Witness Immersive Experiments with Seattle Audiences in The Double

Witness Immersive is a New York and London based company which has spread its innovative creativity to various cities around the country. Its second show in Seattle, The Double, performed by a stellar local cast, brought an interdisciplinary performance medium to the city which has thus far gone mostly untapped—immersive dance theatre.

The audience filtered into the performance space at LIT Immersive and was met with an office-like set. First, they came to a break room, disheveled and dimly lit, bearing an eerie quality and the faint markings of a crime. Screens hung on pillars, displaying the general rules of the show, inviting people to sift through set elements, touch things (except electronics and performers), and explore the space around them.

Immediately upon entry, the rules of a traditional theatrical experience were shattered. There were no obvious seats to sit in and no stage space yet established. Rather, the whole room was the stage, and the guests stood at its center.

It was a unique position to put the audience in, and thus could have benefitted from clearer encouragement, whether from the House Manager or exemplified by an actor rifling through files and showing the audience that they should do the same.

Nonetheless, after a bit of hesitance, the scavenging began. Patrons cracked open boxes of files, read papers on the announcement board that called for team members to join the running club, and stumbled upon redacted pages, paper shreds, inquiries over the process of a federal search warrant, and a message to destroy all records. Caution tape marked a spot near the kitchen, coffee cups lay spilled over the table, and various other set elements mapped out a series of clues which built the suspense of the show and immersed audience members into an uncanny world.

Conference Room in The Double

Courtesy of Michael Bontatibus, Artistic Director and Playwright, Witness Immersive

Just as the space had been nearly fully explored, computer screens at each cubicle in the next room over lit up with an electric flare of sound. The shot was that of a man (Josiah Miller) who recanted the story of an office incident which had happened some time before. This incident report drove the narrative for the remainder of the performance, glitching between the first man and the dark, shadowed image of his doppelganger coworker.

No detail went to waste. Within this next room, more hidden elements awaited. Ominous messages left in the center of notebooks and sticky pads, books marked on pages which bore adjacence to the story at hand, and a box full of tiny plastic men (one of which was squashed beneath a tipped desktop monitor in a different location of the room).

Each element added to the subtle, ever-stretching suspense of the narrative, though ultimately played little role in the story itself. It would have been fun if the hidden messages and oddities of the set were more specific to the script, adding further depth and layers to the plot and its characters, rather than being mere atmospheric additions.

While audience members shuffled through the set pieces, performers slowly strode into a conference room set within the far wall. The room illuminated, the glass acting as a transparent scrim, setting a slight proscenium effect in an otherwise fully immersive space. Through mimesis and contemporary dance, the performers (Ashley Menestrina, Carol Davis, maia melene d'urfé, and Michael Arellano) loosely mirrored the story that Josiah recited, creating a unique visual accompaniment to the script.

Choreography by Ashley Menestrina faded between moments of fast-paced action and slow motion, utilizing the full performance space and immersing the audience with beautifully curated movement. Technique and muscular control were magnificently showcased in a raw and dynamic display, and the slower moments gave time throughout the narrative for guests to continue exploring the space without the fear of missing too much.

Dancers in The Double. Full cast includes Ashley Menestrina, Carol Davis, maia melene d'urfé, and Michael Arellano.

Courtesy of Michael Bontatibus, Artistic Director and Playwright, Witness Immersive

In this, it was a show designed for a younger, more exploratory audience than it received. Many in the audience chose a cubicle to sit at and remained there for the entirety of the performance, sifting through little else beyond the small easter eggs hidden at the desks they’d chosen to occupy.

Watched in such a stationary manner, the show dragged on. Narration (given its HR incident report format) was monotonous, and the plot itself never quite enraptured. It built slowly, promising audience members a grand breakage of tension that never really came. The payout at the end was not worth the long buildup it took to get to it.

Something the show prevailed in, however, was the production value. Sound design by Trey McGee bore an incredible composition, traveling through the space and immersing audiences with the perfect soundscape for each part of the show. Lighting by Elizabeth M. Stewart steeped the audience in a pale, ominous glow and illuminated the vital points of the performance like the white tip of a magician’s wand, brilliantly directing attention where it was needed, encouraging guests to follow.

The show as a whole pushed the bounds of what dance and theater can be and began carving a path for a new interdisciplinary medium, which I hope other artists within the city will continue to build. I look forward to seeing Witness Immersive again and hope they return to Seattle soon.