I was apprehensive when director Tara Isabella Burton handed me a torch before the preview. “You know this is immersive theatre?”, she warned. I nodded, although it turns out simply knowing what it entails didn’t quite prepare me for my first ‘immersive’ experience. The door opened, out flowed haunting American folk music whilst ‘the mesmerist’ made a deep curtsey and welcomed me inside. For the next forty minutes we wandered between four ‘rooms’ in the Rue Morgue, set in a run-down music hall from the 19th century and witnessed the disturbing confessions of four characters; a ventriloquist, a doctor, a dancer and the heir of a family who has fallen into lunacy and occult magic. These four are tormented by ‘the mesmerist’, a sadist character who puppeteers the action. Inspired by Poe’s Annabel Lee, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death, Midnight at the Rue Morgue: The Madness of Edgar Allen Poe is an experience rather than a play, essentially transporting you to another world.
The problem with this was I had a hard time following the action; thirty minutes in, I was enjoying it but had no idea what was going on. I could tell you what the confessions of the ventriloquist and the dancer were but not the other two; however, this is more likely a problem with the dense nature of immersive performance and lack of audience ‘direction’ than poor directing. I’d recommend following ‘the mesmerist’ from room to room if you want to have a better understanding of the action (I didn’t and this probably accounted for some of my confusion).
So overall I thought it was an interesting and engrossing performance; the actors worked very well together and I particularly enjoyed the physical interplay between the Alice Young, the mesmerist, and ventriloquist Filip Falk Hartelius. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it was staged, having four characters in four ‘rooms’ who only interact with ‘the mesmerist’ could have resulted in a very static performance, but they made great use of the space and I particularly enjoyed the puppet-like dancing and mime routine that resulted between Young and dancer Louise Latham.
This combination of physical theatre and the deconstruction of boundaries between actors and audience (I was grabbed by both arms at one point, made to stand on a chair and be twirled by the mesmerist stood on a table) produced a surrealist world where you could really lose yourself in the action. Seasoned theatre-goers and those looking for something a little adventurous this is exciting, different and a must-see, although if you’re touchy about your personal space I’d probably give it a miss.
Midnight at the Rue Morgue is playing from 7th-11th May in the Burton Taylor Studio.
