My Time at Temple Studios, Part 12

Show #12
Monday, December 30: 7 pm

This was always likely to be a problematic show. It was, originally, scheduled to be the very last one, and an awful lot of spoiler group people were coming – not that having everyone there was a problem, in fact, I very much enjoyed meeting people at the Sawyer's Arms beforehand and in the queue a little bit later. But it would be a sold-out show, packed to the gills, and most of the audience would be experts – or so I though. More on that later.

At this point, there was only one character I felt I absolutely needed to see: Andy. There were other characters that I had never done a loop with (William, Marshall), but that I had largely covered while following other characters (or, in the case of William, would have largely covered after doing Andy). There were also other character/performer combos I wanted to see, and there were pieces of loops I was missing and would someday like to catch – but Andy was the only one who remained more a mystery than not. I was hoping to see Rob McNeill in the role, as he was Andy throughout most, if not all, of my September trip, but a glance at the cast board revealed that Tomislav English would be playing the role. I thought about waiting one more day, in the hope that Rob would be playing him on New Year's Eve, but ultimately decided that I didn't want to have this hanging over me going into the final show – so I started the evening off with Tomislav's Andy.

As with many other town characters, I couldn't find him right away, and spent several minutes circling the floor trying to track him down only to suddenly stumble upon him out in middle of the street, as if he had magically appeared there. I seriously don't know where these people hide sometimes.

Andy's plot function is essentially to be “the best friend,” and he is very much the embodiment of that – the archetypal best friend. He's a mensch, an all-around good guy, concerned primarily with the well-being of William and Mary (with brief diversions into hitting on the ladies and some illicit business with Miguel and Badlands Jack). It is in this aspect of the character that Tomislav's appearance serves him well – his boyish, earnest face plays into it in a way that Rob's more intense demeanor does not.

Andy's loop was sparsely attended at first – it was, after all, “magic hour.” Not too far into the show we wound up at the hoedown, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Andy was one of the first characters to arrive – which meant that I, for the first time ever, had a front-of the crowd spot for the festivities (come to think of it, was he in there a whole scene ahead of time? I can't remember when his solo bar dance happened, but it may have been immediately pre-hoedown). It's a little scary up close – a lot of flailing limbs and swinging around. When the Drugstore Girl (Isabelle Cressy) spun and collapsed right at my feet, I don't know how she managed not to kick me in the face. Andy also took the opportunity to knock me on the nose of my mask with his beer bottle mid-dance.

After the hoedown, and the fight that followed, Andy and William (Omar Gordon) reconvened at the fountain in town. This scene is, of course, a counterpart to the post-orgy dressing room scene with Andrea and Wendy, and I find the contrast very interesting. Both scenes begin with a phase where Andy/Andrea attempts to comfort William/Wendy, before it turns to more of a struggle and argument. For Andrea and Wendy, the first portion of the scene is very close and touchy, with lots of hugs and reassuring hands on shoulders and such – then, as their thoughts begin to diverge, so too do they pull apart physically. On the other hand, Andy and William spend the first portion of the scene seeming to barely acknowledge each other – Andy provides some degree of comfort simply by sitting silently next to William. Then as the disagreement grows, they begin to grapple, growing physically closer. It's an interesting illustration of the difference between your typical (or sterotypical, I suppose) male/male friendship vs. a female/female friendship.

Lest you think that Andy sounds a bit too distant, rest assured that he cares very deeply about the murder – enough so that it drives him completely mad. Up to the desert he went, spinning, spinning, spinning. If there's one word I would associate with Andy, it's that: spinning. Nearly all of his dancing, particularly his solo bits, centered around him spinning wildly, nearly out of control. In this instance, he traveled through the desert, stopping in each spotlight to spin some more, and flinging fistfuls of sand off into the darkness (or, in one instance, pouring the sand into my hand). Eventually he collapsed in front of Mary's shrine at the scarecrow funeral, after which Miguel took him to his tent to recover. Having done so, Andy paused briefly to shove a small object into my hand and beg me, desperately, to “find her.” He took off at full speed for the stairs right after that, so I didn't have a chance to look at the object right away – but it was easy enough to guess what it was: a small, crumpled photo of Mary (Laure Bachelot). I think that was the moment that endeared him to me the most – lost in the throes of madness, his last rational thought was to beg someone to make right his failure to save the unhappy couple.

It's always a little strange to see the beginning of the loop right after a reset, as characters return, however briefly, to the mundane and/or happy phase of their day, so a lot of the remainder of Andy's loop didn't make nearly as much of an impression on me, although there were still some highlights – William's episode as he and Andy clean the boardroom table, the pursuit of Miguel through town, and, of course Bulldog. It was at the conclusion of that scene that I left Andy, since we were nearly to the point where I had com in, and he had led me to approximately the location of my next character.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the decision to follow Tomislav's Andy. I can't really say whether I would have preferred it if I actually saw Rob's version, but I know that what I saw was terrific. Besides, I was about to get a full dose of Rob McNeill in a very different role. By the time Andy's loop ended, the audience situation had changed dramatically from those first few blissfully deserted scenes. The crowds were thick, but more than that, they were remarkably poorly behaved. It was definitely the most hand-holders, mask-removers, and phone-users that I had ever seen in a single loop. In contrast to my earlier expectation, it was not a show full of expert fans, but uninvolved (and curiously aggressive) newbies. They didn't seem very interested in what was going on, obviously – but at the same time, they still tended to want to be at the front of the pack. It's like people who drive too slowly on a single-lane road, then speed up when it expands to two lanes so that you can't pass them. Why? Why? Argh.

Given my observations of the makeup of the crowd, I thought it would be a good opportunity to check out a side character who largely eluded me in September: the Doctor, played by, as I suggested above, Rob McNeill. I'm not sure it was a good choice from an audience-avoidance perspective, as he was pretty well mobbed – but then, I didn't see what things were like around the main characters. Perhaps it was even worse.

I had seen a bit of Rob's Doctor in the past while following other characters, and he didn't really seem like a good fit for the role – too young, too small, the suit didn't seem to fit right – but as has happened too many times to count, seeing him up close was a whole different story. He seems very otherworldly compared to some of the other doctors, with this bizarre, incredibly creepy way of breathing and a tendency to speak as little as possible. Much of his time was spent slowly walking around the exam room or pacing up and down the hall behind it, staring at first one white mask, then another. Each time, it looked for all the world like he was about to take them for a 1:1 – but I only saw him take two people, despite having those “almost” moments with literally dozens, myself included. After the first couple of instances, once I figured out what was going on, I started to really enjoy the way he was toying with everyone.  The crowd at this point was insanely thick – during some of the hallway pacing bits, there were a good 20-25 people just in the hallway itself. Insane. Nonetheless, I again got the impression I was dealing primarily with newbies that were not super-engaged.

