Interludes

VIEWPOINTS: Dissecting Immersive Theater

• By drediman
• February 28, 2014
• No Comments

New York these days is agog with “immersive theater”. Experiences like Punchdrunk’s “Sleep No More” and Third Rail Project’s “Then She Fell” have captured New Yorkers’ imaginations, particularly the young, and are doing sellout business as a result. But what exactly is immersive theater and how did it establish itself as a hot sub-category in performance? Essentially, immersive theater is performance in which the audience is acknowledged by the performers and asked to engage more directly as active participants in the performance (as opposed to passive observers), therefore helping shape the collective experience. This engagement often involves using senses beyond one’s sight and hearing, many times utilizing the senses of touch and taste in ingenious ways. The result is a heightened shared experience, often overwhelming and unavoidably personal. Since the nature of human interaction (performer/audience, performer/performer, audience/audience) is variable in its possibilities, the thrilling prospect of this immersive approach is that no two performances are ever alike. This makes for a less rigid experience than sitting through your typical play performed behind a proscenium, which is perhaps why younger audiences have embraced these experiences. Immersive theater’s appeal may also stem from an association with other forms of entertainment. You name it: haunted houses, theme parks, Renaissance festivals, role playing games, video games, discos, fine dining, and so forth. These are all forms of immersive experiences and are, to varying degrees, theatrical. The beauty of immersive theater is that each production can be crafted by its creators to fit their unique vision, resulting in limitless exciting possibilities. The list below highlights some of New York’s most accomplished immersive theatrical experiences currently or soon-to-be available to adventurous theatergoers.

The Immersive Act of Storytelling: Bedlam’s “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan”

With his soliloquies, Shakespeare inadvertently included immersive elements in his plays. These speeches, in which characters convey their innermost thoughts directly to the audience, are catalysts for audience members to be intimately engaged and invested in the development of Shakespeare’s characters. With their exuberant rotating productions of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan”, both enacted with only four actors and close to no props, Bedlam Theater have taken this approach a step further by engaging the audience every step of both plays (and not just the soliloquies). Hence, the audience finds itself thrust into the world of the play and integral to how the story unfolds. You see, Bedlam’s philosophy is that the essence of theater is the act of storytelling in which us audience members are not only listeners but also active participants. Bedlam shows disregard visual illusion altogether (they even swapping characters amongst actors) and focus on bringing clarity to the landscape created by the text, which in many ways actually results in an experience more vividly realized in the mind’s eye than a multi-million dollar production on Broadway. Bedlam accomplishes this in the most uncanny ways. Don’t be surprised if a soliloquy is delivered by an actor sitting in an empty seat right beside you or if you are asked to enact a bit part yourself. The seating arrangement also shifts with each act, which I think keeps the audience’s engagement fresh and dynamic. Count me in as a big fan of this fascinating new theater company which, with a shoestring budget, have created worlds as expansive as the physical worlds created by Punchdrunk (see “Sleep No More” below). Time is of the essence if you want to catch either Bedlam production: their final New York performance this winter is on March 9th.

Broadway and Immersive Theater: The Revival of the Revival of “Cabaret”

Broadway is no stranger to immersive theatrical productions on its stages. The 1970’s brought Hal Prince’s environmental staging of the quixotic musical “Candide” with music by Leonard Bernstein, and the 1980’s unleashed the legendary production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” (directed by Trevor Nunn) for which the entire Winter Garden auditorium was extensively transformed into a playground for, you got it, cats. However, the most perfect union between adventurous immersive theater methods and mainstream Broadway material was likely the scintillating 1990’s revival of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret”, which was directed by Sam Mendes and starred a slinky Alan Cummings as the Emcee and the late, great Natasha Richardson as a bruised Sally Bowles. However, the linchpin in that superb production was the choice of venue. After drama-filled episodes to find the right venue for this site-specific production, Roundabout Theatre Company ultimately found the perfect space for an immersive staging of “Cabaret”: Studio 54. Here was a space that was originally built for music theater and later hosted the famously decadent club of the same name. From an historical perspective, this was the perfect home for the show. The final touch was actually transforming Studio 54 into a 1930’s cabaret club in Berlin with actual table service. The resultant experience was wonderfully immersive, and one that did not at all feel like a self-conscious attempt by a Broadway musical to pretentiously create an immersive world. You were there. The world created by Kander and Ebb on paper and the execution of director Sam Mendes’s bold vision fit hand in glove and was thrillingly seamless.  Broadway audiences in 2014 are in for a treat, as Roundabout is bringing this landmark revival back to Broadway this spring, again at Studio 54. It will be fascinating to see what a more experienced Alan Cumming and newbie Michelle Williams will do with the iconic roles of the Emcee and Sally Bowles, respectively. Speaking of Broadway musicals, also look out for the upcoming musical adaptation of “Rocky” at the shape-shifting Winter Garden in which I hear inspired director Alex Timbers (see below for his work on the excellent “Here Lies Love”) has a few tricks up his sleeves.

