Caught up in a “Love Game”
The latest immersive offering from LA-based Last Call Theatre proves how this innovative troupe continues to develop its recipe for engaging theater.
The premise
“Love Game” is most like a reality TV dating sim, where the audience gets attached to a contestant as they search for love or at least some romance. The game is built around rounds of speed dating, and with each date more character dynamics unfold.
Of course, it’s Last Call, so there’s always something going on behind the basic premise and in this case it was an experiment, conducted by Allegra Moore (Rebecca Oca-Nussbaum), a scientist who is fascinated by love but seems to have none of her own. Other staff members, bartender Jason “Skritz” Dorney (played amiably by Colin Breslin) and Karaoke Host Cina Williams (played by Abiane in a less diabolical role than usual), fill out the team.
I arrived at the show and selected a single from the offerings, an earnest young man, who, as fate would have it, did not show up.
(Note, some mildly spoilery things follow, so if they run this show again, you might want to wait and play for yourself.)
Chaos Monkey with a plan
Listen, I am not trying to break these games, nor disrupt the experience for other audience members, but I do have a bit of a history and reputation — as well as a self-described play style of being a Chaos Monkey. And when you’re greeted by that name, or even promoted to “Chaos King,” you have to decide whether you will live up to your past behaviors or maybe go straight.
Maybe.
Talking with Narrative Lead Liviera Lim in the lobby, I tried to get a sense of what was allowed that wouldn’t be disruptive.
As usual the rule of don’t move objects or touch them without permission was in play. Also, audience members were not supposed to enter the dating pool. My daughter made it clear to me that such a choice would be inappropriate regardless of the rule.
But, Viera let on, there had been some movement toward a polycule. Yes, Polyamory. In fact, they had once achieved a 5-person polycule, but no greater. And since polyamory had been one of those topics my daughter and I have debated a bit, I could only say two words:
Challenge accepted.
No sooner did the game begin but I began trying to seed the idea of polyamory. Jenna later overheard someone raising the notion only to hear the rejoinder, “Nah, it’s just that one dude.” I suppose I was that dude.
Chaos fail.
The love game I get sucked into
Since my single did not show and since the poly quest was not working out, I had a bit of extra time to hang out with the three staff member characters, whom I soon learned had a bit of a history, a potential for romance. And, in the spirit of Love, how could I not be drawn to assist.
At the moment Skritz introduced himself to me he asked my name, and something clicked in my Chaos Monkey brain. Before I could speak, I thought to myself, “Who are you today, Monkeyboy?” I can’t remember what name I gave him, but that became my character for the night, in fact, that was the moment I became a character. It was the moment I stopped being an audience member and truly started to play and to make. I had entered good ole magic circle Hokey Pokey, hopping in with both feet.
And I got so caught up in what I felt was my own ideas about matchmaking.
Detached and aloof from the speed dating going on around me, before I knew it, I was shuttling drinks from the bartender to Cina and asking the scientist about their history with the bartender, too. I quickly became attached to both Skritz and Cina and found myself working at some matchmaking over the Scientist-Skritz pairing.
Yes, I, the Chaos Monkey was executing missions, just like someone who actually plays the game. Consider this “private” scene I spied between Skritz and the Scientist. Unlike other moments in the show, this one was not put in the spotlight. Was there anyone watching this scene… except me? Was my observation bringing a storyline into being?
Only when I returned home and reviewed the Last Call Theatre’s Instagram feed of rehearsal photos did I realize I’d been monkeyed!
And happily so.
All three of these characters offered me the delight of one-on-one moments. First, Skritz won me over with some simple, unadorned nice guy charm. Then, the Scientist, uptight and unloved at the top of the show of course offered the necessary resistance to the idea of love (“But I’m not even in the experiment!”). And finally, Cina, well, their own slightly chaotic, free spirit energy even got me to sing a karaoke song. What else, but Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-E!
And then there was the moment the Scientist called me out for replacing her love chart (a kind of code breaker sheet for the love matches) with a chart promoting an octuple polycule (because I had decided to convince her to join the polyamory). How could someone mock her?
I may be a Chaos Monkey, but I am not a bad banana. I couldn’t let that go.
So, I fessed up and explained my plan, but our one-on-one led me to a discussion with her about her books (which I made up) and her memoir (which I also made up). I found myself inventing scenes of her father limiting her time with the kittens so she wouldn’t get too much love for her development. Suddenly, I was creating with the characters. Again, tricked out of monkeying again.
Rebecca received all this with a grace and attention that made this mischievous improvising feel real, accepting my contribution to the story world and rolling with it. Letting me contribute to her storyworld and responding in character.
What more could you ask for?
And the other bartender
At some point, I wanted another real drink and so had to go to the real bartender Bob and order one. Here, I *think* I stepped out of what Celia Pearce calls the “playframe.” The bartender and I got to chatting about the experience (so, that feels out of world) and about improv, and I soon learned about his considerable experience with of all things Chicago improv. Of course, I’m not surprised that this bartender happened to act — I mean, this is Los Angeles — but what I was surprised by, as he and I talked and were joined by another audience member to discuss our various beards — that I was suddenly just having a good time at a bar. And as I looked over at the crowd belting out “Don’t Stop Believing” back within the playframe, I realized they were having a good time, too, which is funny, because it’s not something that I normally do.
And suddenly, I got to wondering, was I truly outside the immersive theater playframe or was I still inside it? Pearce talks about these playframes being porous and she also talks about a gestalt. In some ways, hadn’t this playframe expanded to fill the rest of the bar? Hadn’t it sent me into a highly social world of matchmaking, a playstyle of connection through interaction, that I was now extending in a mirth of gemutlichkeit with Bob? Was I not now living in a social interactive spirit that Love game had cultivated with a set up in-game behaviors that I could now bring into the rest of my life in the rest of the world?
And if that could happen to more people, what a wonderful world that would be.
