasure of Alterra over the years has been seeing their skill as craftsmen focus and develop. “Fun and stupid” doesn’t highlight the level of skill and talent Alterra brings to the table.

Taking inspiration from the tradition of Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcasts, Alterra brings their immersive dance stylings to that format, all mixed with the cozy living room hangout feel of their Philadelphia home base, The Cube.

Everything from the signature drinks to the interactions to the choreography of the shadow cast is thought through and well executed. None of this makes anything feel like important theatre. What this does do is highlight the intended, chill vibes of the whole affair. While the audience is given some basic callbacks to start them off (think screaming “asshole” and “slut” at Rocky Horror), by the end of the show, everyone was giggling and improvising riffs.

None of this is to say that I don’t think Alterra can do serious art. I think The Poison Garden, however fantastical, has proven they’re capable of directing their skill towards weightier subjects. Still, Alterra has the courage to, in the words of Weird Al, dare to be stupid, and we are all the richer for it.

— Blake Weil, East Coast Editor at Large

House of the Exquisite Corpse ’22 — Rough House Theater Co.
PWYC — $45; Chicago, IL; Through Oct. 29th

It wouldn’t be Spooky Season in Chicago without an evening of puppet-performed horror from Rough House Theatre Co. And this year, audiences are in for a magnificently terrifying time with House of the Exquisite Corpse ‘22.

While still performing at the Chopin Theatre, Rough House has left the compact basement, moving upstairs to the massive mainstage space. The move allows a snarled, dirty intestine-shaped chancellor to hang overhead. There’s a silvery path on the floor, guiding the audience throughout the space. While the path’s design could be mistaken for tree roots, it’s hard to ignore what it truly is: human veins. Even in this larger space, Rough House successfully creates an intimately dreadful sensation of being closely surrounded and trapped.

Like last year, Exquisite Corpse is an anthology of seven incredibly diverse five minute puppet performances. Puppets range in size from handheld to full body, partial costumes. Five of the pieces require peeking through “holes” in stylized “walls,” with the other two inviting audiences to sit in tight, tiny spaces. Be it standing or sitting from their voyeuristic perceptive, the audience dons corded headphones with noises, dialogue, and music accompanying each performance.

Several of the performances featured this year are stunningly spectacular. One features a gigantic mouthed puppet consuming string-like parasites, ratcheting tension with each grotesque bite. I found myself leaning back, disgusted. But with the headphones keeping me tethered, I’m unable to look away. Another performance has the audience sitting, watching a cuckoo clock figurine befall a terrible fate. The staging subtly elicits being part of a live studio audience bearing witness to a hellish episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Additionally, there’s a mesmerizing adaptation of a Japanese folktale set in a dark, foreboding forest. Instead of witnessing the performance through tiny holes or sheer screens, the “wall” resembles trees, with wide, tall openings between the trunks. It’s a brilliant design choice, fostering the sense of intimate inclusion to the folktale’s events. Finally, the strongest performance is about a couple driving home late one evening after an unnerving family dinner told through shadow work and miniatures. While stunning to watch, the craftwork occurring is simply majestic, equal parts confident and seamless in its deceptively simple presentation.

With being a fantastic evening of horror, House of the Exquisite Corpse ’22 is a testament to Rough House Theatre Co.’s continually stunning work as prominent immersive creators.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator

Intravene — Darkfield, Crackdown, Brenda Longfellow
£15; London UK ; Run Concluded

Intarvene is not a podcast. It is delivered entirely using sound, like a podcast. It has been created in part by awarding investigative journalists at the Crackdown podcast. It is the first in a two part multi-platform audio journey, the second part of which is a podcast. It also feels, when experienced inside a shipping container as part of the London Film Festival (LFF), like a podcast. But it can’t be a podcast, because otherwise surely somewhere in all the marketing, website copy or literature for the LFF they would have mentioned that, right? So then what is it? Intravene represents a shift in thinking from Darkfield, towards a more socially engaged and present form of storytelling. The specific mechanics at play here are reminiscent of the glut of 360 videos, voice-overed by subject interviews, that comprised the majority of XR in the film festival circuit leading up to the end of the last decade. Ocularcentric documentarians soon evolved their practice to be more diverse, it feels like we may have to wait for Darkfield to trek the same path towards a non-fiction experience that is as engaging as their other work. There are threads of classic Darkfield in here. We are guided to imagine ourselves in an overdose treatment facility that undulates with The Stanley Parable parallels. We are jolted back and forth from this to the verbatim sound from Vancouver’s Overdose Prevention Site. These recordings are often too raw and sonically complex to be immersive. No one could argue that the subject matter and staging are not well conceived, but audiences might be better looking beyond Episode one: Benzodope, which is presented at LFF, to Episode two: Riverview which is a well structured version of the same idea, is available online for free and is a self confessed podcast.

