Top Secret International (State 1)
About the show
Rimini Protokoll presents the US premiere of this algorithmic-based interactive theater experience in the Brooklyn Museum. Part of the Public Theater's Under the Radar festival. More…
In this fully immersive experience, audiences wander the Egyptian Wing of the museum attempting to uncover international intelligence networks. Where will the mission take you? Who can be trusted? And what happens when the game is over? And is it a game at all? Rimini Protokoll is comprised of theater makers Helgard Kim Haug, Stefan Kaegi, and Daniel Wetzel, who have been working collaboratively since 2000. Their stage productions, sound and radio plays, films, and installations deal with the theatrical elements of our reality.
"An ambitious new form of documentary theater…The metatheatrical marvel of this show is that it processes you as you process the Egyptian artifacts on display…Your mission as a spy is a pretense, meant to engage you in the play’s documentary materials. And it’s a deviously smart ploy. By teaching its participants to think like a spy, 'Top Secret' hopes to untangle the covert tactics of the international intelligence community." Full Review
"Technology is too often a gimmick, but in 'Top Secret,' technology is the show’s mode of delivery and its subject. And, as so often happens in real life, technology was the bane of my experience, with numerous glitches...The most compelling part of the show is the way it turns audience members into actors—a staple of thrillers in which a clueless bystander is suddenly thrown into a crazy plot. But the shenanigans here are more sedate, like trying to pass on a note to another would-be spy." Full Review
"Feels rather disorganized, with interviews playing in your head while you’re remembering where to walk to next, interrupted by brief cursory dealings with the art around you. None of it coheres into anything more than a vaguely intelligent rambling discussion of high-tech surveillance...Yes, it’s a confusing mess, though not a boring one...The experience of jumbling all these ideas while guiding the audience through various steps was not a satisfying one as play or intellectual exercise." Full Review
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:... Read more Read less
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 tur... Read more Read less
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'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
Cast & Creatives (10)
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