The Death of Rasputin brings a wonderful democracy to its vision of immersive theater. That’s my number one takeaway from the gorgeous production now running on NYC’s Governors Island. The immersion that The Death of Rasputin creates is for everyone, for the whole audience. It’s not whispered in secret behind closed doors or carefully dolled out to one lucky main character of the evening. Rather, the immersion is widespread and diffuse, touching every single person gathered at one moment or another. Forgoing the immensely personal experience that other immersive performances have deftly forged, NYC’s The Death of Rasputin joyously aims for the creation of a communal one instead. As the audience finds themselves transported to 1916 Petrograd, no single person receives more or less than anyone else. And that’s incredibly fitting for a performance that, at its core, tells a story about freedom and overcoming oppression for the betterment of all.
But before we delve deeper into what makes The Death of Rasputin such a wonderful take on immersive theater, let’s review the NYC performance at a glance. The Death of Rasputin is an original immersive theater production that tells the story of the last days of the Romanov Empire. You will probably have some familiarity with the story and the figures at its center, but this is absolutely the collapse of the Russian Empire as if you’ve never seen it before.
Like other immersive shows, a plethora of intriguing characters fill the physical space of the performance, in this case, a beautifully dressed two-story set-up complete with a raucous bar, a glorious ballroom, a gilded church, eerie mystical spaces, and hidden passageways you can find if you only but look. As visitors go to this land, 1916 Petrograd by way of a daydream, if you will, you can choose your own adventures inside the walls. Open to you is the ability to follow one character’s complete story, the option to bounce around, or the invitation to abscond from all these offers and simply explore the wonderful settings around you.
Speaking broadly, you can follow the nobility, the revolutionaries, the royal family, or, of course, the man at the center of it all, Rasputin and his acolyte, Lohktina. All of these routes promise to yield great rewards, and different paths will call to different people.
Unlike in other NYC immersive shows, there are no masks in The Death of Rasputin. And there is dialogue. That means that picking up the story is a much simpler task than in other performances. And chances are that your fellow man will be more polite to you than if they had a disguise to hide behind. All of this feeds into The Death of Rasputin‘s most beautiful note, the community it creates inside its spaces. The Death of Rasputin‘s commitment to community begins before one even arrives on the NYC island on which the show takes place. (To reach Governors Island, you need to take a ferry, which adds a little something to the experience, and your ticket includes it.) The performance asks that you wear all black on your journey to Petrograd. So, as one waits in the ferry terminal, they can slowly start to see a sea of black-clad theater-goers descending. This is an incredibly lovely choice because it allows everyone to feel very confident in who is joining them on their Death of Rasputin adventure. Fast friends are made and conversations struck up simply because the act of wearing black (a.k.a joining the cult, as the performance jokes) has united perfect strangers. Maria Baranova Then, upon arrival, it’s a party! The audience finds themselves welcomed into a space called Katya’s Bar and invited to drink and dance to the sounds of modern and classic Russian music. The production encourages mingling and photo-taking until the performance begins, and the warm sound of chatter chimes from every corner of the well-decorated and gorgeously inviting space. The clarified White Russian is absolutely worth your time. Artemis is BurningThen, the show begins. There are four different entry points from which one can start, randomly assigned to attendees. But like all other aspects of The Death of Rasputin there’s no quality difference between any one of them. They simply thin the crowd, but all entries are equally good. No one recieves a “better” or “worse” beginning. After the starting point, you’re free to go whichever way your heart calls.Regardless of the direction, though, whether you follow the devout, but incredibly snarky, priest, Iliodor, or feel enamored by Felix’s dry disdain, find yourself called to Petra’s fighting spirit, to the Tzarina’s biting glamor, or Rasputin’s feral ways, you’ll find that you and your comrades are in it together. As mentioned, while other immersive theater