Imagine buying tickets to a play where the plot is a mystery, the location is TBA and anyone could be a part of the cast. Reading “ACCOMPLICE” in its bolded type makes one think of Donald Trump’s overworked reality show The Apprentice, but what it encompasses is purely innovative.
The production company is calling it “part game, part theater, part tour.” Once you purchase tickets you meet up in groups of ten or so to participate in walking plays. Shows can run a whole evening and span a few city blocks. A concept that started in New York, Accomplice has turned up in L.A with the help of everyone’s favorite child star doctor, Neil Patrick Harris.
I once asked one of my professors at Webster University what her weirdest theater experience was. Her number one answer was a Civil War play that was historically inaccurate and her number two answer was something I had never imagined. She once attended a play in the backseat of a car. Patrons climbed into a taxicab and rode down a city block while watching events inside and outside of the moving vehicle. The once-clear lines of performer and observer are upstaged by participation and confrontation. Accomplice may be a peek at tomorrow. (This less recognizable definition of live theater is also affecting the movie business. Director James Cameron told Time that he plans to only shoot his future films in 3-D. This could be the beginning of a change throughout entertainment industries.)
Even though St. Louis is unfortunately NOT a staging city for Accomplice, there are other ways to get at that theater experience. OnSite Theater Company, a site-specific theater tropue, has so far invited audiences into a bowling alley, a photography studio and an art gallery - this spring's "Exhibit," a hilarious send-up of art world pretension, was staged inside Craft Alliance's Grand Center gallery, and the actors moved around the space like they were there to see the exhibit. The Bissell Mansion in North City has a murder mystery dinner theater where “all the world’s a stage” and you could play the lead with tasty toasted ravioli in hand. There is also the downtown Dental Health Theater, where the show literally takes place in a giant mouth. A play in a mouth may not sound as cool as a play at an obscure site or in a taxi. But Accomplice is getting me pumped for upcoming possibilities. Someday I may attend The Fox Theater in my futuristic Jetsons gear to watch a stage-less play. --Alice Telios, Intern
Bissel Mansion Restaurant and Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre
314-533-9830 / 1-800-690-9838
4426 Randall Place
Fridays & Saturdays 7pm; Sundays 2pm
$52.95
Dental Health Theater
314-241-7391
727 N. First Street
Tuesday through Saturday at 9:30am, 11am and 1:30pm