— Roderick Morgan, London Correspondent

Project Ascension — Sinking Ship Creations
$990; New York, NY; Run Concluded

Project Ascension is a high-budget live-action roleplaying game set in a cyberpunk setting for about 60 players. You are assigned a character who is a Stringer, a criminal who has been exiled from normal society into an off-grid subculture called Purgatory. The LARP starts with you finding out that Purgatory is going to be shut down and all Stringers will be killed, and it’s up to you to tie up loose ends and find a way out before the game is over.

Project Ascension is a major step up from previous Sinking Ship work — it has a robust storyworld with deeply intersecting plots, very strong connections between characters, and several designed locations you could visit in NYC’s Lower East Side, from a conspiracy theorist’s apartment to a cyber-doctor’s chopshop. This is not a beginner’s game. The game world is established weeks in advance through several world-setting essays and it’s a lot to read beforehand. Also, a lot of game information is spread through Discord during the game and keeping up with many active channels of content can be demanding. But if you know how to roleplay, it’s a well-paced and deep game.

I can quibble with things — I wish the epilogue were stronger and that players had more chances to visit all the cool settings and street events — but Sinking Ship delivered on what was critical to do in a paid LARP. Any roleplayer knows you can tell a story by yourself, so what you are looking for when you buy a ticket is a deep story, a great set of facilitators, and some polish you can’t make in your basement. Sinking Ship delivered on all of this, in particular in facilitation which managed players, played key roles, and handled problems with near perfect professionalism Staff managing to rearrange locations that fell through while the game was running without a hitch, and a player’s health emergency was handled quickly and seamlessly. It was a good game overall with some excellent content, so Sinking Ship’s work worth a look if you’re up for paying premium for a LARP event.

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— Nicholas Fortugno, NYC Correspondent

Project 7 Sin — Audacious Theatre
$35 — $55; Denver, CO; through October 29th

Audacious Theatre has returned with another hilarious installation of their annual Halloween show. This year, they’ve devised a way to capture and repurpose the energy generated from sinful behavior. It’s a brand new, cutting edge process, and residents of Denver have all been invited to attend a launch party for the city’s newest startup, Sinnovation.

During a lengthy, self-indulgent introduction from the founder of Sinnovation that included a somewhat unsettling demonstration of how the power of sins are extracted, it started to become clear that perhaps this was not the kind of startup we want to get involved with. Something sketchy was definitely going on. As the creepy founder continued with his grandstanding, alarms began to sound and automated voices informed us that the physical embodiments of the seven deadly sins had escaped from the lab and were on the loose.

The entire show took place in a single, moderately sized room at Lumonics, a light art studio and gallery in the suburbs of north Denver that put off an appropriate tech startup vibe. When the seven deadly sins descended upon us (portrayed by seven actors dressed in similar costumes, each sin represented by a different color) it was chaotic and jarring in the best possible way. Soon after, each sin was temporarily confined to the top of a large box (one of seven placed throughout the room) and it was up to us to conjure the sinful energy needed to restrain them.

From there — about 30 minutes into the performance — the remainder of the show was gamified into three rounds of simultaneous audience participation. Two or three sin characters led each round as they tasked audience members with different “sins” to perform, such as stealing an item from another sin character, conducting a silly but somehow related task, or answering weird trivia questions.

The gamification got stale rather quickly and the conclusion fell flat for me, but Audacious Theatre kept me laughing from beginning to end, and that’s really what I’ve come to expect and enjoy the most about their shows. If adult language and themes saturated in dry humor sounds like a good time, this show is for you! If not, you might want to sit this one out.

