When: Sep. 6–14, 2019
Where: The WISE Hall and Lounge, 1882 Adanac St
Price: $12.00 + $3.00 fee, Matinees: 13+, Evening: 19+
Tags: #dance, #immersive, #ContactAdvisory, #ContentAdvisory, #MobilityAdvisory (See Below)
Enter Glitterland and discover yourself in an immersive dance and theatre twist on Alice’s adventures set in a “retro-glamourous world evoking the captivating charm of a 1960s cabaret palace.”
Press Release Follows
Geekenders and the Playwrights Theatre Centre present Alice in Glitterland, a new, full-length, immersive dance and theatre experience located inside East Vancouver’s historic WISE Hall.
Audience members will explore a retro-glamourous world evoking the captivating charm of a 1960s cabaret palace. For audience members who are curiouser and curiouser, every nook and cranny, from the backstage dressing rooms to the stage itself, has been whimsically transformed.
The only limit to your adventure is your own penchant for exploration.
Passing you might be a showgirl in a fringed flapper dress, peering haughtily at you from behind a jewelled hare mask, or an aristocratic woman all in red, caressing scarlet roses only to discover she’s staining her fingers with crimson paint. A man all in white might murmur to you about your lateness as he checks a shining pocket watch and ushers you up a staircase to a fitting for your new hat… where the distracted Hatter thrusts a cup of tea into your hands whilst feverishly composing a love poem for a girl in blue.
You’ve entered Glitterland, and you, like Alice, need to choose whether to stay or leave.
Geekenders, the creators of immersive theatre hit (and Spirit of the Fringe winner 2017) Slumber Here, as well as fantasical immersive holiday parties including A Magical Christmas Yule Ball and A Night at Wayne Manor, have never created something on this scale before. 15 choreographers, 12 actors, 93 individual scenes, and a massive production team have combined to create a 70-minute show that contains over eight and a half hours of discoverable content.
“It’s theatre for the video game generation,” explains producer and Geekenders’ co-artistic director Ryan Caron. “We entrust audience members with building their own experience. Like any open-world video game, immersive theatre allows the audience to explore, sandbox-style, and affect the characters they meet with the decisions they make.”
Examining what ‘We’re all mad here’ means through a 2019 lens, the show presents familiar characters in a new way, broken down to explore what living and loving with mental illness looks like, dealing with wisdom you weren’t ready to gain, and when and how people should take responsibility for their choices.
“A popular buzzphrase is that if you can’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else,” says writer/director Fairlith Harvey. “But after interviewing dozens of neuro-divergent people, and looking inside myself too, I know that isn’t true. Every single person I spoke to is devoted to loving as fiercely as they are able to, regardless of what despair they feel within themselves.”
“It’s so interesting how cheerfully the characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland own their supposed madness,” adds Caron. “They’re empowered in this weirdly inspiring way.”
The production seeks to build on the company’s successes with past immersive productions, adding a layer of purposeful accessibility to its world. While the show suggests that a given audience member be able to stand and walk for an hour and a half, Geekenders has developed an audience experience that accounts for audience members with limited mobility, those with sensory issues, and those that are hard of hearing. Every audience member is also asked individually if they consent to being touched by actors, fed, danced with, glittered, given tasks, and surprised, and are given a colour-coded mask according to their answer. This way, audience members of every stripe can feel comfortable entering Glitterland.
“Many of Geekenders’ success stories begin with reversing the audience-artist contract,” says Harvey. “The opportunity to create works that make audience members feel seen, warm, important, and loved has inspired us to focus on what audience members want.”
“And if they want cookies that say ‘eat me’ on them, hugs, and cups of tea, they’re in luck,” finishes Caron, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
Alice in Glitterland runs September 6–14 at East Vancouver’s WISE Hall with a free-for-Fringe-volunteers performance on September 5th. Pre-show begins 30 minutes before a given performance, and it is STRONGLY recommended to arrive early.
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Contact Level: Moderate (Familial)
Content Advisories: Some metaphorical sexual violence (nothing explicit), strong smells, fog/haze, strong language, themes around mental health.
Mobility Advisories: If you have mobility issues, reserve your cabaret table in Glitterland at geekenders@gmail.com . You can experience the show without going up any stairs.
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