This week we've got a pair of reviews, one for a production that just wrapped in NYC and the other for a one-on-one that has extended to this weekend in Chicago.
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The Continuing Story: The Collector (Chicago)
First Person Immersive
$30
Jan 23-31, 2026
Performing at iO Theatre, The Continuing Story is the debut production from First Person Immersive. In this one-on-one experience, an audience member is invited to explore a cluttered space decorated with meaningful trinkets and thoughtful handwritten notes. After exploring the space, the audience member interacts with The Collector (Natalie Senecal), discussing the power and tangibility of memories. The entire experience lasts roughly 20 minutes, though could be less depending on the audience member’s level of engagement.
Currently, The Continuing Story is a poignant and masterfully crafted experience. The onboarding is smooth and the transition into the room is dynamic. In quietly exploring the space, I’m instantly moved by the handwritten, documented memories; each is on brown, crumbled paper, this weathered, delicate look creating a sense of preciousness. Yet, while the notes and objects featured throughout the space seemingly are connected to a particular person, they’re everyday enough in form and function so the audience member can find them relatable and accessible, projecting a personal connection onto them. It's impressive how quickly the mood and tone is set with easing the audience member into the ideal mindset.
Successfully building upon the production design is the touching and heartwarming interaction with The Collector. The encounter is incredibly palpable, the depth of intentionality behind every spoken word and physical movement deeply and instantly felt. Senecal exudes kindness and generosity, creating a soothing, safe space. And when asked an emotionally thoughtful yet challenging question, I’m able to effortlessly share a cherished memory I’d lost long ago. The ease in how quickly such an amazing, personal moment blooms for the audience member is a testament to Senecal’s performance.
While veteran audiences will appreciate The Continuing Story, it probably isn’t ideal for those new to the immersive artform. The room is visually overwhelming, making it easy for someone’s eyes to glaze over and miss all the subtlety of the notes and objects. Also, the fast paced engagement might prove to be too much for those unaccustomed to being emotionally vulnerable, be it with a stranger or even themselves. If an audience member can’t or won’t be open and honest, I fear The Continuing Story would be a hollow, flat affair.
But upon receiving a memento and speaking to the creative team afterwards, I learned The Collector is the first of four interactions that will ultimately be featured in The Continuing Story. I suspect upon the addition of the other three interactions, criticisms regarding length and audience engagement could dissolve. Hopefully a time comes when all four interactions can be experienced in tandem.
While there’s a high level of entry and steep onus on the audience member, who might think it’s too brief, The Continuing Story: The Collector is a moving, thought-provoking experience about cherishing and caring for our personal memories. It’s an exciting beginning and I look forward to more from First Person Immersive.
– Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor
The Traitors Experience (NYC)
JFI Productions for Peacock at the Weylin in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$40
Jan. 14 - 22, 2026
The Traitors Experience in New York joined Mafia-esque gameplay, group puzzle solving, rich soundscapes, scenic design, and delightful performance for an audience of twelve guests in an hour-long reimagining of the television show.
While I was less familiar with the show than many of the die-hard fans in attendance, I still greatly enjoyed myself, and that’s exactly because JFI knows how to craft immersive theater.
The experience made excellent use of the historic Weylin venue, formerly the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, located in, you guessed it, Williamsburg. As the game progressed, we moved as a unit through small cozy libraries, shadowy stairwells, serpentine mazes, and, ultimately, a cyclopean rotunda.
This vacillation between small spaces and cavernous ones kept the journey exciting and surprising: you never knew where you might end up next. Moving from the safety of an intimate room to the sprawl of a wide-open one evoked awe, theatrically, and a feeling of danger, evolutionarily.
The team at JFI used these spatial juxtapositions and their effects on human emotion expertly to their advantage, both narratively and thematically, with the grandest transition leading to the finale underneath the building’s iconic dome. Dwarfed by this intimidatingly colossal space, we were tasked with unveiling who had betrayed us all evening, while convincing the group that it wasn’t us. Nobody was safe.
The experience structure was exactly what it should have been: a series of games paralleling those in the show, interspliced with blindfolded moments where the traitors could secretly vote to eliminate members of the faithful.
Each room offered a new puzzle to solve as a group and an opportunity for the traitors to do their thing. The games were quick, punchy, challenging—neither too easy nor too difficult—ripe for sabotage, and, most importantly, fun. (I’m still cursing myself for botching a memorization-based game early on and looking like a traitor, even though I WASN’T…)
The entire experience was seamless, the tech was invisible, and the show flew by, leaving even non-Traitors aficionados like myself sufficiently thrilled and amped for Season 4.
– Alec Zbornak, NYC Correspondent
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