Boston Interactive
by Kayte Deioma
Interrogate suspects in a murder case. Duck raining paint and waves of paper descending on you from above. Become Lara Croft or Indiana Jones for an hour.You don’t have to sit still and keep quiet to be entertained in Boston. From the tried and true to the brand new, you have plenty of interactive adventures to choose from.
Shear Madness
The solve-it-yourself murder mystery Shear Madness is the granddaddy on 
the local interactive scene. Celebrating its 25 th year in 2005, the Boston production is the longest running non-musical play in the country. Yet each show you see will never have been seen before. Like never stepping in the same river twice, it is not possible to see the a repeat production of Shear Madness. Audience participation, local and pop culture references and up-to-the-minute improvised dialogue from the actors keep the show fresh. Pay attention! Your eye-witness testimony will be important to the plot.
The comedy takes place in a beauty salon in Boston’s Beacon Hill (unless you see it in another city, then it will be local there too). The stage is set with a gay barber, a feisty beautician, their three customers and the piano music coming from the upstairs tenant, the famed pianist Isabel Czerny. With a lot of ins and outs, pounding on pipes and sla
mming doors, the noisy Isabel is silenced and it’s left to the audience to help the undercover detectives – one of whom was staking out the place from the barber chair - to figure out whodunit.
There is so much going on, the eye-witnesses all see different things. During the intermission you have the chance to speak with the detectives, lay out your suspicions and give your witness statement. When the play resumes, you can interrogate the suspects directly, calling out questions from your seat. Audience members of all ages get into the spirit and are convinced they know exactly what happened. Ultimately, an audience vote determines who did the dastardly deed on any given night.
Hey Mr. Detective, where were you when Ms. Czerny was murdered? You left the salon right before the main event. Why aren’t you on the suspect list? Hmm. Next time I’m voting for the detective for murderer.
Shear Madness plays at the Charles Playhouse, Stage II, 74 Warrenton St., Boston. Check the web site http://www.shearmadness.com/Boston/boston.html or call (617) 426-5225 for schedule and pricing information.
Blue Man Group
Right next door on the Charles Playhouse main stage, Blue Man Group creates its own brand of delightfully interactive chaos. Though not locally conceived, the Boston company of the original New-York-born multi-media performance art experience is true to its roots. Now also in Chicago, Las Vegas and Berlin, Germany, the Blue Man experience has evolved with its expansion into new arenas. People who have seen earlier Blue Man shows will be charmed by the new additions. The original three Blue Men, Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink keep strict creative control over the content presented by the 33 Blue Man actors who rotate through the various performances.
But what is Blue Man Group?
If you sit in the first several rows, you’re given a plastic rain poncho to wear during the show to protect you from miscellaneous substances that spew from the actors and the stage. Three men in black with bald heads painted blue manage to create art, rhythm and music by the most unconventional means. Mouths are used to play catch, to paint, to sculpt and to play rhythms. But never to talk. Food is the medium of choice, from rhythmically chomping Cap’n Crunch to sculpting 
chewing gum. The antics of the three Blue Men would be downright silly if they weren’t so ingenious and perfectly executed.
Drumming becomes painting as drumsticks splash paint from drum skins to canvases, spraying plastic-covered audience members in the process. PVC piping in the form of an elaborately twisted xylophone played with foam rubber paddles and a trombonesque tube drum they call a “drumbone” create complex rhythms backed by a full band in a cage above the stage.
But what is Blue Man Group?
Blue Man roams the audience and invites a woman from the crowd to join the on-stage tableau to be courted with flowers and Twinkies. The silent acting is subtle and smart. Blue Man roams again and finds a young man to be taken backstage and used as a human paintbrush as the audience watches on the big screen. The deadpan Blue Man addresses various states of the human condition. Subtext is provided by a scrolling marquee, giant posters and projected slides.
But what is Blue Man Group?
Blue Man Group is head-bobbing, foot-stomping, hand-clapping, mesmerizing, unadulterated fun for the whole family. Don’t try this at home kids – at least not without covering everything with a plastic drop sheet first.
Visit www.blueman.com or call (617) 426-6912 for schedule and pricing information.
5W!TS TOMB
The new kid on the block is 5WITS TOMB. Since September 2004, this live-
action immersion experience takes you inside an Egyptian tomb recreated in a Fenway storefront. Unlike playing the video game or watching the movie, this is not an endeavor to be undertaken alone. You’ll need a whole team (at least 5) of archaeologists to solve the mysteries of the tomb and make it out alive. Sometimes brute strength will be necessary. Other puzzles will only be solved with ingenuity and intelligence. Some require teamwork. It doesn’t hurt if at least one member of your team is really tall.
You receive cryptic instructions from the distracted expedition director, Dr. Cavendish by speakerphone from London. Your goal is to figure out how to enter the tomb, determine what happened to the professor who was lost in the tomb ten years earlier, find the Pharaoh’s burial chamber and discover if his mummy is still there. Oh yeah, watch out for traps and curses.
Your guide distributes flashlights. Your first challenge: figure out how to open the entrance. The 13-year-old on our team had that problem solved before the guide finished speaking. Your flashlights expose a chamber covered with hieroglyphs with a life-size statue of the seated pharaoh to one side.
The face of the pharaoh appears projected on a sheet of water coursing down one wall as his voice booms over head. The pharaoh challenges you in turn with tasks to prove that you have the eyes of a falcon, the strength of an ox, the courage of a lion and the ears of a fox before being able to pass through to the next chamber.
In the next room, the pharaoh’s voice follows you, testing your ingenuity and teamwork with a pair of puzzles to be solved. A slowly descending ceiling threatening to crush you adds a sense of urgency as you scurry around the chamber trying to complete the last puzzle and get out alive.
Mission accomplished, you may proceed to the burial chamber. Here, the pharaoh requests your assistance to find his mummy and return it to his sarcophagus. If you fail, the chamber will be flooded and you’ll all be drowned. Your hieroglyph recognition skills will be tested, along with your attention to instructions and memory skills. Remember, if you fail, you will die. And the death experience, while startling, isn’t nearly as fun as challenging your wits and strength and solving all the puzzles to emerge from the tomb alive.
While the cynical teenagers in our group were obliged to comment on how corny the whole experience was, that didn’t stop them from fully participating in solving every puzzle and completing every task. The grownups freely admitted to having fun. Very young children might be frightened by the special effects.
Each expedition takes 45 minutes – finish on time or die trying. Don’t worry if you don’t have a group, you can join up with the next one leaving for their adventure. Groups leave every 15 minutes. There are also specially written productions for educational groups and corporate teambuilding groups. For current schedule and pricing information, visit www.5-wits.com or call (617) 375-WITS.