Given the crowds, I probably should have tried somewhere else, but I can be stubborn at times – I had decided to follow the Doctor, and that's precisely what I was going to do, damn it. In the end, I think it worked out pretty well – it turns out that, despite what I saw in September, the Doctor does indeed have a lot to do besides 1:1's. The thing that stood out the most to me was the whole series of interactions he had with the Seamstress (Kathryn McGarr) regarding Romola. It had always seemed to me like all of the manipulative characters were working on some bizarre instinct or carefully pre-formulated plan, each of them doing their part at the right moment because they somehow just know to do so. But in fact, at least in this instance, there was a lot of actual plotting going on behind the scenes. Very interesting to watch.

Other highlights/revelations included the way he chased Dolores (Jane Leaney) into the exam room with his pen lights (is this a newer addition? The only other time I would have seen it was the first loop of my very first show, too far back for me to remember clearly. It felt new to me) and the end-of-loop scene with Stanford (Sam Booth), which demonstrated to me just how different my recollection (from show #3) was from what actually happened.

Shortly after that, the Doctor disappeared with another white mask for the mannequin reset 1:1. Incidentally, this was the closest I came to intersecting with a very interesting aspect of the night: there was no PA. It would have been fascinating to see how they made the story work without her, but alas, I managed to go all night without seeing a single scene that she should have been a part of. I did get to hear some interesting stories about it later on, from both audience and cast members, but if I were to list off my regrets (which are fortunately few) about this batch of shows, that would be right near the top.

While the Doctor was locked away, I took the opportunity to make another attempt at spending some time in studio 3. The crowds were so thick in the rest of the show that I figured it was the best time to do it, as I was starting to get irritated enough with them that I thought a break would be a good idea. I found a few spoiler group friends hanging out there, and actually managed to stick around for three songs, but that was all I could do. In fact, I was ready to go back after two songs, but then the singer launched into Bulldog and, well, it was Bulldog. You know how that goes.

Watching the Seamstress with the Doctor earlier reminded me that I had never really spent much time with her, so I decided to finish out the night in her company. I found her in her office, but almost immediately, she headed through the clothing maze to her shop in the town. So far, I've never attempted to navigate the maze without a character guiding me, which is probably for the best – even with a guide, I still have a bit of trouble.

In the shop, she immediately set about selecting a charm from a tin full of them, pausing only to accept Conrad's dress from the barman (Francois Testory). Once the charm was selected, she set about tying it on to a piece of thread, to hang around the neck. Throughout the process, she periodically looked up at me and gave me a smile that managed to be friendly, alluring, and ominous all at the same time. This was a moment where the crowd (and there was one – at least 10 of us in that tiny shop, probably more) may have actually enhanced the moment. It's always great when a character notices you – but if they pick you out of a large group, it does feel a little more special. Once she finished threading the charm, she stood up and made as if to slowly saunter back into the clothing maze – but instead, she suddenly grabbed my hand and rushed us both inside, before anyone could move. At the first turn she slammed me up against the wall and hissed into my ear, “Do you have any idea what you're in for here?” She put the charm around my neck and then, more calmly, whispered, “You'll need this to keep you safe. If you're lucky.”

At that, she took off briskly through the maze, back into her office. A lot of the material that followed was not really new to me – most of it consisted of her. . . I guess I'll call it her “day job,” dressing and making up the stars of the infidelity ballet and, yes, Bulldog. I also got to see her scheming with the Doctor again, which took on a different, more enthusiastic tone when seen from her perspective. The seamstress is quite the nasty piece of work, when you get right down to it.

Eventually Romola (Katie McGuinness) showed up, which meant we were getting close to the end of the show. After putting on Romola's car crash makeup (“Wouldn't want to forget that,” she told me with an evil smirk, as she wrote down the Doctor's instructions for the makeup), the Seamstress led her out to meet the doctor, and then headed off to the 1:1 room, as I had seen her do a few shows before. I had managed to stay reasonably close to her throughout the loop, with some exceptions, but with the size of that hallway, and the magnitude of that crowd, I was defeated. When we got to the door, I was multiple layers back, barely able to see her as she paused in the doorway. Happily, though, after looking over the hordes of white masks, she reached through them, pointing directly at me.

“You can come in,” she said.

Surprisingly, the 1:1 was quite different from the one I had with Kate Jackson in September, and left my lips tingling and burning for nearly an hour afterward. At the end, she quickly changed into dancing shoes, handed me a rose, and took off at top speed for the stairs, pulling me along behind her. We rushed down to Studio 2, but just as we emerged from the stairwell on the ground floor, we heard a familiar crescendo and release of the music. She stopped short and turned to me, with a panicked expression.

“That was it!” she said. We hurried into the Studio, where everyone was rushing over to the stage. Yep, we had missed the murder. I might have been disappointed, if I hadn't already seen Marshall die a good thirteen times (eleven finales, plus two interim loop murders). The seamstress led me down to the woodchips, then shrugged apologetically.

“Well, enjoy the party,” she said, before rushing off to join the action on the stage. I still had my rose. When I made my usual stop at the pools, post-finale, I considered leaving it in the water with Wendy and Marshall, but decided against. Too bad, as it would have been a more fitting place to leave it than the hands of the friendly-but-firm black mask who took it from me a few minutes later.

My Time at Temple Studios, Part 11

Show #11
Sunday, December 29: 5 pm

My first target for the night was Badlands Jack. I had seen a small portion of his loop back in September, but lost him after the 1:1, so I never really got a sense for the whole thing. Of course, I faced my usual issue – how do I find him at the beginning of the show? I knew he rarely, if ever, left the town area, so there was very little ground for me to cover – but even so, I didn't want to spend the first few minutes of the show running around like a chicken with my head cut off (like I did while looking for Romola at my last show). Instead, I decided to take the opportunity to check in on a new (to me, anyway) Grocer, Jesse Kovarsky. The last time I had started out a show with the Grocer, Jack stopped by very early on – so I figured I could just switch over at that point.

