{"id":26620,"date":"2020-10-13T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/?p=26620"},"modified":"2020-10-13T09:19:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T16:19:15","slug":"strange-bird-immersive-the-strange-secret-of-mr-adrian-rook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/strange-bird-immersive-the-strange-secret-of-mr-adrian-rook\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook \u2013 Strange Bird Immersive\u2019s Curious and Charming Anthology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The enigmatic Raven Queen has tasked\u00a0myself\u00a0and seven others with tracking down her treasured secretary Adrian Rook, who has been missing for two weeks now. Currently\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0visiting with Brendan O\u2019Neill \u2013 proprietor of Whiskey and Welding \u2013 in the hopes that he might offer some clues or insight. \u201cDo you have any idea what this might be?\u201d he asks in a lilting Irish brogue, gesturing to a vaguely cubic wire frame on the table behind him. I\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0the foggiest, so I ask for his thoughts. \u201cI think it\u2019s a lamp,\u201d he answers, explaining how the idea came to him in a dream featuring the missing Rook.\u00a0That\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0three for three now,\u00a0<\/span>I think.\u00a0Each tenant\u00a0<\/span>we\u2019ve<\/span>\u00a0talked to has referenced strange dreams or had weird power surges whenever Rook\u2019s come up in conversation<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span> is a 90-minute remote production, hosted over Zoom for up to 8 audience members. The story unfolds through six\u00a010-15 minute\u00a0monologues\u00a0with light interaction, bookended by prelude and postlude video clips. The general gist: The Raven Queen, enigmatic proprietress\u00a0of Strange Bird Immersive, has asked you to help find her missing secretary Adrian Rook. In order to do so,\u00a0the audience visits with each of the Strange Bird building\u2019s five tenants in the hopes of uncovering clues as to the whereabouts of the errant Rook before heading to the office of the Raven Queen herself and hopefully bringing the mystery to a close.<\/p>\n

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\"Strange<\/p>\n

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It might be a stretch to call\u00a0The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span>\u00a0immersive. While the audience does have to opportunity to occasionally ask questions or engage with the performers, they are mostly passive while the eclectic and quirky characters\u00a0tell the story of themselves, their business, and how Adrian has played a role in their success.<\/p>\n

In truth,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a healthy dose of magical realism running through\u00a0The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span>. The Raven Queen\u2019s tenants, while outlandish for one reason or another, are not lamp shaded as weird or unusual. The Raven Queen collects oddities, and so in her domain the odd is utterly normal. Most often what\u2019s presented is a familiar premise with a twist: a speakeasy serves secrets instead of booze, a photography studio focuses on accidental rather than staged pictures, and so on. It\u2019s fun when it\u2019s done well, presenting just enough exposition to give audiences the \u201cwhat\u201d that\u2019s in front of them without getting bogged down in the \u201cwhy\u201d of how a given bit of strangeness works. And that\u2019s something The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span>\u00a0understands well.\u00a0The concept of each tenant\u2019s business is presented matter-of-factly, as if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not the least bit strange at all, and then the character moves right on to the story they have to tell.<\/p>\n

This approach carries over into the set design for\u00a0The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span>\u00a0as well. Aside from the glowing bottles, the speakeasy looks like a bar. The whiskey and welding room looks like a workshop. Things make sense in terms of the props, layout, and costuming, and that helps a great deal with getting past the initial suspension of disbelief and into the fun stuff.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

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Given that\u00a0The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span>\u00a0is essentially a sequence of\u00a0loosely-related\u00a0monologues, it falls squarely on the performers to make or break the show.\u00a0Thankfully, the cast is very much up to the task. Whether it\u2019s the disarming earnestness of Dr. Riley E. Newmark (Lexi Jackson), the conspiratorial demeanor of\u00a0secret-sipping\u00a0Vivan\u00a0Mae (Amanda Marie Parker), or the Irish charm of\u00a0Brendan O\u2019Neill (J. Cameron Cooper), all of the Strange Bird cast bring unique, well-developed personalities to the table that fit their character\u2019s premise and elevate the already solid writing. If there is a standout,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the deadpan pretentiousness of Prof. Gene Hazard (Bradley Winkler). His School of Accidental Photography is a silly idea.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0obviously a silly idea. And yet Winkler\u2019s portrayal is so genuinely passionate about it, so utterly convinced that he is onto something revolutionary, that by the end\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0left wondering if maybe he\u2019s onto something after all.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0honestly tough to point out areas for\u00a0The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook<\/span> to potentially tweak or improve. It\u2019s a show that knows what it\u2019s about and delivers with flair. A pinch of the supernatural, a dash of peril, and a fair handful of light-hearted escapism combine to present an accessible mystery play, told through six largely self-contained monologues connected by the unseen influence of the show\u2019s titular character. If anything, the lingering question is who else might the Raven Queen and her beloved secretary come to house within Strange Bird Immersive\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

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While much of the show\u2019s remaining run is sold out, there are still some slots with room for the curious. Tickets can be purchased through Strange Bird\u00a0Immersive\u2019s\u00a0website\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0where you can also join their mailing list for further updates or contact them directly. In addition, you can connect with them on social media via\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The enigmatic Raven Queen has tasked\u00a0myself\u00a0and seven others with tracking down her treasured secretary Adrian Rook, who has been missing for two weeks now. Currently\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0visiting with Brendan O\u2019Neill \u2013 proprietor of Whiskey and Welding \u2013 in the hopes that he might offer some clues or insight. \u201cDo you have any idea what this might be?\u201d…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":26621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11843,80],"tags":[24237,29,5342,24238,23858,3586,24209,24236,24239],"yst_prominent_words":[1061,5854,5501,7276,1048,12671],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Strange-Bird-Immersive-Secret-of-Adrian-Room-Image-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrPML-6Vm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}