Audience participation shapes ‘Sonder’
Blackout Theatre’s latest show, “Sonder” — co-produced with Arts Hub — is a selfdescribed “Micro-Theater Event.” Let me explain. When you arrive at the theater, you will be handed a card with four words on it. These are the titles of four short plays that will be performed simultaneously in little rooms four times over the course of an hour or so. The audience is divided into four groups, each with a different order of plays on its card.
Because these plays rely on audience participation, only your little group will see the same show you do. No play will ever be the same, although the premise does not change.
Let me give you an example. When my group was told it could enter the little room where Stephen Armijo’s “Ashes” would be performed, there was nothing in the room but chairs along three walls and an audio device issuing sounds of an airport.
After the audience was settled in chairs, Armijo entered, looking like a veteran hiker. He set down his pack, sat in one of the chairs, and made a phone call. When he was done, he asked if there was a place to charge his phone. We found an outlet, and he moved to a new chair, asking the person next to him where she was going.
I then asked where he was traveling, and he said he was going to Nepal to deposit his parents’ ashes. This provoked more questions from me, and in fact this particular show consisted almost entirely of our conversation, including a short discussion of my own mother’s death. It’s impossible to know what the show would have been had I kept my mouth shut. Nobody else seemed inclined to talk.
While this room was sparsely decorated, Heather Yeo’s “X-Change” was suffused with Christmas decorations, and the entire floor was filled with cotton balls ankle-deep. First we were greeted by a recorded message from our “mom” telling us that if we forgot a Christmas gift there should be stuff available at “Aunt Shelley’s” to make her a gift. Aunt Shelley then entered the room and interacted with us. Then she left again and we created gifts to give her when she came back. Yeo was quite amusing as the hyperattentive Christmas host.
Next was Tara Khozein’s “Steep.” Now we were in a dark room lit only by a few electric candles. We eventually heard someone bathing, and then singing. Soon the actress emerged in a bathrobe, and it didn’t take long to realize her character was utterly insane. Khozein was excellent in the part, disturbingly convincing.
The final show was “Zzz’s,” by Lila Martinez. This was even more bizarre, as Martinez seemed to be playing a homeless Native American clown suffering from narcolepsy.
“Sonder” is similar to Tricklock’s “The Keep” from a few years ago, except this show had no through line connecting the various plays. If you see this show and the pieces are different from what I described, it’s because they are rotating. After seeing these, I eagerly anticipate seeing the others.
“Sonder” is playing through May 26 at Blackout Theatre, 10601 Lomas NE, Suite 105. Go to blackouttheatre.com or call 672-8648 for reservations.