Planet Fabulon takes Luminato patrons to another planet
Immersive experience is part escape room, part murder mystery
Part escape room, part murder mystery and part holographic theatre, “The Ruins of Zindor” is an all-ages, medium-bending event.
When Alex Rand, producer of artistic programs for the Luminato Festival, reached out to the film, theatre and event collective Planet Fabulon in summer 2020, the festival gave them carte blanche to create a production. So Planet Fabulon, previously known for its inclusive space-themed dance parties, dreamed up a 60-minute theatrical experience that blends elements of an escape room with a murder mystery and live theatre featuring holographic actors.
The second wave of COVID-19 hit in September 2020, just before Luminato was scheduled to launch. So the production was put on hold. But “The Ruins of Zindor” is back and runs at the Body Shop Studios on Geary Avenue beginning Wednesday as one of the festival’s few in-person events.
Anna Louise Douglas, actor, writer, producer and a core member of Planet Fabulon, explains what audiences, which are limited to nine bubbles and a maximum of 18 people, can expect when they attend. “The audience receives a mysterious message and is summoned to the ruins of the planet Zindor,” said Douglas, who worked alongside Fabulon members David Jermyn and Richard Rotter to create the production. “The ruins are an immersive, interactive landscape.”
Using holographic technology, participants will see “ancient, long-lost footage” of three alien strangers. “As they watch these strangers go through a journey, the audience will go on a very similar journey as well, solving puzzles and accomplishing tasks,” said Douglas.
Participants are given a role when they enter the venue, murder mystery dinner-style. “Your role will dictate what tasks are yours to complete and how you will experience the show,” she said.
Audience members won’t be sitting still to watch an hourlong performance. They’ll be expected to move around and interact with the landscape around them.
Replacing live actors with holograms was a deliberate COVID-friendly choice for the Fabulon team. “We love incorporating new, exciting technologies into our events,” said Douglas. “We’re total tech nerds.” The “space gear” that participants receive upon arrival also happens to be COVIDprotective.
Jamaican-Canadian performer Jamar Adams-Thompson plays Ubo, an upbeat, bubbly, charismatic alien kid who’s eager
for meaningful connections. “The Ruins of Zindor” is Adams-Thompson’s first time being portrayed as a holograph. “In theatre, you have the freedom to move around, to physically touch and interact with people,” he said. “But because we’re on these projections we have to keep in the frame.”
He and his co-stars, Steph Crothers and Niko Ouelette, completed filming in one day. The actors were positioned in a triangle, facing each other with three cameras in the centre capturing their movements.
During the event, the audience will be seated in “a reverse theatre in the round,” where the cameras once were.
The interactive element of the production, blending film with live audience, was also new to
Adams-Thompson. “We’re giving space in between our lines for the audience to react,” he said. “There was a lot to keep in mind, but it was fun. It was a very good experience and I hope the medium takes off more.”
“The Ruins of Zindor” is allages, inclusive and fully accessible — values that stem from Planet Fabulon’s dance party days.
The collective had built up a loyal group of fans that Douglas said come from the “Burning Man (community), sex-positive queer spaces and the rave community.” Fabulon ran its events based on five core values: inclusivity, playfulness, kindness, curiosity and consent, all of which continue in “The Ruins of Zindor.”
“Through our core values, through the ways we want to see people communicate better, treat each other better and look at the world a little differently, we have our characters go through that same experience. The audience goes through it with them as well. And maybe they’ll walk out and go ‘You know what, I struggle with that same thing. But if I lean a little bit more into consent culture, if I lean more into inclusivity, if I lean a little bit more into playfulness, or curiosity or kindness, maybe I’ll have the outcome that these characters had.’”
The scenario of alien strangers eager to connect with each other is something that Douglas hopes will resonate during COVID. She imagines that many participants might be attending their first in-person event since before the pandemic.
The aliens “are a little unused to interacting with other people, as we all are right now,” she said. “We’re hoping that not only will this be a fun, exciting, colourful, playful experience for people to get out and do with their families, or with their friends or alone, but also it will help people take that first step into a scary time of reconnecting with the world, with themselves and with their emotions, needs and wants.”