— Danielle Look, Denver Correspondent

Shiretown Shindig — Ye Olde Commons
$125–325; Charlton, MA; Sept. 16 to 18

Shiretown Shindig isn’t a normal LARP. It’s a gentle experience about connecting with community over simple pleasures like food, company, and more food. It’s also about being a hobbit. “Every year, six lively halfling families reunite to celebrate the turning of the seasons, health of family & friends, and […] all-round showcasing the best of all halflings.” Players are encouraged to choose a family to align with in advance — Gurdybucks wear purple and like entertaining; the industrious Bluebottles wear blue, the courageous Bluffwaters wear green, and so on. The rules are simple: show up, be a hobbit, and have a good time! This low barrier to entry even convinced a few of my non-LARP friends to make Shiretown their first live-action role-playing game. LARP isn’t something that most people stumble into, so I hope you’ll take this as the high praise that it is: all three of my newbies are looking forward to coming back again next year.

Shiretown Shindig is “a role-play light, vibes-heavy experience.” Between the game’s user-friendly player handbook and a wonderfully inclusive online community, players have all of the resources they need to plan a hobbit holiday, starting with second breakfast, followed by meals, family portraits, and an evening concert in the Tavern. The magic — the thing that makes this a LARP and not just a themed party — is what happens in between those officially scheduled activities. I spent my shindig playing Beric Tallow, a young man with a secret penchant for poetry. Between meals and the occasional nap, I spent time lounging in the grass, listening to Gurdybucks compose songs about the other families. I watched a group of jugglers and helped deliver felt bees to people who clearly did not have enough bees in their lives. I snuck into the tavern with a friend to “steal” a few drinks, and I directed curious hobbits to my cousin, Cricket Tallow, for potato readings (because everyone knows that it’s bad luck to eat a potato without having your fortune read). My evening was spent sharing toast and cheese around a bonfire. I missed an amazing twisted folk music performance by Troll 2, but the company was good and I couldn’t have asked for a better night. I fell asleep, happy to have been a simple young man who read a poem aloud to his friends.

— Leah Davis, New England Correspondent from their Full Review

Tomb Raider: The Live Experience — Little Lion Entertainment
From £35; London, UK; Ongoing

It seems London is filling up with immersive shows based on licensed properties. You can immerse yourself in the worlds of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘Saw’, to name just a few. Now here is your opportunity to fire weapons and solve puzzles, following in the boots of Lady Lara Croft herself.

We, Lara’s students at UC, are summoned to Croft Manor. My companion, terrified of someone jumping out, placed her back against a wall as I played the old immersive game of “what’s in the drawers?”

With a flash of blue light we ‘teleport’ to Finland and our guide, Parker, plays an audio clip of Lara telling us to “find the relics of the four elements and save the world.” Parker follows us throughout, seeming to be very annoyed as various villains try to kill us. Across four zones, ranging from icy forest to jungle temple we experienced thrills (ziplines and backwards leaps of faith) and spills (falling off the zipline).

A highlight for me was a high speed chase on the back of a truck as my companion and I fired rubber tipped darts at projected baddies. This is a fun mixture of escape room and adventure playground. The puzzles require a nice amount of teamwork to solve. Opportunities can be provided to opt out of risky activities.

References to the games appear in name and audio only. Croft herself is always obscured by bad signal or a very powerful light. Sensibly the bar was not available for us before the show but sadly they closed it soon after we completed our challenges. Not so keen on us lingering and toasting our achievements.

Ultimately this isn’t going to challenge the hardcore adrenaline fiend or the puzzle room master. But my party had great fun and that’s the true treasure.

— Thomas Jancis, London Correspondent

Undersigned — Yannick Trapman-O’Brien
$60 downpayment; New York, NY; Through Oct. 25

Written and produced by Yannick Trapman-O’Brien, Undersigned is a thrilling new experience that has arrived in New York just in time for Spooky Season. The City Reliquary, a community museum that celebrates the history of the city, plays host to the Brooklyn experience. A kind eyed but firm receptionist (the fantastic McKenna Parsons) welcomes me to the oddity-filled space before guiding me towards an ornate tray filled with trinkets. As this piece is designed for an audience of one, she turns away from me to lock the door and I sense the intimacy of this moment. She call over her shoulder and asks me to pick a trinket that might have significance to me and to carry it with me into the next room. This will be my offering for the ritual to come. I feel the eyes of history look down on me from a dozen photographs as I pick the Zoltar Fortune Ticket, and follow.

