First Stage's "Escape from Peligro Island" Makes the Audience Part of the Story
“Pivot” is not a strong enough word to describe the changes professional theaters have had to make over the last ten months to keep producing work for socially distanced audiences. By now, “reinvent” is probably a better descriptor. That is what Artistic Director Jeff Frank and First Stage have done with their latest virtual production, “Escape from Peligro Island – A Create Your Own Adventure Play,” which was available for live streaming through February 8 and for on demand viewing until February 28.
Combining the quality performances from adults and young people that fans of First Stage have come to expect with the over-the-top action adventure of old time radio dramas; the graphics of classic comic books; and the interactive quality of popular choose-your-own-adventure books, “Escape from Peligro Island” attempts to reach through viewers’ computer screens and make them part of the superhero-infused action. Like any innovative form, this production has both ingenious elements and room for improvement. Hopefully it will also have your family’s attention as viewers follow the adventures of an unlikely superhero – Callaway Brown – and guide the young adventurer’s actions as they encounter mysteries, disasters, puppies in distress, bad guys, and evil plots that must be foiled.
By now quarantine-era theater viewers are used to seeing actors from the shoulders up, contained in boxes on their screens. First Stage actually capitalizes on that convention, framing each character like a panel in a graphic novel. Two narrators occupy the bottom corner squares of the screen, and keep the action moving swiftly, with an air of melodrama and impending doom in their voices. Both Eleanor Hannan and David Flores fill these roles well, keeping their eyes focused on the action happening above them and instructing viewers to weigh in with their choices of what our intrepid hero should do next. They both also perform a jingle/themesong for Callaway Brown’s superhero alter ego that is undeniably catchy, but may be deployed one too many times.
As Callaway, young performer Loralei Madson is particularly good – rolling with the punches as they navigated the live-streamed performances that had a multitude of permutations, depending on the audience’s answers to questions like, which escape route should Callaway take, should they run away or fight it out when confronted with a gang of villains, or when setting a time machine, should they go to the distant past of dinosaurs or a sci-fi future? In a world peopled with over-the-top caricatures, Madson gives the audience a relatable character who is figuring things out, one step at a time. Though the script is long on extreme adventure and peril and short on character arcs, there is a subtle confidence that descends on Callaway Brown by the end of the story that will undoubtedly serve them well in the future. Author Finegan Kruckemeyer describes it as the regular kidwho unexpectedly rises to the occasion of saving the day, while learning about an inner strength they didn’t know they had. That’s not a bad message in this time of unexpected challenges interfering with every facet of “normal” life.
As a host of bad guy characters, First Stage regular Matt Daniels pulls out all the plotting, scheming, cackling tropes of classic super villains, complete with disguises, evil laughs and plans for worldwide domination. These rotten-to-the-core characters seem like an easy assignment for Daniels, but he is still entertaining to watch, switching back and forth among many personas with the help of a hat, beard, or prop. Nadja Simmons also aquits herself well in a wide range of characters, from a tough mobster to Callaway Brown’s constantly fussing mother.
In between scenes, some really nice animation fills in the chases, crashes, and landscapes of Callaway Brown’s adventures. It’s the simple but well executed graphics that one associates with a Looney Tunes cartoon and one of the best stand-ins for a theater set that I’ve seen in virtual performances. Not only does it fit the genre, it communicates specifics of time and place in a way that looks professional and intentional instead of pasted together – a common problem in other online theater performances.
Of course one of the points of a show like this is to really engage with an audience that can’t be in the theater with the actors – hence asking viewers to text A or B to choose the path for Brown to pursue at critical junctures. And while this is cool in the abstract, in practice opening night it sincerely interrupted the flow of the show and caused a lot of technical problems. (My computer froze almost every time, as the screen showed votes being tallied, prompting me to exit the program and log in again, so I missed a bit of the show.) Evidently my experience was not unique; attendees were offered a pre-recorded, glitch-free version of the show to view the next day. I have no doubt that these issues were addressed during the “run” of the live-streamed shows, and now viewers have access to a pre-recorded version that removes some of the surprise, but ultimately delivers a better experience.
So kudos to First Stage for continuing to provide innovative, entertaining theater performances for young people and their families, even in very challenging times. Callaway Brown themselves would be proud of the company’s ability to rise to meet obstacles and mysteries around every corner.