Review: A MIDNIGHT VISIT

A Midnight's Visit is an immersive and equally mad playground of Edgar Allan Poe haunting, gothic world which seemingly had no rules. Taking place in an empty warehouse in the valley which the designers transformed into an interactive house of horrors, with spooky corridors. haunted graveyards and a church whose doors open to a ball pit which doesn't appear to have a bottom, it was quite an elaborate arena. It felt like we were at a museum of sorts for an elaborate, limitless budget halloween movie, as well as having an hour long ethereal dream which I imagine is what Poe's mind would have looked like.

I love how the immersive theatre scene is Brisbane is getting trendier by the minute and how much audiences are embracing this new mode of storytelling. It's always also lovely to see key immersive players such Gina Tay Limpus and Kristian Šantić reunite and bring such command to the stage.

Before we entered the dreamscape, we participated in a communion of sorts only instead of getting bread and wine, we received hand sanitiser and were asked to put our masks on. Passing through the gates, I found myself at a funeral service which concluded with splitting into three groups, pre-determined by the ticketing staff, and being ushered into three different doors.

As soon as I entered the space, I was asked by a very gaunt looking nurse to sit in a wheelchair, which I obediently did as I feared the consequences of saying no. I was then taken to a hospital in which my head was embalmed and I was laid to rest in a bed. Quite an extraordinary event to start an epic evening.

Although advertised as a choose your own adventure, there wasn't a clear set of adventures or adventurers to follow. There appeared no substance to character's ramblings and it felt like were watching atmospheric vignettes of tales rather than a cohesive narrative. There were so many rooms and areas to explore but no character had their assigned space which meant that a lot of spaces seemed like they were fabricated for show, hence the creation of a museum-esque vibe. As an audience member, I would have loved to have had the opportunity to dive more into the character's worlds rather than scrambling to find character's to follow. Additionally, it felt like there were too many audience members per session which caused traffic in quite a lot of confined spaces.

A Midnight Visit is an extravagant haunted house in which you get to explore the physical elements of Poe's world through it's lavish set design. I'm excited to see how it will evolve with future creative developments.

Rating: 4 Stars

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