This week on the rundown, the Review Crew weighs in on a couple of events that we already put the spotlight on in the form of our Coming Soon features, and on one of the rare – but increasingly less so – jubensha style games made for Western players.

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Lonely Hearts: Lonely Hops – Chicago

Birch House Immersive
$50-$80; Cultivate by Forbidden Root; Feb. 13 - 22

Returning for its ninth iteration, Lonely Hearts: Lonely Hops is a clockwork, interactive experience from Birch House Immersive. This year The Gin Savant Beatrix Von Hopper (Lauren N. Fields) and The Gentlewoman Giles Henry (Janie Killips) work with their puppet pal Stanley T. Puppet (Stephen McClure) to host St. Valentine’s Day festivities. As Stanely co-owns Pfeltenhopps Brewery, a brewery dedicated to serving puppet patrons, it’s seemingly a perfect match until a brewing accident creates shocking physical transformations, eliciting journeys of self-reflection and acceptance.

While Lonely Hops is a back-to-basics entry (though not lesser or repetitive in any manner), Birch House continues the brilliant choice of having audiences engage in tactile activities. During the experience’s first half, audience members assemble hand puppets that reflect themselves in some manner, be it their ideal or inner selves. During each few-to-one interaction, performers provide a specific element to add to the puppets such as eyes, hair, or an accessory. There’s a plethora of amazing options, allowing the puppets to appear more Muppet-like, have a true DIY feel, or a combination of two.

Assembling my puppet was truly one of the most utterly delightful and creatively rewarding activities I’ve ever undertaken in an immersive experience. I found myself carefully considering each element, ensuring it was a true, meaningful reflection of myself. And this clearly resonated with other audience members who found novel ways to breathe further uniqueness into their puppets, ranging from making interpersonal dynamics to braiding their hair. With making puppets, Birch House ingeniously builds a fun, playful space for audiences to meaningfully and safely express themselves.

Yet Lonely Hops noticeably slows down in its second half. While avoiding details but teasing the spoiler, a magical mishap occurs to the characters which is significantly…felt. While brilliantly executed, the audience remains seated for the reminder of the experience. Even with continual, engaging audience interaction, there’s a distinct loss of momentum. Lonely Hops is simply weighed down by scalability issues when elevating the signature Lonely Hearts few-to-one interaction to an all-to-one interaction.

But the entirety of Lonely Hops is dynamically fresh and robust because of amazing performances and touching character moments. A standout pairing is the reoccurring tarot reader Jubilus (Quinn Leary) and their previously unseen partner Adora (Kristen Alesia). Their long-term relationship’s joys and woes are beautifully palpable, with Leary and Alesia expertly injecting humorous nuance and sincere depth, making the couple genuinely relatable. But it’s Von Hopper and Henry who steal the show; due to the crazy transformation, the two are stripped of their unflappable exteriors, present completely raw and vulnerable. Their self-reflections are deeply touching and humanizing, with being a testament to Fields and Killips’ performance prowess to continually surprise audiences after all these years.

Even with a passive second half, Lonely Hearts: Lonely Hops is a heartwarmingly sweet and tender experience about honestly embracing and proudly presenting your true, inner self. With the ingenious focus of puppets, this Birch House Immersive experience’s message of loving oneself will resonate deeply with audiences.

– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator and Remote Experience Editor

Editor’s Note: Birch House Immersive company member Dean Corrin was the reviewer’s professor at DePaul University and previously served as NoPro’s Midwest Correspondent.

Provenance NYC


Alexandra Palocz
From $20; the cell; Feb. 7 - March 1

Provenance is described by its creator as “living somewhere between the worlds of interactive fiction, audio play, and escape room.” While this is accurate, and while the experience is both intriguing and charming, it is ultimately let down by its technology.

The central mechanism of Provenance is simple: a recorded audio play is shared in short segments. Sitting in the dark, the guest advances the story by fitting puzzle pieces into holes.

Provenance’s narrative, which is compellingly written and narrated, is about a mysterious artifact found by birds, which the protagonist recovers and takes on a journey of discovery.

