Sneaking up this Hallowe’en season, Hidden is the newest immersive theatre production from local Vancouver production company ITSAZOO. Taking place at the UBC Botanical Gardens from October 22nd to November 13th, this suspenseful piece takes the form of a guided tour — with a twist. Audience groups will visit sites of gruesome crimes to view dramatic re-enactments and slowly begin to realize that they may not be the only ones watching from the dark. HCUBC spoke with the founder of ITSAZOO and co-director of Hidden, Chelsea Haberlin, to talk about the production, story, and what to expect.
Haberlin studied at the University of Victoria before doing her Masters degree at UBC. It was at UVic that she got her first experience with site-specific theatre when she directed a site-specific production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That first production sparked a passion for immersive theatre for Haberlin, and many of her productions since then have reflected it. “There’s something about the visceral experience in immersive theatre that I find really exciting” Haberlin told HCUBC, “I think that’s important: to do something that is interesting for you as an artist but also that an audience is interested in watching.”
To start off their experience, audiences will meet up at the Wolf and Hound Pub before taking a van to the Botanical Gardens. Then, the Murder With a View tour will begin, taking participants through the gardens and along the Greenheart TreeWalk, a network of walkways and platforms that run through the canopy and are sometimes as high as four stories. Audiences will have a bird’s-eye view of murder re-enactments going on below, “then at a certain point things go sideways, and you go from being the observer to being the observed” says Haberlin. This type of production comes with its own unique logistical challenges, but Haberlin says, “It’s part of the excitement of producing this kind of theatre. I find that producing in theatres isn’t as thrilling as producing site-specific shows.”
Thrilling is definitely the theme of the show, as the original inspiration came from The Blair Witch Project. Haberlin said, “What if there was the Blair Witch Project but live? So you know you’re in the woods, and you know you’re unsafe, but it’s dark and you don’t know exactly why you’re unsafe … you’re in the woods with a very small group of people, and you’ve watched people all around you die.” For the easily-spooked, Haberlin states that in terms of interaction, actors will not touch audience members. Nervous tour-goers need not fear the old hand-on-the-shoulder scare, though audiences “will be spoken to directly the whole time. They’re a very important part of the show”.
When asked if there was anything else the audience should know, Haberlin replied, “Yeah, totally! The show is sold out! That’s a thing that people should know”. Never fear, however — if your heart is set on experiencing the thrills of Hidden, there is the possibility of a holdover and of a remount in 2017. Anyone interested in the chance to get in on this action is invited to sent an email to Ms. Haberlin at info@itsazoo.org to be among the first to know if more tickets become available.
This show promises to give audiences an unforgettable experience full of suspense, frights, and chills (both from scares and from the cold — remember to dress for the weather!)
This Hallowe’en season, Hidden is the place to be for all the best scares, HCUBC!