This week, my wife and I went to Delusion: Den of the Mosquito at the Beckett Mansion in downtown Los Angeles. Delusion is an interactive horror play written and directed by Jon Braver each year around Halloween; think a haunted house but more story-oriented. There aren’t really jump scares—it combines movement and interaction with the actors, along with thoughtful set design, dramatic lighting, and special effects.
I left impressed with how storytelling works in this format. Unlike filming from a fixed camera angle, everything in an immersive play has to work from multiple vantage points. The lighting, choreography, and scene blocking all play out in 360 degrees.
There are also intricate timing considerations for how an audience moves through the space, so that events play out in the right order and multiple audiences don’t bump into each other. I was fascinated, when our group split up or I knew another was close behind us, at how they managed to silo away the action in a way that felt organic to the story. That must take a lot of planning and practice to get right, so job well done to the production team!