Last Meeting in Millbrook is a Vampire Story Where You Play a Role (4 stars)
If you know what a murder mystery dinner is, then you know it’s an interactive event where you, the audience, get to interact with characters and try to solve the crime! Escapism Productions takes that concept to the next level! Food is not served and you don’t sit at a table for the show. Instead, you get up and walk through a decorated environment.
So you engage with the characters and also explore. Is someone sneaking to a hidden room? Is someone secretly a vampire? Follow them, ask questions, and find out!
Last Meeting in Millbrook – An Immersive Historical Vampire Tale also had a historic dimension, taking place in old time America and set at The Wilton Historical Society, a museum with old buildings from a 1770 mansion to an 1890 blacksmith shop. They have a historically accurate herb garden, too. The setting is beautiful, and naturally spooky at night, and the show made great use of the space, happening not just in one historic building but taking the audience out to the lawn and to the creaky old rooms of the other buildings.
I previously reviewed Killer in the Conservatory by Escapism Productions, (5 stars PLUS) which was a marvel. If you’ve never seen an immersive production, I urge you to give it a try. What a delight to have participated in such a creative and immersive endeavor that really makes you feel like you’re part of it — because you are. The audience can affect how the story goes. My understanding is that the story is created loosely, and then actors improvise to fill in the gaps. When you ask who has gotten bitten and what the possible motive might be for the vampires, the actors (staying in character) make something up that fits the outline. And the actors often engage with each other directly.
Who knows? You might meet a werewolf or vampire. You might get to rescue a victim who’s been bitten. You might uncover a mystery of the relationships between the characters. Or the whole thing might be a fantasy, with the whole thing explained without superstition. Will you figure it out? Which characters are you rooting for to win? Then, at the end, the attendees vote on what to do. That creates a different ending for every show.
Taken as an immersive experience, it was thrilling to engage with these characters from the past. But I didn’t learn anything about history, and if the director had been in character or the actors could have greeted us during the preshow to establish their roles, that would have helped set the mood.
And I found the story unstructured, with improv doing too much heavy lifting to fill in the outline. At times I was uncertain whether I was allowed to talk with the characters, or was supposed to sit and let them play out a scene. Actors spoke over each other or were difficult to hear when the audience was behind them or making noise walking on the floorboards. The show seemed to focused on a challenge for experts. If your audience is mainly amateurs, give more guidance what to do, and restate important clues over and over. This allows everyone to feel like a winner. If experts complain, give them a bonus mystery or let them “lead a team”, sending the amateurs off on clue hunt assignments.
These nitpicks aside, it was a wonderfully creative evening — a solid and respectable 4 stars — well worth your time. I support artistic risk-taking and heartily recommend Escapism Productions to anyone. Check out their next show, The Cold Romantics and the Year Without a Summer: an Immersive Regency Gothic Horror, coming October 16-24 in Hartford.
For more, see escapismproductions.com.