Live action role playing meets dance-theatre in a Canal Street basement

When: January 15 — February 3, 2019 (Dark on Mondays)
Where: Wildrence, 59 Canal Street Basement, New York, NY 10002, (look for the blue door)
Price: $125; 18+ recommended

Tags: #immersivetheatre, #dance, #sitespecific, #LARP, #interactive, #ContactAdvisory, #ContentAdvisory, #MobilityAdvisory (see below)

Event Link

In 2014, five people died in an illegal medical experiment in a Canal Street basement. Before their families could learn what happened, the incident was covered up: buried under a mountain of legal procedures and sealed behind a web of police tape. No one knew how those five people came to participate in the experiment, or what they were doing; only that it cost them their lives.

Some of their survivors moved on. Some fell apart. A handful kept fighting, and after five years, they’ve finally won the opportunity to unseal the laboratory, and learn what took their loved ones from them. When you enter the world of The Mortality Machine, you’ll take the role of one of those survivors, venturing into basement for the first time.

And what you’ll find defies science and hope.

The Mortality Machine is an immersive theatre experience that combines live-action roleplay and site specific dance to allow you, the participants, to become the protagonists of the story. You’ll make meaningful choices that have unique consequences, and confront and reflect on your own views about what happens after death.

Read our Q&A with the creators.

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Contact Level: Light (Business/Acquaintance). You should expect to be touched on the arms, shoulders (including your upper back), neck, hips above the waist, and legs below the knee. If someone reaches for your face, stomach, lower back, or attempts to hug you, they will telegraph it so that you have a chance to pull away (we’ll practice this a bit right at the beginning). Any additional physical contact will have specific guidelines to prevent unwanted touching.

Content Advisories: The Mortality Machine contains: depictions of medical procedures, depictions of death and grieving, partial nudity, mild sexuality and profanity. It is not suitable for children under the age of 18. We will simulate medical procedures, including the use of needles. There will, at times, be darkness and loud noises.

Venue is located down one flight of stairs and is not wheelchair-accessible; however, if you can make it down a flight of stairs, we can transport your wheelchair down, and accommodate most needs at that point. We have about three feet of clearance in our most narrow passage downstairs.