Scent is one of those powerful memory triggers, and everyone has certain smells that trigger some kind of memory. Sometimes a specific one, sometimes just a general feeling of an amalgamation of memories; all mixed together. Slightly wet grass on a chilly morning sends me off to Saturday morning runs through Lake Balboa Park. A certain coffee smell flings me to a few different things, but often to a particular Barnes & Noble. One perfume that I’ll never know the name of brings on vivid memories of sitting in a theater watching Kill Bill: Volume One simply because a woman in the row in front of me had it on.
That brings us to Tales By Candlelight, which bills itself as a “collaborative, scent-based storytelling experience,” and, well, that’s exactly what it is. Born out of a partnership between Walk the Night and Cantrip Candles, it offers one audience member at a time the opportunity to craft a story with Christoff Visscher. Cantrip Candles is Visscher’s business that he created when he realized his tabletop gaming sessions were missing that certain something. When he went to find candles that would elevate those D&D nights, he couldn’t. So, he turned to making his own. Which eventually lead back to Walk the Night and this show.
Tales By Candlelight begins with a short conversation with Spencer Williams of Walk the Night where he serves you a drink (well, it actually begins when you purchase your ticket and fill out a short survey that can help guide the experience and affects what drink Williams serves you) and imparts some wisdom he picked up while traveling in Peru: “Let the journey take you.”
From there, you’ll be guided into begin the experience proper. The room has a fantasy tinge to it with a large map hanging over a fireplace, a large leather-bound book on a stand, and other genre-type trappings. They don’t dominate the space, but they do help to guide the audience into a certain headspace. Mostly though, it’s you on a couch, and Visscher in the corner of the room with a table of full of tricks telling a story together.
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That story can take whatever shape you want it to. You’ll offer an initial premise and then Visscher will riff a little bit and throw it back to you to fill in some details, make some choices, and then swing it back to him again. It’s something of a dance between participant and guide, you’re free to take the lead at some points (if you feel comfortable), but Visscher’s steady hand is there to gently keep the proceedings on track. During my time at Tales By Candlelight I received a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end (Williams would later describe it as “a mellow type of thing with Alice in Wonderland vibes”).
On top of that though, scents also make their way into your time spent telling stories to make this more than just a collaborative tale because Visscher and Williams recognize their power in experiences and the stories you’ll tell later. They’re tied in in a way that enhances your time in the world you’re building, but beyond that, they’re there to create some of those sense memories. You might encounter some of the smells in the real world that will draw you back into the world you developed in Tales By Candlelight. In case you don’t run into them elsewhere, a custom candle is included in the ticket price. About two weeks later, you should get a candle from Cantrip Candles to remind you of what happened.
The whole thing really does work best if you let the story — the journey — take you wherever it needs to go. Maybe that’s an adventure, maybe it’s a mellow pseudo-guided meditation, maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever the case, Visscher excels in that medium as he helps you move along the path while filling in details in compelling ways that flesh out the events or just add a surprising little pop that’ll stick around in your brain. Because of that, there’s no need to be worried if you’re uncomfortable with telling stories like this or aren’t sure if you’ve got creative writing chops (hi).
It draws on the tradition of shared storytelling, from ancient Greece to ghost stories around a campfire. In a way, it feels like a throwback to a different type of experience, and one that’s frankly hard to categorize as “immersive theatre,” but that’s besides the point really because it is a singular experience (just one that doesn’t fall neatly into the bucket of theatre). The premise of the experience is stripped-back, and for lack of a better word, simple, but that’s what also makes it so effective. Tales By Candlelight doesn’t need to be any bigger on the outside because it’s exactly as big as you want it be on the inside, with Visscher as a top-notch guide to lead you onwards, wherever you want or need to go. And by building the whole thing on top of scents and smells, Walk the Night and Cantrip Candles have ensured your shared tale will stick with you, that maybe somewhere down the line a faint smell will draw you right back to your story.
Tales By Candlelight is currently in beta testing; public tickets will be available April 4th.
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