Immersive Musicals from the Start: “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” and “Here Lies Love”

Unlike the above mentioned Broadway musicals that were mounted in immersive productions subsequent to their original premiers (e.g., Sam Mendes’ “Cabaret” analyzed above, Hal Prince’s production of “Candide”), two of the best-received new musicals in 2013 featured immersive stagings right from the start. “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” by Dave Malloy is a musical adaptation of a small but passionate segment of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. Director Rachel Chavkin picked up where Sam Mendes left off with his “Cabaret” by overlaying the world of Tolstoy’s characters onto a fictitious Russian cabaret-like club called Kazino. The effect is a dizzying, one-of-a-kind experience that seemingly takes place in two parallel dimensions that peer at one another, using elements from the other to inform their own worlds. I am probably not articulating myself well, but the sensation this show creates is fascinating and addictive (I’ve seen the show five times). The colliding of the two worlds is also evident in the Dave Malloy’s messy but sensational score (most of the lyrics are fittingly in third person), which combines the driving rhythms of contemporary club music with Russian folk music. The creative team behind David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s ridiculously catchy song cycle “Here Lies Love” uses a more straightforward approach to bringing the show to life. Wunderkind director Alex Timbers ingeniously uses disco as a metaphor for the Philippine’s turbulent recent history from the perspective of that infamous first lady, Imelda Marcos (Note: Imelda loved discos and was a frequent visitor at Studio 54). As such, the audience is invited to put on their dancing shoes and jive throughout the show to the beat created by the DJ and performers, as if they were influencing and dictating “popular thought” through, pun intended, infectious pop music. “Natasha” concludes its wildly acclaimed Off-Broadway run this weekend on March 2nd, and “Here Lies Love” is making its anticipated return in a commercial production this spring (also in March) after a very successful run last summer at the Public.

Classic Literary, Theatrical, and Musical Worlds Brought to Stylish New Life: “Sleep No More”, “Then She Fell”, and “Queen of the Night”

Arguably the hottest of the current immersive experiences in town are a trio of shows that draw inspiration from classic works from the worlds of theater, literature, and opera. Punchdrunk’s wordless blockbuster “Sleep No More” is inspired by Shakespeare’s dark tragedy, “Macbeth” (if you find yourself in London, it’s very much worth paying a visit to Punchdrunk’s latest masterpiece, “The Drowned Man”, which is loosely based on Georg Buchner’s hallucinatory play, “Woyzeck”). Third Rail Projects’ soulful “Then She Fell” finds inspiration in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and in Carroll himself. Finally, the newly-opened and decadent “Queen of the Night” draws inspiration from and is devised as a prequel to Mozart’s famous opera, “The Magic Flute”. All three heavily depend on dance and impeccably detailed design work to draw audiences in to their worlds, but that’s where the similarities end. “Sleep No More” asks its audience members to roam its vast five story world to piece together fragmented, at times disturbing Hitchcockian, murder mystery-like scenes from “Macbeth”.  Instead of the epic “choose-your-own-adventure” quality of “Sleep No More”, the intimate and slightly unsettling “Then She Fell” is a personalized guided tour through the dual universes created by the show and also asks you to look inward into your own universe. The show only accommodates 15 audience members per performance, and each person’s experience over the two hour running time is beautifully hand-crafted and is unique to them (much like life itself). Although “Queen of the Night” invites audience exploration in the front end of the experience, the real treat is feasting on the sensational food and free-flowing wine as guests at Princess Pamina’s debutante ball (complete with in-your-face circus acts and off-stage drama). Although “Queen of the Night” is less artistically satisfying than the other two immersive experiences, it’s hard not to be intoxicated by some of the images created and especially by the sublime food and plentiful beverages.  Like the production of “Cabaret” at Studio 54 analyzed above, these production have found perfect venues to realize their respective immersive visions: a block of warehouses were converted into a fictitious, spooky hotel (“Sleep No More”); an abandoned Catholic school was turned into a eerie mental ward (“Then She Fell”); and the storied Diamond Horseshoe supper club transformed itself into an otherworldly royal banquet hall (“Queen of the Night”). These three performances are fast becoming New York institutions, drawing New Yorkers and tourists alike to their gates.

Other Immersive Experiences

That’s not all. There are other productions that I haven’t experienced in New York that ask audiences to immerse themselves, in their own way, in the world their makers have created for them. For example, the dancers in the interactive dance piece “4Chambers” ask its audiences to move with them. The performers in “Speakeasy Dollhouse” and the new “The Brothers Booth” invite their audiences to openly converse with them. Fuerza Bruta’s new show “Wayra” (yet to open) expects its audiences to let loose and dance as if at a rave. The recently shuttered “Beertown” asks the audience to participate as if in a town hall gathering where their identities are at stake. The possibilities are abundant and ever so exciting.