What I’m about to say may make you angry and defensive, but listen: I’m right.
If you go as a couple to an immersive theater play like the one by Emursive Productions Don’t sleep anymore or her new show Life and trustyou have to stop holding hands during the show. Just stop.
If you’re not familiar with these plays, they take place in huge sets that span multiple floors. The action flows through the space, the actors are constantly in their roles as they move from scene to scene – with multiple scenes happening at once. You, as the audience member, can choose where you want to go at any time. You can explore the set or follow a particular character through the entire play. Don’t sleep anymoreYou can just sit in the bar and listen to lounge music! The choice is yours.
The important thing is that if you go with friends or even a partner, you can experience the show very differently. One could even argue that this is intentional.
But every time I go to one of these shows, there are invariably several couples holding hands the entire time. They run hand in hand up and down the spiral staircase. They run hand in hand through dark, maze-like narrow hallways. They try to chase actors while they are handcuffed to each other as if they were caught in a finger trap.
It’s very annoying.
First, it’s a purely logistical problem. When you’re holding hands with someone, you’re slower. That’s just who you are. And that means you’re in the way and you’re holding up anyone who’s trying to follow the actor you’re following. That’s rude.
And by making each other dependent and forcing each other to experience the show in the same way, you are diluting it. I have seen Life and trust with a group of six people. We went in together but split up at the beginning of the show. I met my friends a few times during the evening but honestly the room was So so massive that I hardly saw them. That was because, listen to me, made different decisions.
I’m probably projecting here, but the experience of holding hands seems incredibly frustrating to me. What if you and your partner want to follow different actors as they leave a scene, or explore a different floor of the set? Who gets to make that decision, and how can you feel comfortable doing so when you’re in a room where talking is prohibited?
At Life and trustI decided to follow certain characters throughout the evening, thinking that this would allow me to traverse most, if not all, of the rooms and experience the plot in a good way.
But my friend Tara Burton – an author with years of experience Participation and criticism in immersive theatre — decided to explore the set instead. She spent the night playing detective, opening drawers and reading documents. We were both free to do what we wanted, and I can’t imagine how upset she would have been if I had dragged her from floor to floor in search of a charismatic performer. Conversely, I was very grateful for the information she found in our post-show discussion, but I didn’t go to Life and trust to read letters. (I went to Life and trust sprint up and down six flights of stairs and work up a sweat.)
When my group reconvened after the show to talk about it, I learned about scenes and characters I had completely missed. And while I wish I had seen two sweaty men having a homoerotic fight in the boxing ring that I didn’t know it existedmy friends were quite jealous that I had been given a one-on-one duel with an actor who had tied my hands with rope in a scene that was part thread play and part shibari.
We could excitedly swap stories about what had just happened to us and talk about the differences in our experiences. That’s fun! Would it have been cool to watch those scenes together with my friends? I think so, but I honestly don’t care! If we had stayed together, we would have all would have missed large parts of the play because it is simply too big to see in a single performance.
If you simply must together the whole time, then surely you could follow each other without blocking a staircase because you have to walk in pairs. A discreet tug on your sleeve could signal to your partner that you want to switch to another scene, right? In the larger rooms, you could even sneak up next to your partner in the dark and quietly put your hand in theirs while you watch a scene. Wouldn’t that be nice? While you’re standing still?
That’s the compromise I offer, but honestly, do yourself a favor: experience the show alone.
I enjoy the debriefing after a normal play or film as much as anyone else. But immersive theatre is not a sitting game. It is an experience that you are meant to do independently. And I would rather smash my kneecaps with a baseball bat than be forced to anyone I cannot accommodate the whims or desires of others when I am involved in an interactive game.
Let go of your partner’s hand and dare to experience a different show. You will still be able to bond with each other, I promise you.
