We heard murmurs of a theater company with a kinda funny name, Mugwumpin, doing something pretty cool at Z-Space in Potrero Flats. An immersive theater piece, In Event of Moon Disaster that took audiences to space. We were intrigued. Since Katie was double booked, Brittany took frequent guestcastillos hinchables reviewer Sam out for a night of Drama Talk & Drinks.
From left, Stephanie DeMott, Isa Musni and Soren Santos. Photo by Battista Remati
Brittany: So what did you think?
Sam: ”If you want to get to heaven, get out of this world.”
B: I don’t know exactly what happened in that play, but it was very cool looking.
S: I mean they made it clear what happened.
B: The people got lost on the moon.
S: Happens to everyone. It’ll happen to you.
B: I don’t know if I walked away with whatever I was supposed to walk away with, but I did find it visually impressive.
S: I loved it. I thought it was riveting the whole way through. I found myself wanted to prolong the scenes because they were so vivid.
B: It moved very quickly between the different scenes and which I thought kept it engaging. There was always some sort of visual stimulation or song or movement that you wanted to watch. I found myself trying to listen very hard, but I was never really sure what they were trying to communicate. It felt more like a dance or poetry piece than a narrative play. There was a story to it, in that there was a beginning, middle, and end, but it was much more of an experience than a play.
S: Well the movement was very poetic. The moon especially had a rhythm to her. With the 360° projections you felt like you were in the orbit of the moon, and part of this celestial dance that they’re performing.
B: Do you think other people would enjoy it?
S: Absolutely! If I were other people, I would pre-game with Stereolab and post-game with Gorillaz. Something a little post-apocalyptic. You’ll come out with an understanding of the deeper resonance—the harmonics—that are coming from the moon and the stars and in, and out, and around.
B: This review basically summarized what the show was like. It’s poetic and somewhat hard to parse.
The Verdict: A very visually cool and engaging experience. Go see it before it’s gone.
The Drama Talk: It’s always fun to see theater that defies description, which is very much the case with In Event of Moon Disaster. This lack of adherence to form is very intentional, refreshing, and part of what make Mugwumpin such a unique and innovative company. It’s a technically impressive show, and very cool to see Z-Below reconfigured and reimagined. They did a great job making the show interactive without being awkward. While we’re not sure we got 100% of what we were supposed to as far as the message, we still really enjoyed ourselves.
The Drinks: There’s something about being in outer-space for an hour that makes you want to get back to the familiar, so we headed over to Docs Clock after the show and toasted to the moon.
In Event of Moon Disaster runs through January 28th at Z-Below with shows Wednesday-Sunday nights. Tickets are available via the Z-Space website and are $35. A lot of the remaining shows are already SOLD OUT so get over there fast if you want to snag one of the remaining tickets.