My earlier Grocer experience was with Julian Stolzenberg, who played him as sad and weary. Jesse's Grocer, on the other hand, is a bundle of nerves, erratic and possibly quite mad.  Also sad, but that was more of a hidden texture that seeped out around the edges of his performance than an overriding mood.  The energy in his shop was so different from before that after only a minute or two, I knew I would have to return to see more of him – after Badlands Jack, of course. I can be stubborn that way.

My plan went a bit awry, however, when the Grocer pulled me into his back room for a 1:1 almost immediately. This hadn't happened the previous time – to me or to another white mask – so it was quite the surprise, albeit a pleasant one. Nonetheless, it resulted in my being ejected back into the store, alone, with still no sign of Badlands Jack. My plan was clearly not going to work – no more waiting; I needed to set out to find him.

Fortunately, I didn't have to go far – Jack (Julian, my original Grocer) was in the Drugstore, taunting the Drugstore Girl (Anna Finkel) while wearing Andy's jacket. Julian's Jack immediately impressed me as much more aggressive and out of control than the other Jack I had spent time with, David Essing. David has a certain degree of class and poise (part of what makes him such a fantastic Claude) that he couldn't quite bury when playing Jack, while Julian seemed half animal.

I followed him out into the woods, where he and Andy (Tomislav English) had a fight that culminated in Jack cowering on the ground in front of a straw man. First the Grocer, now Jack – clearly, this was going to be a night of instability and madness. But what else could I expect in Temple Studios?  After that, he rushed back to his trailer, where he pulled me in for a 1:1 that started like the one I had in September, then went off in a completely different direction and ended with him inviting me along to the hoedown. While I won't detail what happened in that trailer, I will say that hearing what he had to say in there was the moment that I finally “got” Jack, and understood why he is the way that he is. It makes so much sense that it almost seems obvious in retrospect, and maybe others have figured it out without the 1:1 – but it certainly didn't hurt having it spelled out.

The hoedown was. . . well, the hoedown. It was much like any other hoedown, which means that I loved it. The aftermath was quite interesting, though, because for the first time, I stuck around for the big fight between William (Omar Gordon) and Dwayne (Nicola Migliorati), with their sidekicks, Andy and the Barman (Francois Testory). I was shocked at how brutal it was – when the baseball bats slammed into the floor or walls, it sounded like an awful lot of force for acting. Meanwhile, Jack retreated behind the bar and watched, punching the air and directing the fight like a villain from the 60's Batman TV series.

After the conclusion of the fight, I followed Jack back to his trailer for a second 1:1, which matched up much more closely to the one I had in September, and which resulted (again), in my being ejected into town alone. I was about to race back around to try to rejoin Jack, when I saw the Grocer heading for the Drugstore. Given the where we were in the loop, I had a pretty good guess as to what he was about to do – and I knew I couldn't pass up the chance to see what this Grocer would do with the Drugstore Girl's death scene.

Said death scene played out very differently from how I remembered, although I don't know how much of that is actual difference, and how much is my memories of the first time getting jumbled up. In September, when I saw it performed by Julian and Sophie Bortolussi, I remember her being generally on board with what was happening, while he was struggling with it – breaking the action multiple times and starting over, as if trying to avoid the end of the scene. This time, it was the Drugstore Girl who interrupted the scene, retreating to the counter with the script and leading the Grocer in a brief struggle/dance before he took it back, forcing her to start over and see it through to the end. She did so, with an attitude I can only describe as “pouty.” Jesse and Anna made for a really terrific pairing for this scene. The Julian/Sophie version was one of my favorite scenes, but this one was better still. I made a mental note to return to Anna's Drugstore Girl somewhere down the line, although I sadly never really followed through on that.

After she died, the Grocer clapped his hands while jumping up and down, before stopping suddenly, overcome by the realization of what he'd just done – a stark contrast to Julian's morose take on the moment. This Grocer is so fascinatingly unstable; I don't know whether I like and sympathize with him or whether I'm terrified of him. I think the answer is yes.

I followed him back to the Grocery, where he reset back into civilian clothes and closed up the shop with a defiant “My name is Eugene Greene.” He headed into the studio to start the story over again, and that was where I took my leave of him. Kind of an unusual choice for me, but it was consistent with how my night was going – I was feeling a rare bout of wanderlust, perhaps a reaction to my night of lengthy, comprehensive loops on Saturday. My next destination was the basement, where I intended to meet up with Isabelle Cressy's PA. Given how much I had enjoyed my time with Fania Grigoriou and Kirsty Arnold's PA's, I was very interested in checking out the newer cast's interpretation.

When I got to the basement, the mannequin reset room was closed up, which meant she was most likely inside. I hung around the corridor for a minute, and was treated to a light show – someone inside the room was shining a light through a hole in the door, tracing patterns on the wall. Finally the door opened up and she and the Doctor (Rob McNeill) emerged with the Grandmother mannequin, but surprisingly without any white masks. I guess that's why he had time to mess around with his pen light.

I followed her to her office, where the watch quest began. The scene was surprisingly deserted – other than me, only a single older woman was there to see it. The PA climbed on to her desk and retrieved the watch, then stood on the edge of the desk right next to me, teetering back and forth, almost-but-not-quite reaching out for me. She leaned even closer, and I prepared to catch her as she fell - but instead she leapt deftly to the ground, literally brushing past my hand and rushing over to pin the other woman to the wall. Thus, the woman became her assistant for the watch delivery. I was actually pretty happy with that outcome – I certainly didn't need to do the watch delivery for a third time, and I had never watched someone else do it. I couldn't help feeling that she was deliberately teasing me with it, though.

Once we got back upstairs, we accumulated a bit more of a crowd, mostly due to meeting up with Dolores (Jane Leaney) and Marshall (Fionn Cox-Davies). We watched the ice dance, then the PA helped Dolores change into her black outfit. The crowd remained much thicker, despite Marshall's departure. I couldn't help but think back to my last two loops with the PA - I was the point where I had lost her both times, as she disappeared into a 1:1 with someone else. This time, though. . . this time was different. Before heading off, she fixed me with her gaze for a second, then passed through the crowd right beside me, opening a pathway in just the right spot for me to take full advantage. I followed her out of the ornate bedroom and shortly thereafter into the 1:1 room.

Coming out of the 1:1, however, I was disappointed to find myself alone again – she didn't emerge with me. I was determined to see this last, tiny missing piece of her loop, though, so I did something uncharacteristic – I waited for her. I spent the next few minutes watching Marshall and Dolores cavort in the bedroom with one eye while keeping the other on the 1:1 room. Sure enough, the PA emerged shortly thereafter to interrupt the bedroom antics, then headed into the dressing room to tell Wendy (Sophie Bortolussi) what she saw – and so, finally, I completed the PA's loop, returning to the scene where I had picked her up last time around.

