Death Face at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

Wicked Tongue Arts of Orlando presented Death Face at Orlando Fringe. Adam McCabe wrote the show was about a killer new app of a company called BuHu that enables people to have their bad news delivered door to door. In the opening scene a courier named Kelly Kelly (Jerry Jobe Jr.) delivered bad news to a woman who was bound with a sack over her face. As he tried to confirm her identity to deliver the news, a man with a fury mask entered and shot her in the head. Having someone die while delivering news wasn’t a part of the job he was prepared for.

He spirals into depression while a new hire, Peggy (Leigh Green) tied to cheer him up. The rest of the staff envy his experience and seem intent on triggering him to keep reliving the experience. A sensual co-worker (Cassandra Heinrich) embraced the company culture and the boss (Brett McMahon) was only concerned that the couriers keep up with the growing demand for depressing bad news. One comic moment featured and old woman who didn’t give a damn about any bad news since she had already lived through a shit storm of a life.

I didn’t quite know which way the story was going. Cynical humor was mixed with a few rare moments of sincerity. However interpersonal relations seemed strained in this dark and menacing future of social media. I left the theater feeling confused and conflicted, but maybe that was the intent.

When Shadows Fall, Hawthorn’s agony.

Posted on by Thor

I have been documenting each performance of When Shadows Fall. Since I’ve become somewhat of a fixture, the cast works around me as if I were a member of the futuristic society of Penumbra. I am cast a a member of the gold cast of society which consists of the intellectuals and artists.  I dress up a bit to look the part. On this evening I focused on Harlan the Engineers lab. Hawthorn (Robert Cunha) is both a pastor as well as an engineer. As I sketched in his lab, I heard him preaching in the chapel behind me. He asked the congregation to close their eyes and imagine what he described. His vision was so cynical and disturbing, that it sounded like the ravings of a madman.

After the sermon, he quickly entered the lab, and grabbed a bottle of booze from the cabinet on the right. He offered me a cup, we were long time drinking buddies. On his stool, was a mechanical device, it was the final piece of something he had been working on for a long time. Two of the new citizens were assigned to his lab. He instructed them on the final steps to complete the devise. Plans on the walls showed all the inner workings. Before the manufacture was complete, or the devise tested, a member of the office came in and confiscated all that he had been working on.

An orange glowing shackle on Hawthorn’s ankle kept him under house arrest in his lab. His assistants however were not constrained. He gave them both walkie talkies and asked them to find a fail safe that could disarm the device.  If the assistants failed, all of Penumbra could be in jeopardy. Harlan’s daughter, Odessa was used as bait, to keep Harlan on task. There were spies, espionage, and at times it was hard to distinguish the new citizens from the cast.

What choices the new citizens made could dictate how the story might unfold. With so many story lines unfolding at once, you never get a complete picture of what is happening everywhere. You would never see the same story if you returned. Some scenes unfold without any witnesses. I was the only person who saw the tender relationship between  Hawthorn and his daughter Odessa, (Cassandra Heinrich). Just as in everyday life, the tenderest scenes can only be witnessed by slowing down and being perfectly still. When Shadows Fall is a truly unique evening of interactive entertainment. I for one, am highly addicted.

Penumbra, the Perfect Futuristic Society?

Posted on by Thor

When Shadows Fall is a groundbreaking first-person interactive experience that takes place in a 15,000 square foot maze of futuristic offices, labs, and a dark labyrinth. Mallory Vance and I were recruited by Daedalus (Joe Hall) to recover documents from the office of acting president Nickolai (Barry Wright). Documents we found hinted at a sordid affair with Odessa (Cassandre Heinrich). She had been a gold member of society, but she volunteered for experiments which scarred her for life and cast her as an unknown in the Labarinth. The relationship was abusive. Mallory hoped that if we kept the abusive relationship a secret, that Nikolai might one day repent and the couple could live happily ever after. She was a romantic at heart but ultimately an enabler.  Of course life never is that sweet and innocent. Besides, weren’t the only ones who knew this dark secret.

What had been described as the perfect society was less than perfect. Posters proclaimed that “After acclimation everyone has a place” and “Join our society towards good.” Our reward for joining the greater good was to be banished to the labyrinth for our anti-social behavior. Mallory was the most social of the new citizens, and of course I am an artist and therefor deserved be be part of the gold cast of society. As the unnamed, we had to give up our old name and embrace a new name, I became know as Odin and Mallory became Sarah.

