Content note: references to deceased relatives.
I have to tell you, when you offer an immersive theater experience about romance set in my neighborhood, well, I basically hadn't finished reading the description before I loaded the ticket into my cart.
After two weekends in Mount Pleasant, the Folger is going to do a version at the Folger, and I understand the stories will all be different.
This show requires a little set up. Basically each scene involves different characters in a different location. There apparently have been six or seven prior versions of this in other locales.
The group had headsets connected to the actor's mic's so that if there were cars, dogs, kids, or other city noise, we could hear. It also meant some of the scenes you had an angled vantage of. So it was almost like staged eavesdropping.
The five scenes were all, as the title implies first dates. They all, spoiler, went well. There were two fix ups. One random stranger meetup at a political trivia event. And two app dates, one of which was between two school friends. The dates were all a blend of funny, awkward, emotional, and sweet.
The process of moving between each worked really well. There were a few tech hiccups, but I was in the very first group, and nothing that took away from the overall experience.
The couples were of multiple races and gender pairings.
Note: The Mount Pleasant version of the show involves one location that is only accessible by stairs, and one location that is a bar, so is restricted to people allowed to enter bars.