— Edward Mylechreest, New York City Correspondent, from his FULL REVIEW

DOUBLE TAKE

Two reviewers tackle one event

Wonderland Dreams — Alexa Meade & Catching Flights
From $36 for adults; New York, NY; Ongoing

Cheyenne Ligon: In Lewis Carroll’s classic 19th-century children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a bored and curious Alice chases a white rabbit and falls through a rabbit hole into another dimension. But what if, instead of satisfying her curiosity, Alice went down the rabbit hole for another reason entirely — in search of a perfect selfie?

That’s the question Wonderland Dreams, a new installation by American artist Alexa Meade, seems to ask. Meade and her team have converted an enormous, 26,000 square foot retail space on Manhattan’s ritzy Fifth Avenue into a hand-painted Wonderland where guests can wander through various Alice-inspired rooms — including, of course, a Mad Hatter’s tea party, a rose garden, and a room full of giant playing cards.

Everything is painted by hand in a 2D style, from the floors to the furniture to the leaves on plants. Even the props (for what is a selfie palace without thematic props) are painted, and guests are encouraged by sparsely-placed staff to try on stiff, paint-covered jackets and hats, sit on crackly, painted furniture, or fan themselves with painted fans for a perfect photo op.

Aside from engaging with the limited props, there’s only one section of Wonderland Dreams that I’d call interactive. In a more psychedelic take on the mushrooms in Wonderland, Meade has created a wing of Wonderland Dreams that uses lights, music, and paint to create a trippy space to explore — 3D glasses that create a kaleidoscopic effect optional.

If you’re in the market for new photos with cool backgrounds, or even just a light-tough immersive art installation to wander through with a thematic cocktail (Meade’s partners for Wonderland Dreams are the founders of Catching Flights, the immersive company behind the now-defunct Rosé Mansion), you’ll probably enjoy yourself.

But visitors who purchase (the relatively expensive) tickets to the exhibit hoping to experience immersive theatre will likely leave disappointed. Despite its source material, Wonderland Dreams has much more in common with other selfie palaces like the Museum of Ice Cream than a show like Then She Fell.

It’s up to you to decide if that’s a white rabbit worth chasing.

– Cheyenne Ligon, NYC Correspondent

Nicholas Fortugno: The concept of the Instagram museum had reached its fitting end, sliding from the slickly designed but fairly vapid high point of Color Factory to its eventual paper-thin and pointless nadir, Madcap Motel. Or so I thought until I saw Wonderland Dreams, a new space showcasing the work of Alexa Meade and designed by Catching Flights. It’s a blast back to the days of pop-up “museums” in all the worst ways.

It’s a shame in part because Alexa Meade is a popular and interesting artist, but her painting work is buried into corners of the space and overwhelmed by the set design. Beyond that, Wonderland Dreams is a series of rooms boldly painted to reflect different moments from Carroll’s story, including tea times, hedge mazes, playing cards, and very slightly psychedelic effects when seen through 3D glasses. Mostly, you can stand in rooms that are painted from floor to ceiling and take pictures while wearing heavily painted props that make it look like, to quote the materials, “you are in the painting.”

This is all a way of saying there is nothing at all to do. Sure, you could spend a couple of minutes trying to stack giant cards or move through some ribbon dangling from the ceiling, but it’s not interesting, there’s no story to follow, and there’s nothing to accomplish. It’s not that Wonderland Dreams looks bad or is poorly executed; there’s just nothing to engage you beyond a first glance. This piece suffers the way all Instagram museums do — it’s too shallow to be a real museum exhibit and too devoid of activity to be an immersive experience. You’re paying $30+ to take a few pictures in an experience you will exhaust in twenty minutes. It’s better to just save the money and follow Meade on Instagram.

— Nicholas Fortugno, NYC Correspondent

(For yet another take, see Edward’s in last week’s Rundown)

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