Interactrama

There's a fairly new trend in theatre whereby a person can pay money to experience a simulated life event. These entertainments are interactive dramas where the line between audience and performer is blurry to say the least, and character development trumps any kind of plot development or progression. Examples include "Tony & Tina's Wedding" and the show I experienced last night, "The Awesome 80's Prom."

Now, in and of itself, this idea is not without merit. I can imagine some really entertaining possibilities to explore within this format (a murder mystery plot seems perfect for this kind of theatre), but too often the 'writers' take the easy way out. Certainly this was the case with 80's prom. The entire experience relies too heavily on the audience's personal memories and stereotypes of life in the 1980s. The plot was so thin, and the characters so underdeveloped that the whole experience came off flat. It felt very much as if we had paid a lot of money to go to an 80's night at one of the local discos.

I am left at the end of the evening asking "What's the point?" There was no real story to speak of, none of the characters changed in any way during the performance, and the audience didn't learn anything about life, theatre, or even the 80s. Was this even a performance, or just a high priced theme night?