By Sara Bogomolny & Ben Needham
“We are the food truck of Cleveland theater,” the Theatre Ninjas claim. Theater Ninjas has created a reputation for unusual theatre spanning devised work, little known scripts, and immersive experiments. After 11 years of a nomadic existence with artistic director Jeremy Paul at the helm of the caravan, Theater Ninjas has found a permanent home in the Gordon Square Arts District. Now, they premiere in their new space with their latest production, Don’t Wander Off, an interactive storytelling experience.
Don’t Wander Off is an immersive experience that takes the small audience on a voyage aboard the ship “The Relative Certainty.” Traveling across the galaxy over the course of an evening, the audience of Don’t Wander Off encounters a choose-your-own-adventure experience featuring extensive use of multimedia, puppetry, game play and live action moments. The show diverges into two distinct tracks based on your seating at the start of the show. The larger of the two groups remains aboard The Relative Certainty to combat equipment malfunction, alien encounters, disease, and possible sabotage. The second group explores the planet Dionaea’s surface via tabletop gameplay while awaiting rescue.
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Each audience member is given a mission badge (keepsake) and an ID lanyard upon entering the theater. These IDs assign you to one of three departments: culture, engineering or science. For those participants who remain aboard The Relative Certainty, they are given a series of story sequences structured as a choose your own adventure narrative. A majority vote is often used to decide the direction the story takes. Do you welcome the unknown alien life form or do you defend yourself against it? Do you choose to torch your way through a bulkhead door or find another way around? These choices, among others, are paired with tasks and puzzles which help direct the flow of the story. You are not alone in your journey. A cast of 5 actors and the ship’s artificial intelligence, in the form of a mechanical eyeball puppet, take your choices and adjust the plot accordingly over the course of the evening.
Those audience members who did not remain in the main cabin are ushered into a small room draped with camouflage netting. Gathered around a table, you are told that your portion of the spaceship has crash landed on the planet Dionaea. You must find your way back to The Relative Certainty. The game not only calls for strategic decision making like one might encounter in Dungeons and Dragons, it also employs a Jenga-like block game to bring tangible tension to the experience. When faced with danger, successful removal of a block moves the story toward success. Clumsy fingers might spell disaster for your cohort.
The game track is most theatrically valuable when it puts you on the spot and engages you in the storytelling. Throughout, Daniel Kerry, played by co-creator Ryan Lucas, invites you to share personal anecdotes or details that affect your emotional attachment to the journey. Given the choice, of course, between truth and fiction, you decide how much to reveal, how vulnerable to be.
The incorporation of the multimedia elements is the shows strongest feature. A vast amount of time and energy has gone into creating extensive sequences of animations, motion graphics, recorded sequences and live video effects. The high quality of projections and creative use of light and sound help compensate for space and budget constraints that limit the execution of a well-polished spaceship environment. The production is also aided by a strong ensemble that comprise the crew of The Relative Certainty. In a compelling performance, co-creator and actress Lauren Fraley manages the audience’s choices and keeps the story, and ship, on course. She is aided by a cast of both live and prerecorded actors who seamlessly bob and weave with the story.
Clocking in at over two hours long, Don’t Wander Off is a full evening’s worth of immersive entertainment. True to their food truck ethos, Theatre Ninjas pulls off an impressive experience with little space and lots of gumption. Embrace the opportunity to dive into the puzzles, tasks, and decisions presented and revel as the story evolves around you. Follow their advice: Choose your course. Risk it all. Stay alive. Don’t wander off.
Don’t Wander Off runs Thursday through Saturday, closing July 29th at Theater Ninjas Headquarters (5403 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44102). Tickets are $25. The show runs approximately two and a half hours.
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