There’s an interesting evolution going on at the place where extreme horror experiences and immersive theater intersect. I’m not expert on the former, because I don’t get off on being kidnapped and tortured. The latter, however, is pretty much my primary interest as this whole No Proscenium thing attests.

This week I was invited to the latest event from Screenshot Productions, who produced Fear Is What We Learned Here, one of the extreme haunts this past October. What little I heard about that haunt suggested that it was more about mind games than body horror. So when Screenshot reached out to me with an invite for a press preview for their new experience Parturition I said yes.

This one isn’t a haunt, but a solo immersive experience built around the idea of birth. Your birth. There’s even an option to go for “natural birth” and experience the whole thing naked. I skipped that. My colleague Juliet Bennet Rylah, who had the time slot right before mine, decided to go all in. (Update: you can read Juliet’s review for LAist here.)

This was useful, as we compared notes on the way back from the experience — which took about a half hour in total.

Now I don’t want to spoil Parturition, as not knowing what’s going to happen in very much part of the magic that is going on. That leaves me in a bit of a pickle when it comes to writing about it from a review/preview stance. The show ends this Sunday, so I reserve the right to revisit the topic once they doors have closed.

Here’s what I will say:

While I had some anxiety and a little bit of physical discomfort at points I never felt particularly in danger. My colleague, who opted for “natural birth” did so in part because that option was said to involve rougher handling. That’s her preference, but when we compared notes we didn’t see much difference between our experiences beyond being clothed or not.

The lack of differences extended beyond the degree of handling. Which was actually a surprise, as the experience is described as being “highly individualized” on the website. They went so far as to ask a series of questions via email that gave me the impression that some very particular events were being cooked up just for me.

When I talked with Juliet afterward none of those seemed to have made a difference, or come up for her either. Perhaps the “highly individualized” parts were being held back from the press preview. It could be that the answers we both gave either didn’t give Screenshot something they could work with, or didn’t trigger a set of options that they have built into the experience based on different answers. For the record: I have no idea what her responses to their questionnaire was, so that avenue for exploration is out.

It’s also possible that I did something wrong early on — I seemed to fall off the initial track — so that might have kept me from experiencing the individuated stuff.

There were, however, multiple parts of this experience that I really enjoyed. One part I would have gladly had go longer, although technically that might not be all that safe to do. If someone were to offer me just that slice again I would gladly take them up on it. An encounter with a performer was also expertly done, and became one of my favorite one on one performances of all time. On par with the kind of work that was done at Hamlet-Mobile, and by The Speakeasy Society. I believed the actor’s desire to connect, and was able to let myself go in the scene.

If anything the horror pedigree might actually work against Parturition, as it puts audience members on alert. That’s not the most interesting thing going on here. Far from it. Thematically Screenshot has built a really wonderful piece, and has executed it cleanly and with grace. I walked into the building tense from a not-great-day and with some trepidation about what was to come. I left feeling open, and with the rumble in my chest gentler than it was before.

A Note On The Price

Before we go, however, I need to talk about the price. The horror pedigree is likely setting the mark here. Each ticket for Parturition comes in at $50. There are about 20 slots a night for the four night run. So you can do the math.

My guess is that the company is maybe doing a little better than breaking even when all is said and done. But I have to ask myself: if I had paid $50 for the half hour experience I had would I have felt like I had gotten my money’s worth.

My initial answer, as drafted out on Twitter, was “no.” As I thought about it more, I started to see it as a matter of playing a role of arts patron. It’s not one that I can regularly afford to do — and I probably buy more tickets to things than I accept press invites. Knowing how expensive these kinds of things can be to pull off and that what profit is earned will almost certainly be put into the next What We Learned Here makes the amount seem less steep.

The truth is that Screenshot has made something beautiful here, and it’s hard to put a price on that.

Parturition runs though January 31st in North Hollywood.