I decided to stick with her a while longer, though. We returned to the basement office, where she sucked out my life force and breathed it into a potion. I have to give Isabelle a lot of credit for this scene – after having my life force sucked out by three different PA's, this was the first time I actually realized that's what was happening. The other two times, I just thought they were kissing me on the neck for some obscure reason. I can be rather dense at times. After that, we caught up with Conrad (Adam Burton) in his dressing room and she added the contents of his dropper bottle to the potion. I'd like to point out that through both of these scenes, I was the only white mask present. Second loop on a reasonably full night, and I'm the only person following the PA? Or, apparently, Conrad? What is wrong with everyone? Not that I'm complaining, mind - but I'm certainly confused.

After that came the seduction/drugging of Marshall, and finally, we parted ways as she headed downstairs for the orgy, which I didn't really feel like watching again. All told, I enjoyed Isabelle's performance as the PA quite a bit, but there wasn't a lot about it that was distinctive – it was very much “in the style of Fania,” which was a little bit disappointing after seeing the huge differences between Fania and Kirsty's interpretations.

We were getting toward the end of the loop, so I decided to try to pick back up with Badlands Jack. I had heard there was a very nice interaction shortly before reset involving him, Mr. Tuttle, and a noose, so I figured I could just head to the toyshop and let Tuttle lead me to Jack. The first part of the plan went swimmingly – I found Tuttle (James Traherne) in his shop, surprisingly all alone. Apparently, though, waiting for Badlands Jack gives me special luck powers, because inside of two minutes, I was heading behind the counter for a 1:1 that was incredibly different from the one I had with Mateo Oxley's Tuttle the night before. Once it was done, he didn't chase me away the way Mateo did, so I circled back around to the toyshop to continue with my plan.

By this time another girl had wandered by, hovering in the doorway. As I stood beside her, watching Tuttle paint on his counter, he slowly looked up and fixed her with a gaze. Was he going to do two 1:1's in a row? She didn't respond right away, so I tried to step back out of the store to encourage her – but the plan backfired, because as soon as I moved, she took several steps back, making sure to stay farther away than I was. Tuttle shifted his gaze to me and gestured for me to come over to the counter. I shrugged and pointed to the girl, but he just repeated his summons, so I obeyed. It turned out he just wanted to play a game of questions. He pulled a card with the question, “what is your favorite name for a child?” Uh-oh. What is my favorite name for a child? I had no idea. Why would I know that? The only thing that popped into my head was an image of the cast board, so I blurted out the first name in the upper left hand corner: William.

In retrospect, I think that's sort of a legitimate answer. When I was young, around 7 or 8, I used to wish that I had been named William, since that was the name of the protagonists of both the Dark is Rising series and the Tripods trilogy. Not to mention William Shatner.  None of that occurred to me in the moment, however - it was a pure panic answer.

Apparently satisfied with my response, he gave me a jellybean and wrote it on his painting. Now that she could see what we were doing, the mysterious skittish girl worked up the gumption to join us, and he asked her the same question. I wondered if she would continue the pattern. A Mary or a Wendy would do – but alas, her favorite name was Madeline. William and Madeline. Not much of a game, but it passes the time.

Speaking of passing the time, I had been hanging out with Tuttle for quite a bit longer than I expected. Where was Jack? Where was the noose? Why was I suddenly hearing reset music? WHAT WAS GOING ON?!?!?!?!

I later learned that there are actor Jacks, and dancer Jacks, and only the latter do the noose scene with Tuttle. Julian is an actor Jack, so he was off somewhere else doing something else and not being watched by me instead. Thus, I still have not seen how Jack's loop ends – but at least I still had time to see how it begins. I set out on another Jack hunt, and quickly found him in the motel office, reading a book.

I'm not sure how long he spent on that book, but it was enough time for me to watch him, get tired of watching him, go through the contents of the desk, watch him a bit more, and flip through the entire contents of the bookshelf (mostly pulpy detective thrillers, plus some erotica). Eventually he came to an illustration, tore it out of the book, handed the page to me, and left. I have no explanation for any of this.

The next stop was the saddlery, where he spent rather a lot of time eating an apple and staring out into the street. The beginning of Jack's story is not what you would call eventful. I actually really enjoyed this particular bit, though – standing in the saddlery with him, just watching everyone pass by, and catching tiny snippets of scenes that I had previously viewed from the inside, several of which seemed to be happening simultaneously  – it was a really fascinating perspective. This was the moment where the show felt most like a full, living, breathing world, and it was magnificent.

Eventually we had to start picking up a narrative, however, so we moved on to Jack's first real “scene,” a surprisingly brutal eviction of Romola (Katie McGuinness). Now, I've seen this scene several times. I've seen it with Katie as Romola. I've seen it with Julian as Jack. This was the first time I'd seen them together, though, and it played out way more aggressively than ever before – she damn near strangled him to death at the end of it. It's really nice when even a scene I've seen over and over again can shock me.

Not long after that, Jack played his part in the delivery of Stanford's package, then disappeared into his trailer, alone. This was the point where I said goodbye to him for good. His loop was still frustratingly incomplete for me, but I had made a lot of progress, and I finally felt like I had a handle on the character – so there really wasn't much to complain about.

At first, I wasn't sure where to go next – but a new opportunity jumped out at me almost immediately. Harry Greener (James Sobol Kelly) was in his motel room, calling the studio in hopes of getting a job. Back in September, I had seen the first part of his loop, up until I lost him after the 1:1. I had also seen the end, as the gatekeeper found him passed out drunk near the studio gates. I never saw how he got from one to the other – but given the timing, I must have been within a couple of minutes of the start of that missing chunk. That was the rest of my night sorted, then.

It was maybe not the best time to join the loop – just as Harry's descent begins. It's much easier to sympathize and appreciate the tragedy of these stories if you've had a chance to bond with the characters during the good times. Fortunately, James is one of the most inherently likeable people I've ever met, which comes off strongly in his portrayal of Harry. He had also made a very strong impression on me back in September – so it was easy for me to pick back up where I left off, emotionally speaking.  Even his new beard wasn't an issue for me, since I had seen him with it in passing just enough times to get used to it (and now, I can't imagine Harry without it).

