Top Secret International (State 1)

See it if you like the Brooklyn Museum & are willing to follow in paranoid directions like see who is noticing you, walk in circles, write your fears.

Don't see it if you object to 90 minutes in headphones that are subject to frequant tech issues. Entering required standing on 3 lines for over 30 minutes.

See it if you like experimental or self-guided theater, esp that which tries to use technology in new & different ways. You like wandering in museums.

Don't see it if you're expecting a cohesive story or journey, want to interact w/others (it's more a solo experience), or are bothered by technical glitches

Also Saw it in Jan, so my memory is not fresh. Below is what's stayed w/me:

I applaud Rimini Protokoll for an original concept! I just wish they were less ambitious so this could have been more focused & more successful.

Between making a piece specific to Brooklyn Museum's art, writing multiple-choice paths thru those artworks, sharing factoids on the lives of spies & workings of intelligence agencies, & trying to make it all interesting as a solo self-guided experience (w/1 interaction), some things got short-changed. And that's not counting the spotty location-based technology to automatically update the "story" as you moved about!

End result: Thrilling concept, disappointing execution. Choices given are interesting moral ?s but converge into the same storylines. Significant time is lost to technical issues. Your 1 interaction w/another "audience" member can totally fail if they hesitate to participate.

I'd recommend it as an inventive work-in-progress, not as a fully finished piece.... Read more Read less

See it if you've never been to something like this (experiential theatre)

Don't see it if you have been to any experiential theatre as this just doesn't cut it - quite disappointing

See it if you like immersive/participatory theater, especially formally distinctive work; you have a strong interest in intelligence/espionage.

Don't see it if you don't like theater in which actors aren't performing for you; you don't have the patience for technical bugs now and then.

Also Even if the piece didn't go as far as it could've gone, and (as it turned out) that paths participants were sent on based on their earlier choices weren't as different as they could've been, its distinctive, algorithm-based design was, I think, crucial to the "lessons" it was aiming to teach. (I should also note that I was lucky to have experienced fewer technical glitches than others; these were apparently due to the museum's wifi network becoming overloaded at certain times of the day.)... Read more Read less