“Nice Gold Chicken,” a theatrical manufacturing unfolding throughout a number of websites in Los Angeles, begins inside my residence. It begins with a thriller, introducing itself as a lacking individuals story. But it’s additionally a puzzle.
Henry, we’re advised, has disappeared. Solely he didn’t simply abruptly vanish. I’m now an lively investigator, because the protagonist has deliberately left behind a path of clues.
“Nice Gold Chicken” might be heavy, tugging at our hearts even because it turns into extra mystical — its themes ricocheting amongst grief, science fiction and spiritualism. Twice it introduced me to tears, its script feeling directly deeply private but common for anybody who has survived a big loss. And but it possesses an underlying narrative drive, a pull to find its secrets and techniques that transcends any sense of unhappiness.
The story is one among magical realism centered round grief, particularly the hunt to reconnect with a misplaced beloved one. Pictured within the body is the character of Jen, portrayed by Kristin Degroot.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Instances)
For “Nice Gold Chicken” is a play, however not within the conventional sense. Consider it extra as a real-life online game, one which makes use of mild puzzles to push the story ahead to create a way of exploration. A “wanderplay,” as its designer calls it.
“Nice Gold Chicken” is about throughout three places, together with viewers members’ beginning place of residence. The place to go subsequent is revealed by way of the narrative — an deal with unlocked after perusing a web site devoted to a misplaced love, or a map uncovered in a locked chest after we uncover its mixture. This sense of play is vital, permitting “Nice Gold Chicken” to delve closely into the realities of residing with extended grief — its delusions, its isolating nature and its fantastical hopes — with out feeling overbearing. By turning the viewers into members we ourselves develop into pushed by a want to achieve a therapeutic conclusion.
It begins with a web-based shrine, a fictional site the character of Henry (Josh Meyer) has created to protect the recollections of his late spouse, Jen (Kristin Degroot). From there we’re led to what we’re advised is Henry’s camper, a fantastically cozy abode crammed with miniaturize installations and hidden nooks. We’re set unfastened, in search of clues that can lead us to messages from Henry. The primary one is clearly seen, however quickly we’re canvassing each inch of the car trying to find secret hideaways.
Inside a camper, members search for clues which may make them messages from Henry.
(Twin Alchemy Collective)
The motor house is parked in a safe lot in Arlington Heights. For the reason that exact deal with is revealed by advancing by way of the narrative — not one of the puzzles are notably difficult, however there may be an in-story trace system, if wanted — I’m selecting to protect a few of “Nice Gold Chicken’s” secrets and techniques, however know that it’s a timed expertise on weekend evenings, and there will probably be a number to greet you on the first location. The finale is extra of a self-guided stroll by way of nature, because the play will take us to a chosen space round Griffith Park the place varied props have been staged.
“Nice Gold Chicken” immediately had its hooks in me, its writing echoing phrases I’ve mentioned myself when within the throes of grief. We meet Henry, who isstruggling, panicking even, as he’s realizing the recollections centered round his previous relationship are fading. “The chance that I may lose my spouse a second time — not simply our future but in addition the sluggish erosion of our previous — terrified me,” Henry writes in a letter to his niece, which set him off on a writing train to create a web site devoted to their time collectively.
I discovered this instantly relatable, and never solely as a result of I’ve spent many months on an analogous venture devoted to a previous relationship. But it surely zeroes in on a very devious means wherein grief can pierce its hooks in us. Grief can develop into a hazard after we begin to discover the previous extra comforting than actuality, which isn’t onerous to do when coping with the lack of somebody near us. I, too, felt terrified at forgetting any reminiscence of a previous relationship, so I spent almost two years documenting each second I may bear in mind within the guise of a fairy story. However to do that is to show grief into our character, and that’s exactly what Henry does in “Nice Gold Chicken.”
“Nice Gold Chicken,” beneficial for an intimate viewers of 1 or two folks, is flat-priced at $120 per present. It’s additionally a manufacturing that turns into extra surreal because it unwinds, although I felt its dealing with of grief was notably grounded. That is smart, because the venture, from Katie Inexperienced’s Twin Alchemy Collective, is born of each private reflection {and professional} analysis.
The camper is crammed with hidden nooks that allow members to piece collectively the narrative.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Instances)
Inexperienced, in her day job, is a working towards psychological well being therapist. “I’m actually , extra so as soon as I began changing into a therapist, on this intersection between immersive artwork and the way that may be a car for hopefully transformative experiences and confronting very actual and private issues, like your relationship with grief or dying,” Inexperienced says.
As soon as “Nice Gold Chicken” units up its heartbreak premise, it begins to spiral out, referring to metaphysical matters which have us questioning our personal actuality. Henry discovers experimental meditation strategies, and for a time, “Nice Gold Chicken” has us pondering whether or not Henry is delusional, or if he has certainly discovered a solution to talk together with his misplaced love. Daydreaming, in spite of everything, is highly effective, and as “Nice Gold Chicken” will get weirder — we’re quickly canvassing the trailer in search of hidden rooms, trying to find VHS tapes and making an attempt to decipher maps of Los Angeles — “Nice Gold Chicken” turns into a story of magical realism.
On this sense, “Nice Gold Chicken” will recall one other long-running immersive Los Angeles present, the Scout Expedition-created “The Nest,” which is presently staged out of Hatch Escapes. Each Scout and Hatch helped in bringing “Nice Gold Chicken” to Los Angeles, as Inexperienced is predicated in Austin, Texas, the place she has been operating varied incarnations of “Nice Gold Chicken” for a couple of decade.
Like “The Nest,” “Nice Gold Chicken,” slated to run by way of December, was influenced by exploratory video video games reminiscent of “Gone Dwelling,” wherein gamers scour over private gadgets to find the story of two siblings, and the Bay Space’s alternate actuality recreation (ARG) “The Jejune Institute,” which was captured in a 2012 documentary. Inexperienced, 35, says she even spent about 5 years making an attempt to show “Nice Gold Chicken” right into a online game.
“My two largest inspirations for the primary model of this again in 2013 was taking part in ‘Gone Dwelling’ and the ‘The Jejune Institute,’ watching that documentary and listening to about that second hand and questioning what it could be prefer to create a reside motion environmental storytelling expertise that additionally moved past one area and was slightly extra fluid with area and time,” Inexperienced says. “It’s like an ARG, however on rails.”
Inexperienced initially wished “Nice Gold Chicken” to go to a 3rd Los Angeles location, however the realities of site visitors and journey time stored it confined to 2 areas outdoors of our houses. The venture needn’t be accomplished in the identical day. Certainly, noticing it could take me an hour to get from Arlington Heights to the Los Feliz space on a Friday night, I opted to complete “Nice Gold Chicken” the day after I started it. That labored for me, as “Nice Gold Chicken” is constructed for contemplation, and I wished time to course of its dealing with of grief.
Although “Nice Gold Chicken” is centered on the dying of a beloved one, Inexperienced says it was impressed largely by the severing of romantic relationships. “I make artwork to attempt to perceive issues that I don’t but perceive absolutely, and the grief that I felt from important breakups is my closest approximation of that,” Inexperienced says. “I made this for different folks to course of their very own relationship with grief, whether or not that was the dying of an individual, the dying of a relationship or the dying of some a part of your id.”
In the end, that’s why “Nice Gold Chicken” resonates. We, as viewers members-turned-actors, are on the hunt for a misplaced soul — a soul himself who has to rediscover who he’s.