After failing to get a job by phone, Harry's next stop was the drugstore, where he posted fliers in the phone booths (making sure to tear off the first phone number), sold some miracle salve to the Drugstore Girl, and shared some of her vodka. I had seen this scene before, from her perspective, when it had simply seemed charming and fun. I loved their rapport, and the way she bought the salve just because she liked him. This time, all of that still held true, and reminded me again that Anna is a very good Drugstore Girl who I need to see more of – but it was also very troubling, because now I could see the thunderclouds gathering around him.

After the Drugstore, Harry headed for the saloon, passing by Tuttle's shop on the way. Tuttle stopped him for a bit of congenial, neighborly chat, telling Harry that he had a new doll for him in the shop, to pass on to Faye. Harry told him to go get it, and as soon as Tuttle's back was turned, he booked it out of there at top speed. This was the one and only time at The Drowned Man that I was unable to stop myself from laughing out loud. It was a great bit of business, and one that think may be specific to James Traherne's Tuttle. Psycho Tuttle seems too. . . let's say hyper-aware of Faye as a woman, rather than a girl, to give her a doll. I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that Tuttle seems different from any of the other characters to me, in the sense that I'm not sure he is a single character. In most cases, different performers have different takes on their characters, but they all relate back to the same core character. Tuttle, on the other hand, feels like a completely different person depending on who plays him.

Once we reached the saloon, I was treated to a remarkably difficult to watch scene, as Harry tried first magic tricks, then fortune telling, and finally flat out theft in an attempt to get free drinks. There's always been a element of the huckster to Harry (I suppose that's literally what he is, but I mean to invoke the trickier connotations), but it wasn't until this scene that the ugly side of that really came out. Not long after that, he was wandering the streets, drunk and crazy, until he finally passed out near the studio. Seeing this missing chunk of his loop really drove home how different his story is from most everyone else – it very much seems like weeks, if not months, of his life, are all condensed down into a single day.

Once the Gatekeeper (Paul O'Shea) revived and recruited him, Harry headed down to the dreaded Studio 3. This was the third time I had reached this critical moment, and twice before I had turned away. This time it would turn out differently. I forced myself to follow him into the bar.

Inside Studio 3, I continued following Harry, neglecting to remove my mask until a few minutes in. He stopped to talk to the female exec (Jo Bowis), and that was when I learned just how powerful the psychological effect of wearing the mask is. I'd heard all the talk before about how wearing the mask frees you up to be a voyeur, but I'd never felt like it changed my perspective on anything – until it was gone, that is. Without my mask, I was just the creepy guy lingering around the edge of the conversation. It was awkward enough that I almost left – but just as I made the decision, Harry looped me into the conversation, introducing me as his lawyer. Thus began an incredibly difficult few minutes, as I tried (and failed, spectacularly) to improvise a lawyer character. It's a good thing no one was watching us – after that display of ineptitude, they would surely have demanded their money back. Fortunately, James and Jo are both experienced professionals, who were able to keep the conversation flowing despite my halting, bizarrely non-specific responses. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why I'm not an actor (actually, one of many reasons, but we won't get into that).

After that, Harry performed a song (which I had, apparently, selected for him – or so I was told) for the crowd, and quickly returned to the masked world of the show. What. A. Relief.  Back where I belong. The show was nearing its end, so we headed straight for the saloon, where Walkin' in the Sand was already underway. For some reason, it didn't hit me the way it usually does. Maybe I was burned out on it (doubtful), maybe it was that we came in partway through (possible), maybe it's that I just don't click with Natalia's Faye and I was too wrapped up in Harry's story to really feel the whole William/Mary thing (likely). It was a surprisingly low-key end to a night that had turned out to have a rather unexpected trajectory, with a plethora of really wonderful surprises. All told, moment for moment it may have been one of my best shows, but it was just too fragmented to really compare to the previous night's magical double-header.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. But when you've reached heights like these, downhill isn't so bad.

My Time at Temple Studios, Part 10

Show #10
Saturday, December 28: 9 pm

And here we are, with the conclusion of my very best night at The Drowned Man – a night, and show, where everything went smoothly, not a moment was wasted, and I was treated to an array of knockout performances. I started the night with Miranda Mac Letten as Romola. Now, I know what you're thinking. I finished out the previous show, just an hour before, with Sonya Cullingford's Romola. And if you've been read all the way back to my September shows, you may remember that I wound up pulling the same stunt with the Grocer, and I wasn't really happy with the choice. This is a different case, however, for two reasons: 1) This time I was dealing with two different performers, whereas with the Grocer, I was literally duplicating the material, and 2) It's Romola. If it were somehow possible, I would happily spend an entire show just cycling through the various Romola performers.

Also, given that both Sonya and Miranda's Romolas were high up on my must-see list, and these two shows were the only times they respectively played the role during my trip, I clearly made the right choice. Fate was looking out for me.

At any rate, the first step in following Romola was to find her, which proved more difficult than expected. I bounded out of the lift and headed straight for the woods – no sign of her. Trailer park – no sign of her. Saloon – no sign of her (I felt a little bad rushing in and then right out again – but I have to assume the barman is used to that). Figuring she was already in the town, I cut through the Saddlery and checked the Grocer's – no sign of her. Was I late? Did she already go the studio? I rushed over to the secretary's office, but she wasn't there either. Confused, I returned to the town, where I met up with her just as she was walking into the Grocer's. She must have been taking the normal path from the saloon into town, and came out behind me. Let this be a lesson about shortcuts.

The grocery scene contains what is probably my favorite bit of Miranda's Romola performance that is entirely unique to her. When the Grocer (Julian Stolzenberg) gives her an orange slice and comments that it's her favorite, the other Romolas react with suspicion: “How do you know that's my favorite?” Miranda's Romola, on the other hand, bit into the orange and practically squealed with surprise and delight, “This IS my favorite!” then continued working the peel over well after she left the store. Woman loves her oranges. It's a really endearing moment, reminiscent of the episodes of brightness that I loved in Sonya's portrayal.

Inside the secretary's office, the scene played out very differently from Sonya's. As a side note, one of the advantages of watching the same loop twice in a row, but at two different shows, is that it's much easier to see the differences between the two versions, so a lot of my impressions of this loop are going to be framed that way. It's actually quite neat to have this perspective, and I think that if/when I return, I will try to make a point to do this for some other character on a double night. Anyway – Miranda's version lacked the elation at finding a purpose, and also the weird, compulsive typing. Instead, she seemed to combine the two – she cleaned and straightened the office as if she was feeling an unnatural compulsion to do so, maybe even against her will. In a nice touch, she rebuilt the symmetry of the items on the desk, then deliberately broke it. Romola the rebel.