While I was curious to hear more of the story throughout, the puzzle mechanic never progressed beyond shape-matching. Provenance reminded me of a “click to continue” cutscene. Google suggests that an occasionally-vibrating button was a yes-or-no choice, but if that’s the case I never caught on. Realizing that at each stage that I once again needed to find the right shape in the dark was frustrating more than meditative.

The experience was further let down by three technical problems. Upon arrival, an open intercom meant I heard most of the end of the show. A puzzle piece fell off the table, which, in the dark, I neither heard nor saw. I wondered if the game had progressed into a new mechanic. I removed a piece, and the next bit of audio played, so I thought I had solved it… only to realize later that I had messed up but had no way back to fix my problem. 

Finally, I was warned when I arrived that part of the technology was broken, and that a choice at the end would be handled manually. For a solitary experience in the dark, that was a bit of a letdown. My puzzle problems meant that I also never saw the final reveal of the puzzle itself, which I would have liked to have.

Provenance is a hard show to review, because it is interesting, and my experience was a confluence of unfortunate problems. Others may enjoy it much more than I did, and with an additional mechanic or two and without the tech problems I would have been captivated. The experience of fumbling in the dark and the excitement of hearing the start of the story was great. Ultimately, I’m excited to see the next project from this creator, or an iteration on this one.

— Penelope Ray, NYC Correspondent

Worms Against Humanity – AT HOME/REMOTE

Twist ‘n’ Turn Studios
Free through February 28, $10 on Itch after February 28

Jubensha, a form of roleplaying game that’s something like a cross between a murder mystery and a social deduction game like Werewolf or Mafia, can be an intimidating thing to try out as a newcomer. Though they are extremely popular in China, English-language Jubensha are few and far between. It’s a challenge to even find translated Jubensha to purchase and play at home. Most games take several hours to complete and require a precise number of players to gather in one location to play a game, which is hosted by a facilitator. Jubensha parlors in North America also tend to focus on serving ex-pat Chinese communities and might offer Jubensha as only one of the multiple activities, such as arts and crafts. Parlors like Noah’s Ark, Sense7, and 528 Entertainment, which have all been around for a few years, are not necessarily active on Western social media or search engines like Yelp. (Luckily, availability of English-language is slowly growing, with Westerner-friendly venues like Rabbit Hole Recreation Services in Colorado or Zed9 in Vancouver providing hosted games to a broader audience.)

The difficulty in trying out a Jubensha game is one reason why I loved stumbling across Worms Against Humanity, available as a print-and-play Jubensha. It’s available for free for a limited time from the Toronto-based studio, Twist ‘n’ Turn Studios, which was founded by three bilingual game designers. A tribute to Among Us and the COVID-19 lockdown era, Worms Against Humanity is a beginner-friendly Jubensha for four players that takes around 2-3 hours to play and does not require a facilitator or game master. 

The structure is relatively easy to understand: there’s been a murder on the spaceship, and it’s your job to figure out who did the dirty deed. After silently reading your character sheets, the timer begins. There is a brief introductory conversation between the four players and debate about the known facts of the case: where the body was found, when it was found, cause of death, and so forth. Then every five minutes after that, each player draws one clue card during each “investigation point” (think “points” as in “decision points” and not scores). Clue cards are categorized into two broad types: evidence about the other players or evidence found in a location on the ship’s map such as the engine room, lab, communications room, etc. Once you draw an evidence card, you can choose to keep it to yourself or share it with the group; some cards are extremely juicy while other clue cards simply confirm information the group has already deduced.  

Slowly as more and more facts come out, via these clue cards, the discussions between players start to get more interesting. Backstories are revealed, secret agendas are proposed, and the accusations fly. Of note to the immersive fans, this is around when my group really began roleplaying our characters; I even proposed a motive for murder where one character was infatuated with another. Another player hammed it up, talking about a family tragedy that had been a secret… until now. However, once the timer has run out, it’s time for the group to vote on who they believe the murderer was. Will your group be clever enough to discover who the murderer was? Ours did, but with only a few minutes to spare. 

Worms Against Humanity is a delightful and low stakes way to try out Jubensha on your own terms especially if you already love games like Among Us. I’m eagerly awaiting what Twist ‘n’ Turn Studios has to offer next. 

— Kathryn Yu, Senior LA Reviewer & Executive Editor Emeritus

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