We’ve entered a brave new world in live experiences, when technology and storytelling are being mashed up in ways that blur traditional definitions of theater. The Black Mirror Experience™, a new one-hour interactive work now running at The Shed in Hudson Yards, is the latest example of a trend that has been unfolding for some time now. It’s a technically impressive and diverting lark that combines elements of dystopian video game, escape room, and interactive theme park ride.
This is a scripted work of storytelling that draws on recurring themes in Charlie Brooker’s Emmy-winning Netflix series, questioning our eagerness to accept new technologies without fully comprehending all the potentially adverse consequences. It also requires ticket buyers to strap on sophisticated and lightweight VR headsets and navigate a series of digital-only spaces that incorporate sight, sound, and the whoosh of air from unseen fans. (Best to wear comfy shoes.)
You’re placed in a group of up to six people (you can book a party of that size in advance, for a discount) — all of you potential customers in a fictional tech startup called Phaethon that’s rolling out an individualized robot called a LifeAgent charged with helping you fulfill two of your life goals from a catalog of six (I selected global impact and adventure). Not only does your LifeAgent facilitate your progress toward those goals, but they also begin to look and sound like you — thanks to a quick rendering of the selfie you took at the beginning and the audio the production gathered from your headset’s mic based on in-story prompts.
Your little squad travels through various locales in Phaethon headquarters, from a game show studio to an office where a CG version of Sigmund Freud asks you to recount your last dream — and then generates a version of it in front of you. What’s remarkable is that even within your squad of six, your audio and visual experience is entirely unique. You soon find yourself in some combination of escape room and video game — stepping around red lasers and attempting choreography in an extended homage to Dance Dance Revolution.
As regular viewers of Black Mirror will suspect, the LifeAgents turn out to be far from benign — though you’ll never feel truly in danger. (The biggest threat may be accidentally bumping into your teammates — whose location is rendered on screen but only when looking in their direction.) There are some clever Brookerian touches throughout. Phaethon founder Cody Winters reveals that she developed her technology in the near-future after deconstructing three game consoles and a microwave oven, for instance. She also looks like an AI agent when we first meet her but more like a human actor later on, a telling clue that’s never directly called to our attention.
Black Mirror has played with interactive technology and the dark side of innovation before. The 2018 movie Bandersnatch, about the designer of a choose-your-own-adventure video game, let audiences select the next scenes they’d see on screen. (The movie usually clocked in around 90 minutes, give or take 30 minutes, and was assembled from more than five hours of banked footage for various possible scenarios.) This live experience is less narratively sophisticated. You’ll guess where the story’s heading pretty quickly and there are few genuine surprises once you reach the end, but you’ll get there at the exact same time as your squadmates. The real innovation here is delivering a unique experience in a public setting with others who sometimes make decisions jointly with you but more often act in their own little worlds.
Is it theater? Kinda. After all, even patrons who sit through the same production of, say, Hamlet are liable to come away with entirely different impressions of what transpired. Having a show tailored specifically to you doesn’t take too much away from the collective experience. Is it fun? Absolutely. I had a blast, even if I was continually discomfited by my LifeAgent staring back at me through eyes that resided somewhere just across the uncanny valley. As in a theme park, where you can buy a selfie of yourself screaming on roller coasters, you can even download a video clip with highlights of your individual path through the VR maze.
I just wish that The Black Mirror Experience posited some more profound insights into the promise and threat of new tech, and our eagerness to embrace innovations that might lead to our undoing. For that kind of experience, I’m happy to report, you’re better off sticking to traditional live theater. ★★★★☆
THE BLACK MIRROR EXPERIENCE™
The Shed, Off Broadway
Running time; 1 hour, 5 minutes
Tickets on sale through Sept. 6 for $62 to $74 ($56 to $66 for group tickets of 4-6 people)