Review: ZOO MOTEL at Theatre Exile is a Virtual Production to Check In and Check Out

How many secrets can one room hold?

Theatre Exile invites you to check into Zoo Motel, a virtual odyssey that combines interactive live theater, gripping storytelling, cinematic illusions, and magic all in one creative hour of surprises. Zoo Motel was devised by director, designer, and performer Thaddeus Phillips in 2020 as a quarantined experiment that offers a window into what's possible for live performance - a world where audiences from around the globe can share a mind-bending adventure in the comfort of their own home.

This live cinematic theatre project was co-created and directed by Tatiana Mallarino, designed by Steven Dufala, and features magic by Steve Cuiffo.

Broadcast live and online from one room in a South American village, Zoo Motel takes you on a journey to Spain, Japan, the Mojave Desert, and other parts of the world alongside fellow "motel guests".

Zoo Motel is unique in its audience interaction. Before the show, Theatre Exile emails a set of documents to the audience to print and use during the play. The documents include a map of the motel, a cut-out of a car windshield, a brochure, and of course a room key with your given room number. At the top of the show, the "Night Clerk" checks the audience in to the performance and goes over the documents. And don't forget to bring your own playing cards!

Throughout the show, Phillips references and uses the different pages of the previously sent documents in a series of creative vignettes. Although it is not a requirement to have the pages printed, it does make the experience more fun and interactive. I particularly recommend at least having the playing cards handy to play along at home with some of the close-up magic tricks involved in the show.

The play is limited to 25 participants, each assigned to a different room on their room key. Phillips engages with the audience during the piece, so audience members are encouraged to leave their video on and can at times unmute themselves to be involved.

Zoo Motel is eccentric, entertaining, and imaginative. Phillips is an engaging storyteller, with subtleties in his performance like a film actor. He maintains energy through the performance and sustains a nice pacing. I even appreciated how the brain on his jacket echoes the cerebral context of the show.

Dufala's design of the show is extremely detailed. It is perhaps the most creative use of props and set pieces I have seen to date in a virtual production. Instead of using virtual backgrounds like many contemporary digital pieces, Zoo Motel uses real set pieces and props that exist in the space of the actor and utilize a camera crane to create a borderline cinematic effect. Dufala and Phillips are able to create settings from all over the world in only the one room the actor is performing in. Phillips maneuvers the camera flawlessly making the transitions between scenes seamless maintaining the magic throughout the over hour-long complicated production. The camera moves in a manner that is almost disorienting.

At a post-show talk-back with audience members, Phillips reveals some of the tricks behind the production including the camera crane set up and animation table used during the show. But even with the behind the scenes look, I still don't know how Phillips was able to pull off some maneuvers in the production.

Zoo Motel brings magic back to theatre. Not only was there a certain amount of "camera magic" in the show, but Phillips also performs some entertaining close-up magic. In spite of spoiling any details, let me just say, please bring a deck of playing cards.

Overall, Zoo Motel is a very intricate show that is perhaps more theatrical than any online piece I've seen since quarantine began. The piece is almost more performance art and is less plot-driven than inspired by tropes and ideas. There is playing with light and shadows, home and traveling, life and death and more. There is repetition of images from a book of theatre ideas to a phone booth, and though it may be unclear how all these tropes work together, Zoo Motel is a cacophony of imagination.

You can tell there was much time and effort put into the development and production of the piece. Everything down to the usage of sound was meticulously planned. In the talk-back, Phillips explained that the piece is a living thing, constantly changing. Some audience members who had revisited the Zoo Motel commented on changes they noticed since they first saw the piece.

One Zoom. One room. Endless possibilities.

Zoo Motel is playing April 15th to May 2nd in an exclusive engagement with Theatre Exile. Tickets can be purchased at https://theatreexile.org/

The show is limited to 25 audience members per performance, so reserve your ticket today before there are no vacancies.

To post a comment, you must register and login.