Immersive theatre makes audience part the action
Audience members given active roles and responsibilities in shows
Aerialists descend in a giant chandelier and lift a guest back up with them, a showgirl leads an audience member back in time to a 1920s Parisian nightclub and actors single out guests for a mysterious experience yet to come.
Immersive theatre productions such as Sleep No More, an adaptation of Macbeth by Punchdrunk that has been running in New York since 2011, have brought audiences into the performance.
But simply putting on a mask to follow the action through vast, rambling warehouses or old hotels is not enough for some audiences. The latest immersive theatre gives them roles and responsibilities.
"It is a necessary step in the evolution of the form," says Noah J. Nelson, editor of the immersive and interactive theatre guide No Proscenium. "Somebody had to try this and there is a real chance it could take off."
Cynthia von Buhler, the creator of Speakeasy Dollhouse: Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, which is playing in New York, believes directors and producers are just touching the surface of what is possible in immersive theatre.
In her show based on the death of Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and actress Olive Thomas in 1920, guests are transported back to Prohibition-era New York and the Ritz hotel in Paris, where Thomas died.