In the end we all met in a public square where the true face of the society showed itself. Ideals were clouded by jealousy, rage and revenge. The misshapen underclass fought against their oppressors. Nathanael, the Minotaur (John Reid Adams) seemed the most tortured of the unnamed.  One of his prosthetic horns was broken off. His pained screams could often be heard in the halls. I clearly only experienced a fraction of the stories that could be unearthed. The experience left me yearning to learn more. One evening in Penumbra only begins to scratch the surface. You have to experience it for yourself.

When Shadows Fall

Posted on by Thor

I went to a media preview of “When Shadows Fall.” This groundbreaking interactive experience happens in a large innocuous warehouse south of Downtown Orlando. There is no signage on the building. A young woman in a black dress held her phone in front of her and spoke to it. I assumed she was skyping but she was actually recording a video blog. Inside was a waiting area where four clumps of press spoke amongst themselves. Ricky Brigante the producer and Technical Director welcomed me. I was issued a small bronze colored badge. It looked like a mechanical eye with sunlight radiating from behind it. It was attached to a note which read, “Welcome new Penumbra citizen! Please accept this symbol of our new society with my highest regards.” ~K.C. Alexander

One of my favorite early computer games was “Myst.” In that game, you wandered through a three dimensional world looking for clues about the now abandoned civilization. Penumbra offers all the mystery of “Myst” while being fully interactive. It is unlike anything I have experienced before. We entered the first fully functional, totally harmonious society in the history of mankind two at a time or, in my case, alone. I walked down a long dark narrow hallway approaching a woman who asked for my allegiance to the new society. I was directed to a series of glowing tablets on the wall. Here, new citizens are given their new roles in the society. I then had to wait for a office worker, Cain (Chris Brown), who was in charge of internal affairs and quality control. He interviewed me briefly. When he found out that I was a journalist and sketched, he seemed interested and advised me to keep me eyes open and report back if I found any, deviant behavior.

I was reunited with the group in a dark hallway. Then, Harlan (Brett Carson) began calling out names. I knew already knew that there were various classes in this society. Golds were intellectuals and artists, certainly that is where I belonged. Silvers were like the middle class, while bronzes were hard laborers and then there was another darker class, the nameless, that no one wanted to talk about. Harlan called out about five names and then he called for me. I met the woman in black, Mallory Vance, and we wondered what our new role in society might be. We were lead to an area near a large reinforced vault door. Harlan’s kind welcoming demeanor changed. He announced that our antisocial behavior had earned us a spot in Penumbra’s dark underbelly, the labyrinth. Dark sinister rooms were contained by iron bars. A red light blinked above the vault door. Harlan bolted the door closed as he left us behind. A large octagonal table offered a spot to rest and ask long-term residents questions. While they were all scarred and misshapen, the women were quite beautiful despite their scars.

Mallory and I were assigned to help Daedalus (Joe Hall), who was dressed in a dark leather trench coat with a sharp pointed collar. He had red scars on his face. He asked us if we would do anything to escape from the labyrinth. Mallory was all in. I hesitated, wondering if murder might be required. He asked us to help him mix a potion in his lab. The walls were burned as if there had been a chemical explosion. I warned Mallory, but she was already pouring the chemicals together in a flask. The mixture could be used to incapacitate someone and allow for our escape.

Mallory and I were each given armbands that made it look like we were under house arrest like Daedalus himself. We were then sent on a mission to recover documents from Nikolai’s office. Nikolai was an ambassador, the son of K.C. Alexander. After his father’s death, Nikolai took over control of Penumbra. Mallory and I rushed through the maze of hallways, and hid any time security came around. We hit the jackpot recovering plenty of aging documents from the office. I followed Mallory’s lead. She seemed to know her way around the hallways better than I. It was fun having a co-conspirator. A secret panel got us back to the labyrinth. We were looking for information about a citizens project but many of the document were love letters. When Daedalus asked about what we found, Mallory snatched up the love letters and hid them behind her back. She later gave these letters to Odessa (Cassandra Heinrich). Mallory is a romantic at heart, and she wanted the romance to remain private. Daedalus might have used the information to forward his own devious agenda. . .

Tickets to this first person experience are $45.95-$74.84.