The scene in the basement with Stanford (Sam Booth) was essentially the same as what I had seen before, but with an ever-so-slight shift in tone – oddly enough, not as a result of how Miranda portayed Romola, but because of how Stanford treated her. He was more gentle, even tender. In general, I stand by the interpretation that Stanford loves Romola, but this is the only incarnation that he seems to like.

Eventually we got to the point where the Doctor (James Traherne, who has a wonderful kindly-yet-creepy Mr. Rogers vibe about him) forced the pill down her throat (which was much more of a struggle this time). This was the point where my loop with Sonya had branched off for the finale, so I was back on less familiar ground – I hadn't seen this portion of the loop since September, with Katie McGuinness. I was very excited for the chance to see it again, but given that the bulk of the next portion consists of a 1:1, I was also worried that I, well, wouldn't. Fortunately, my fears were unwarranted, and she took my hand and rushed me into the motel for a 1:1 that was somewhat different from what I remembered, and ended with a statement that left my eyes brimming with tears. As we exited the motel, I was surprised to hear the reset music playing – in September, that didn't happen until after she was dead. I guess the timing must have been adjusted to allow for all of those new interactions with the Doctor.

Romola's death in the car also happened much quicker than it had in September. We climbed in, she reached for the keys, then suddenly collapsed on to me. Quite the contrast to the slow process of drifting off and snapping awake over and over again that I had experienced with Katie's Romola, which had ended with her collapsed on the steering wheel, holding my hand. As usual, I refused to leave the car while she was dead, and while waiting, I even took her hand and held it – it seemed unnatural not to be holding her hand at that moment. When she finally awoke, it was so startling and violent that it sent me scrambling backward out the side of the car.

I watched from outside as she hid from the guard and finally headed into the woods. Unlike when I saw Katie do it, she did not find a bottle of booze in the car and start drinking. The next bit was interesting because it actually changed every time between the three times I had followed Romola. In the first, back in September with Katie, she stumbled through the trailer park, encountering a couple of townspeople (Harry and someone else, can't remember who) before Miguel showed up and calmed her down by pressing on her forehead. The second time, with Sonya, also in September, the action was similar, but she never made it into the trailer park until after she encountered Miguel in the woods, and he seemed to deliberately pursue her. This time, the encounter with Miguel came first, in the woods, and involved a definitely choreographed pursuit, with both characters swinging in circles around the trees. As with many such changes, I think the new version is a clear improvement.

Shortly after, she pulled me into the trailer for the other 1:1. It's funny, even though I know, from experience, that it involves her mistaking me for a mysterious “Bobby,” the first time she says the name - quietly, hunched on the ground outside the trailer, it still sounds like “Mama.”

After that, I stuck with Romola through her encounter with the newly arrived Mr. Tuttle (or should I say Psycho Tuttle), played by Mateo Oxley. It's a surprisingly unsettling moment, as he runs into her while playing with a tiny red car, the significance of which is not lost on Romola. Since her next stop was the Grocery, I said my goodbyes (silently, to myself) and hitched my wagon to Tuttle.

I only wound up spending about half of a loop with Tuttle, but he very quickly became one of my favorite characters in the show, and utterly indispensable. The fact that he didn't even exist the last time I was there seems completely insane. By turns terrifyingly creepy and pathetically sympathetic, he was utterly fascinating even when doing nothing at all. We got off to a start on the“creepy” side of things when, after (unintentionally?) tormenting Romola with the car, he headed into the toy shop and drove it off the counter, simulating a crash.

He's also very much Phoebe's mirror, which I was wondering about, given that their roles are so different. But just like her, he spends a lot of time monitoring and guiding events, recording encounters and times in a notebook and, on occasion, even hurrying others along to meet their appointments. To Mateo's credit, he kept this aspect of the performance going constantly, even before we reached the point where it became clear exactly what he was doing – I spent the first fifteen minutes or so trying to figure out just why he kept checking his watch any time he saw another person. Also, like Phoebe, he seems to have miniature representations of many of the characters/locations in his store, including a “Mary” doll and, of course, Romola's car.

After the second or third time that I followed Tuttle out into the street for some brief interaction, I started to notice that there was a girl there who was clearly angling for a 1:1. How do I know her intentions? Simple – she wasn't following Tuttle. She was following Tuttle's shop. She came in and situated herself as far inside as she possibly could, refusing to budge even if we left. Rather silly behavior.

Psycho Tuttle's most sympathetic moments come when he encounters Faye, who he is entirely besotted with, though she remains friendly but uninterested. At one point, when she (Sonya Cullingford) and Miguel (Ygal Jerome Tsur) passed by, he did this really creepy cool spider/crab crawl around the fountain to stay out of their sight. After another encounter with her, he went inside his shop and painted a heart. Then he added a couple of strange symbols in the upper left and right – were they eyes? Was he giving the heart a face? But why such strange, magical looking symbols for the eyes? Then he added a nose, shaped like a cross. Very bizarre. My best guess? A love spell. He continued down to the mouth, but instead of an actual mouth, he drew two more symbols, which looked almost like a J and a T – oh.

Right.

F.G. + J.T.

Faye Greener + Jasper Tuttle.

The only defense I can offer is that I was looking at it upside down. And distracted by the fact that he kept stopping to drink the paint.

Eventually, the hoedown rolled around and Tuttle, angry at not being invited, rushed over to the wall near the car to graffiti blood-red apocalyptic bible quotes, smearing the paint by hand. The gatekeeper (Paul O'Shea) chased him back to the shop, where he had a moment of failed flirtation with Drugstore Girl (Sophie Bortolussi) and, I suppose, hid from Faye and Miguel (logically, this must be where that spider-crawl happened, but that doesn't feel right. My memory seems to be quite jumbled at this point).

I'd like to point out that 1:1-hunting girl remained in the shop this whole time. How do I know, if I wasn't there to see her? Well, when we headed back to the door of the shop, which turned out to be the 1:1 selection point, she finally emerged, standing right in front of him, ready to be chosen.

Instead, he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, ignoring her entirely. As much as I hate to let meta concerns like that influence my experience, I have to admit to feeling a bit of unnecessary satisfaction at that moment. As for the 1:1 itself, I will only say this:

Ho. Lee. Shit.

