A few minutes after the play begins, the actors stop, empty their pockets and repeat their last few lines. And then they do it again. And again.
And again. This live approximation of a vinyl record that catches on loop goes on for a few more minutes, the actors getting slightly louder and a tinge more testy as they continue the repetition. They can’t move, they say, as they are “waiting for Godot.
” But they are actually waiting for us, the audience, to get out of our seats, walk onstage and start to piece together a puzzle out of the fragmented pieces of paper they‘ve dropped. This is “Escape From Godot,” an escape room that is also a work of theater — or vice versa. It upends the conventions of both.
This is a play in which audience members become participants, the game requiring patrons to hop on the dials and interact with props in order to propel the narrative forward. Puzzles are hidden in the script, ensuring that the players become actors and are in abstract communication with the performers. But its greatest trick? Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” the theatrical escape room taps into the themes of the original work, creating an open-for-interpretation piece of playfully interactive art that grapples with existential questions — how we communicate, or fail to, with others, and the balance among selfish behavior, free will and empathy.
Like Beckett’s play, there is no Godot who will come, but we are all caught in a world where th.