About the Show

In this immersive theater experience, you play the role of the survivor of an illegal medical experiment who must solve the mystery of your loved one's death, and confront your own attitudes about mortality and loss.

In 2014, five people died in an illegal medical experiment in a Canal Street basement. Before their families could learn what happened, the incident was covered up: buried under a mountain of legal procedures and sealed behind a web of police tape. No one knew how those five people came to participate in the experiment, or what they were doing; only that it cost them their lives. Some of their survivors moved on. Some fell apart. A handful kept fighting, and after five years, they’ve finally won the opportunity to unseal the laboratory, and learn what took their loved ones from them.

Note: "The Mortality Machine" contains depictions of medical procedures, death and grieving, partial nudity, mild sexuality, and profanity. It is not suitable for children under the age of 18.

Critic Reviews (6)

"Hats off to the successful design of the visitor’s badge, which allows you to address people and have your backstory handy at all times...Author Ryan Hart is inventive when it comes to triggering emotional responses and seamlessly intertwining them into the process of the underground lab search...'The Mortality Machine' promises something for everybody...With some bumps and imbalances, 'The Mortality Machine' is still a notable experiment in the field of interactive theatre."
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“An immersive theatrical experience...With live-action role play, dance and solving the crime, you are asked to submerge yourself into the experience...Though the experience was fun, you never really find out the answers to anything. We never really solve the mystery...I wanted to know more...I wanted answers...The cast...are all talented...The dance portion choreography...is seamless and quite beautiful...The script...is the part that lacks.”
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"What makes 'The Mortality Machine' stand out from some of the other immersive experiences in New York City is the active participation it requires from it’s audience...Without giving too much away, as this is an experience full of mystery and surprises, the cast did a wonderful job of maintaining the world that you are thrust into...If you go in ready to become someone else for a night and embrace whatever is thrown at you, you will most likely have a great time."
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“’The Mortality Machine’ resurrects itself with great success...This is not ordinary theater! It is a theatrical roller-coaster of experiential drama that immerses you in the world of the play and you...can make your own decisions that affect everything. It’s astonishing what the cast and crew accomplishes in the little space they have to work with...It’s unbelievable fun when you allow yourself to surrender to the world they create...A theatrical role playing event that I will not soon forget!"
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“Sinking Ship Creations’ ambitious new experience never quite gets going...The production as a whole seemed incomplete...’The Mortality Machine’s’ plot felt like the great first half of an unfinished play...Given what the show is asking audiences to do — solve puzzles, play characters, investigate a crime, and sometimes even do improvised dance — the payoffs need to be worth each participant’s emotional and time commitment. Otherwise, it’s just a quest with no grail.”
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"Part of the mystery for the playgoer is who else has bought a ticket and who’s being paid to act...The creative team has dreamed up vivid characters..Schumacher aimed to cross the boundary between life and death, so it’s not a spoiler to mention that the authors invite the audience to take an imaginative step across that line in order to rendezvous with the missing characters. That’s when 'The Morality Machine' becomes fanciful and really interesting..”
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Trailer

Creative team

Elizabeth Law (Artist)

Cast