performances rely on the mechanism of enshrining one person with something special, NYC’s The Death of Rasputin doles out little bits and bobs to everyone.Artemis is BurningIf there’s writing of threats to the Tsar to be done, everyone will write a menacing note and have it read out loud. If there’s a dance to be learned, the whole crowd will learn it. And if a cult breathing exercise is at hand to cement your devotion to Rasputin, ALL will breathe. And, if Felix needs help donning his gown so that he can reveal his truest self, Tatiyana, and seduce Rasputin? Why, at least five different people will help him do so. That’s democratic immersion for you! Instead of one person feeling like a star, every person will be called upon to answer a question, be of assistance, and get pulled into the narrative in some way or another. In all honesty, there’s no one who loves being a star more than I, but I can recognize how this method opens the door for more people to enjoy an immersive show. The whole audience gets to go home at night knowing they helped overthrow the monarchy. There’s a true loveliness to that for the individual and also for the audience. Within the show, this open kind of immersion allows the audience to feel more bonded, less in competition with one another, and more in it together. Community is a hard-won creation, but for an hour and a half, The Death of Rasputin invites you to holds hands with your fellow man, cheer with them, laugh with them, and dance with them, and that’s beautiful. (The show is also laugh-out-loud funny.)It’s incredibly worth noting that the queerness of the show shines like a Faberge egg. Every character has sexual tension with their fellow persons, and over the run of the show, this queerness, again, a diffuse, joyous, unquestioned kind of queerness has intensified. The Death of Rasputin does that incredible thing where it invites you to imagine that every character in its world is at baseline a little bit queer. And then swings for the fences with some more than others, affirming gender identities, sexualities, and even kinks, but in a truly wholesome way. Artemis is BurningI’d also be remiss not to share that The Death of Rasputin is produced by Artemis is Burning, “a bold, women-led theater company igniting a revolution in immersive storytelling.” And fans can feel that revolution. Those who dabble in the immersive theater world will know there have been companies that have not put their money where their mouth is, that have not followed through on their purported visions of community and care. But Artemis is Burning has conducted itself with utmost transparency and respect throughout the NYC run of The Death of Rasputin. In fact, the production even held a fanfic night honoring their most ardent fans. I had my fic read and it filled my heart with a great brightness. It’s always worth supporting a company whose ideals are true. (And who know how to honor a fandom.)I’ll end with this anecdote. I took my mother and my sister to NYC’s The Death of Rasputin. That’s three different women from different generations, with different immersive theater experiences, and different visions of what creative appeal means to them. My mother was Petra’s single follower and came out with great delight at having been pulled so deeply into the narrative. My sister mostly wandered around, examining the sets, reading letters strewn on desks, and seeing the world. And I ran from scene to scene, hiding dynamite, confessing my sins, and dancing at a ball. (One of the greatest gifts immersive theater has ever given me.) All of us came out saying we had a spectacular evening that was like nothing else we’d ever experienced. I think that speaks for itself.RELATED ARTICLELong Live LIFE AND TRUST—A Beautiful Immersive Theater Performance We Loved and LostThe NYC run of The Death of Rasputin has extended through June 28. Tickets are available now. And we’d be remiss not to offer a huge round of applause to the cast, who deliver humor, pathos, and love to every performance. They are: Jake Ryan Lozano as the charismatic Rasputin, Ginger Kearns as the fierce Katarina/Katya, Audrey Tchoukoua as the adorable Tzar, Zina Zinchenko as the determined Tzarina, Louis Butelli as the gruff Uncle Dread, Manatsu Tanaka as the mysterious Lohktina, Adam Griffith as the incorrigable Felix, Tim Creavin as the holy/unholy Iliodor, Lucy York Struever as the devoted Petra/Swing, Cashton Rehklau as the impassioned Fyodor/Swing, John William Watkins as the excellent Swing/Uncle Dread, and Andrea Murillo and Mitchell Winter as talented Swings. The Death of Rasputin 
(5 of 5)
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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