People talk about how scary Studio 8 and the Dust Witch 1:1 are. And they are scary – in fact, I'm one of those people. But for sheer, off-balance, what's going to happen next, am I actually in danger dread, I don't think anything can beat Psycho Tuttle.

I was ejected into the saloon a few minutes later, his final words (“that doesn't look like running”) ringing in my ears. I wanted to circle back around to the toy shop to continue his loop, but it was getting close to reset time, and I had already settled on a third loop plan earlier in the evening – it was finally time to spend some time with Claude, played by the soon-to-be-departing David Essing.

Unfortunately, as I reached the ground floor, I was a little bit early. I knew I could pick him up right before the reset as he emerged from the snow room to revive Andrea, but I didn't know where he would be before that. In fact, I had no idea how he even got inside the snow room – a secret passage of some sort? It was a mystery I assumed I would never solve. I wound up going with an interim plan: I knew where to find Andrea. I would just follow her for a scene or two and let her take me where I wanted to go.

I found her in the dressing room, comforting Wendy (Anna Finkel). She was played by Kirsty Arnold again, and I'm pretty sure I caught a couple of looks from her that can only be interpreted as, “Seriously? This guy again?” Especially after, while trying to get out of the way, I stood in front of the cabinet where they store the drinks just as she was about to open it. I believe I have done that three times now, but I can still never remember not to stand there. At any rate, I was left wishing there was a way to tell her I was merely hitching a ride to Claude.

When she left the room, slowly continuing her breakdown in the hall alongside Studio 2, I decided to beat the crowd and cut through the Ornate Bedroom, arriving maybe a minute before her. That was when, to my surprise, I learned the answer to my earlier question: Claude gets into the snow room by getting there first. Great way to start off a loop, feeling like an idiot.

Fortunately I was soon distracted from my embarrassment by the beauty of Andrea's snow dance and Claude's revival/rest of her and by the sheer goofy fun of his casting dance in the secretary's office with Alice (Jane Leaney). I have to admit that I don't love Jane in the role – her interpretation feels closer to the departed Emily Mytton's than Laura Harding does, and suffers somewhat by comparison. This isn't a knock against Jane in general – she is, of course, the definitive Dolores. It's just not a character/performer combo that clicks for me as well as I might hope.

I was also lucky that Claude seemed to take a shine to me early on. Almost immediately he wished me a happy birthday (before turning away to reveal that he was actually talking to Dolores) and from then on, it was as if we were linked – he took every opportunity to pull me into the action, giving me his jacket to carry back to the changing room post-initiation, warning me off of Frankie (“He's mine!”), pulling me close to watch Frankie in the infidelity ballet, giving me a tiny photo of Frankie and then kissing my hand with the photo inside after his possessive solo dance on the table, and finally, heartbreakingly, believing for a moment that I was Frankie. After being rejected post-orgy, he retreated to the photo office in the basement and turned to me, tears in his eyes: “Frankie! You came back! Is it going to be you and me now, Frankie? Like in the script?” When I didn't respond, his eyes grew cold, and he pulled the 8x10 of Frankie's headshot off of the clipboard, held it up right in front of my face, and tore it to bits, showering me with the pieces. All in all, it felt almost like a gigantic, extended 1:1.

If there's a visual motif for Claude's loop, it would have to be shadows. In addition to his appearance in the snow room, which I described in a previous write-up, he also periodically uses shadows to “crush” the faces of photographs, demonstrating his power over the people portrayed within. There was only one instance where he failed to crush a photo – Frankie's, in the photo office, right before he spoke to me. He started to do it, but just couldn't bring himself to crush him. Poor guy. He's got too much heart to be as evil as he should be – at least, David's version does. I haven't spent much time with the other regular Claude (River Carmault), but he seems much more overtly sinister – I suspect his loop would feel very different.

I have to give David a lot of credit – Claude is not a character that had really caught my interest much throughout my earlier shows, but following him for a (nearly) full loop was a tremendously satisfying experience, owing mainly to David's sympathetic and nuanced performance. He's also a tremendous dancer, often finding ways of moving that seemed to be not quite possible – one that sticks in the mind was when he, kneeling on the ground just after Frankie rejected him, seemed to. . . . I guess the best way I can describe it is that he undulated to his feet, in a way that scoffed at gravity.

Not long after the photo tearing incident, he stopped for a brief, unmotivated dance in the hallway, then took my hand. We all know what that means – finale time. He rushed me upstairs, stopping just outside of Studio 2 to straighten my collar and tidy up my hair, then took me to the base of the woodchip mound. There, he did the same thing he did with me as Badlands Jack, thrusting my hands into my gut with each stab of the scissors – but this time he also whispered directions to Wendy - “yes. . . . .do it. . . .. again. . . “ Then, a new touch (unless I've just forgotten it from before) – as Wendy lifted Marshall, dragging him to the hole, Claude began to squeeze, compressing my diaphragm and lifting me upwards. I began to have trouble breathing, and started to lose my balance. This was mildly alarming. I thought I might have to actually say something about it, although I hated to disrupt the moment. Just at the moment where I could no longer breathe in at all, and I was about to topple over from having my weight shifted around, Marshall disappeared into the ground and I was released. The very last second before things went too far – that's impressive. Claude proudly exclaimed to me, “I discovered her!” and disappeared into the crowd. I headed over to the stage area, where Conrad (Adam Burton) was directing traffic. He pointed at me and said, “Hey – I know you.” I nodded and he smiled. “Lookin' good.” I love the little touches like that.

Thus ended my very best show, back to back with a strong contender for number two – at least, that's almost the end. There was one more strange moment of note. Post-finale, I made my usual stop at both of the pools – first Wendy and Marshall's, then William and Mary's. While I was at the W/M pool, someone walked by, tossed their mask into the water, and said, “thanks for the cookies.”

I suspect I will go to my grave never knowing what that meant.

My Time at Temple Studios, Part 9

Show #9

Saturday, December 28: 5 pm

By way of introduction, this entry represents the first half of my very best night at The Drowned Man. Both of the Saturday shows went so perfectly, with barely any downtime where I didn't know what I was going to do, that I don't know if I can ever top them. As a result, both this write-up and the next one are a bit longer than the others - what can I say, I got excited.  Now, a lot of times when someone says a show went well, they mean that they did well with 1:1's – but (spoiler!) at this show, I didn't even have a single one. So what made the night so great? Read on. . .

