Everything Immersive > No Proscenium > Trailheads (7/27/22)
Trailheads (7/27/22)
by Chris Wollman
A weekly feature pointing you towards the current experiences that have people talking.
For people who never drink... wine…
Endless [TOKYO]
Obaken, the Japan-based horror company that briefly made AirBnB a pandemic immersive destination with a pair of chilling remote experiences now extends an invitation to an in-person night of grisly, gastronomical delights. You receive a curious letter in the mail that you feel compelled to heed, leading you to the Chat Blanc mansion in Kagurazaka. Inside you find a sumptuous feast waiting for you, but if you aren’t careful your host may be ordering off the menu. A gothic, fully immersive vampiric tale where the creators encourage guests to commit fully and create their own story. This mysterious saga is broken up into two totally separate ticketed experiences, Crown and Masquerade; both include a meal and both are necessary to fully grasp the Endless narrative.
Why we think you’ll love it: Obaken specializes in atmospheric, unnerving experiences that fill their audiences with dread long before their appropriately bloody finales. Roaming a mansion at night falling prey to their technically innovative scares sounds like one bloody good time.
For people looking for safe, charitable outlets for their sadism...
The Haunting Is You! [SALT LAKE CITY]
Presented as part of the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, this horror/comedy hybrid appeals to everyone’s totally understandable desire to humiliate actors for a very good cause. You are the ghostly remnant of a thespian that fell afoul of the Scottish play’s curse, haunting the theater ever since that production literally went up in flames. When a tech startup full of recent college graduates moves into the building, you now must choose the best way to haunt the obnoxious new tenants out of your sacred space. While admission to the show is free, audiences are encouraged to donate funds throughout the night in order to “possess” one of the performers, triggering one of many predetermined hauntings off a menu that includes everything from biting into a hot pepper to acting like a gorilla. Actors must adapt and persevere through whatever the ghosts throw at them, making each performance a unique and unpredictable experience.
Why we think you’ll love it: Donations for these hilarious a la carte haunts are divvied up 50% directly to the performers and 50% to charity supporting theatre-based low income youth outreach in the SLC community.
For people who made it through high school without learning how to spell Oedipus…
Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus [TORONTO]
Outside the March and Factory Theatre partner to throw a madcap mashup up mythic proportions. Having fun with homonyms, Ancient Greece meets Grease the musical in the fictional city of New Troy, and citizens young and old are in the mood to party. The generations are separated as two parallel stories unfold simultaneously in different locations on site, with a tireless ensemble pulling double duty; each actor plays both a teenager jiving on the dance floor inside and their middle-aged parent sitting around a campfire outside, running from one area to another in breathless precision as each scene requires. The audience is split in two at the outset and switches off at intermission so that by the end of the night the whole story is seen by all.
Why we think you’ll love it: This irreverent riff on Greek mythology sees classic characters like Odysseus, Cassandra, and King Agamemnon reimagined for the heightened, modern setting apparently all in service of a frank meditation on the generational responsibility of inheriting the climate crisis.
**Have an upcoming/ongoing immersive experience that has you buzzing? Point it out to us through pitches@noproscenium.com with the subject line "Trailheads" and we might include it in the next issue!