Red Palace
Lose yourself in the fairytale - but try not to lose the plot
3.5 stars
A masked ball at the Prince’s Palace, for the thousandth day of his reign. There’s a rumour going around that the Prince will be dead by morning. We are left to wander through the palace’s rooms, tasked with finding out just what is going on.
Such is the premise of Shotgun Carousel’s immersive theatre performance, Red Palace. It’s their latest large performance since last year’s well-received Divine Proportions. While that was centred around a dining experience, this year they’ve decided to make it more accessible with a performance-only option. I think this is a good idea, dinner being a luxurious touch but not essential to understanding the performance. The menu, put together by Masterchef semi-finalist Annie McKenzie, was delicious and appropriately banquet-y - think smoky slow-cooked lamb, melty Camembert and toffee apples in poison green. Some staffing issues had the show starting late so alas, we didn’t quite have time for dessert before being whisked off to the main performance - a real shame.
We were given four chimes of the bell to ‘explore the palace’. It transpired that there were four different rooms, and we needed to go into each of them to find out the full story. It’s a pity this wasn’t made clear from the start – some people flitted in and out of rooms, or stopped for a cocktail and thereby missed a quarter of the plot.
The four sets were the best part of the show, each being their own self-contained world. There was a bath-house dripping with water and littered with seashells, where a seaweed-encrusted mermaid sang to us in a siren’s voice. A chintzy, tapestry-draped room where we had our fortunes told. An eerie forest where wolves howled under the full moon. And finally, a little underground dive with candlelit tables and a striptease act.
Immersive theatre always requires a fine balance between storytelling and audience interaction. I’m not sure if Shotgun Carousel had the balance quite right. My fellow-ballgoer was asked to pass a message from one character to another, but the character he gave it to seemed nonplussed. Unlike full-on immersive shows like Wolf of Wall Street, the exploration and interaction here was more limited - we essentially went into the four rooms for a piece of the plot in each one.
After all the buildup, the ending turned out to be rather brief and anticlimatic. Beyoncé’s “Run The World (Girls)” started blaring from the speakers along with other female-centric anthems in a bizarre feminist twist. This was strange to say the least as there hadn’t been so much as a whiff of feminist rhetoric till then.
Nonetheless, Red Palace made for an entertaining and unusual evening. The atmosphere was certainly magical, with everyone donning masks and many attendees in extravagant gothic costume. Despite a slightly put-together feel (terrible bartenders, sets relying heavily on draped fabric), strong performances by the actors carried the day. Steffi Walker was particularly memorable as The Mermaid, delivering a haunting mix of cruelty and charm. On the whole, Red Palace had great potential for a thrilling night out. I would just have loved to see it with a tighter plot and more space for exploration.