When I booked my show tickets for this trip, I decided to go premium for one of them. Just one, just to see what was there. This show was that one. My 5:00 ticket essentially guaranteed me a place in the queue, but I still couldn't help myself – I showed up at 4, as usual. I really enjoy queue time before the show, getting to meet like-minded repeat visitors and tantalize newbies with cryptic hints. When 4:45 rolled around, and they started letting the regular ticket holders inside, I bailed out and got in the premium line, which was only three-deep at that point.

I'm going to remain vague on the details of the premium entry, as I have been with the 1:1's, since that seems to be the convention for such things - but I will say a few things. First of all, even before the exclusive prologue scene, the entry process is massively more atmospheric than the normal entry. In some ways, it reminds me of the Sleep No More entry – which is, coincidentally, one of only two things that I feel SNM does better than TDM (the other is the post-show bar scenario. Well, the bar in general – I really love the Manderley). I wish they had been able to skew the normal entry more in this direction. Second, I wonder what sort of audience they are targeting with the premium tickets. The intro scene certainly seemed tailored to first-timers, to the point where I found myself wishing they would just get on with it and stop talking about how to enjoy a Punchdrunk show.  On the other hand, the other major perk of a premium ticket, the drafting room, is chock-full of details and information that I think would be completely lost on a newbie. Third thought: once we got past the lecture and into the performance portion of the scene, it was pretty impressive – hats off to Phoebe (Sarah Sweeney) and our mysterious second performer. Finally, one downside to premium entry was that I didn't get to look at the cast list before going in, which left me surprisingly anxious and off-balance. I had grown accustomed to using it to help plan my first loop, so without it, my plan consisted of a mind-boggling array of if-then statements.

At the conclusion of the premium prologue, I was surprised to find myself directed back into the entry maze, ultimately to join the regular ticketholders in the lift waiting area. I had heard that the premium entry was through Studio 3. But no matter. I wanted to start in the town anyway. Once the lift arrived, I got yet another surprise: for the first time ever, I met a male executive other than Matthew Blake's wonderfully smarmy/creepy Larry. This time it was Ace (Mateo Oxley), who is more of a smooth operator that enjoys toying with the audience. He took us down to the basement, as usual, where I expected him to let off five or six people and then slam the door – again, as usual. But six people got of, then seven, then eight. . . I shuffled my feet, slowly moving toward the front of the lift. I really didn't want to get off in the basement. Still shuffling, closer, closer. . . by this time more than half of the lift had exited. I was at the door. No more delaying, I would just have to get off – then, suddenly, he slammed the door in my face and we were off to the first floor. Was he deliberately messing with me?

When the door opened to the town, I was first off, and turned left to head through the back of the motel, as usual (there's that term again). Before I could get going, however, Ace grabbed me and shoved me to the right, directing the rest of the audience to the left. He smirked at me and said, “you don't want to associate with the riff-raff, do you?” and pointed a small passageway off to the right, which took me straight to the saloon – ahead of everyone else. Score.

When I got there, the hoedown was in full swing, which meant I was coming in much later than normal. This wasn't really a surprise, but it did invalidate my first “if-then” plan (Romola, if played by Sonya Cullingford or Miranda Mac Letten). Fortunately, the rest of my potential options were all townspeople, and the hoedown was a great opportunity to see who was playing who all at once. Among them, I spotted Laure Bachelot as Mary, who was my first back-up plan, so I lingered outside until she and Dwayne (Vinicius Salles) snuck out to get it on against the window. I think I feel more uncomfortable about watching this moment close-up than any other scene, including the various other sexual encounters. I'm not sure why – my best guess is that it is really designed to be seen from inside the saloon as part of the whole hoedown scenario, so watching it out of context is like renting a movie and fast-forwarding to the nude scenes. Or something like that.

At any rate, they finished up and Mary stumbled into the woods to repent in front of the chapel. By the time she got there she was completely mobbed, enough so that I had a hard time seeing her. In retrospect, the crowds weren't that bad for the rest of the show, so I'm guessing we just happened to get another lift full of people dumped on us at that exact moment. At the time, though, all I knew was that it was crowded. I was starting to have second thoughts – partially because of the crowd, and partially because I came into her loop so late, I didn't think I'd have time to really bond with her and develop the emotional attachment that I would need to fully appreciate the end of her loop.

But then, in an instant, everything turned around in what is, for me, the most powerful example of what Punchdrunk can do that traditional theatre can't. It's all about the level of immersion you can get when you use all of the senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, and, in this particular case, touch. After retreating to her's and William's home, Mary had a momentary hallucination, believing that I was William (Omar Gordon). She embraced me, sobbing into my ear about how sorry she was for what she had done. I could barely hear the words, though, because I was so overwhelmed by how she felt – specifically, the fact that she was shaking. I could feel her trembling. That sensation overcame me so completely, slamming home her misery with such unexpected force, that from that moment forward I was with her 100%. The investment in her character that would normally take me half a loop was accomplished in a matter of seconds. It was extraordinary.

Also, the crowd thinned out. But that's less exciting to talk about.

After that came “Walking in the Sand” in the saloon. If you've read my earlier write ups, you know I just cannot handle being in that room at that moment. Turns out, that's still the case, although I did manage to hold it together. I will say that, although I have a strong preference for Laure's Mary overall, I do feel that this portion of the loop is better with the Paul Zivkovich/Kate Jackson combo. Omar and Laure's version lacks that wonderful slow march out of the saloon with William carrying Mary, and the murder itself is more violent and aggressive – more in keeping with the Wendy/Marshall murder, actually. On the other hand, watching Omar's William usher Laure's Mary up the stairs while she stared right at me, terrified, was both bone-chilling and heartbreaking.

Up next: a crisis of conscience. On their way to the sand dune, William and Mary took a look at the Red Moon Hotel postcard that marked their first date. As they approached, they dropped it in the sand. At that moment, I thought, “hey! They threw it away! It's discarded! I want it!” and scooped it up. Instead of pocketing it immediately, however, I held it through the murder. As I did, I started to notice how worn it felt. This was not a brand new prop. Not the sort of thing they just created for this show, and would create again for the next. I felt slightly ill, ashamed of my actions. Oddly enough, I think this strange mix of excitement and shame was a perfect fit for the scene.

Once Mary was dead, I headed back toward the scarecrow funeral to await her reset. On the way, I dropped the postcard back where I had found it.

As the loop began again, I was struck by how William and Mary's resets were not quite synced up. When they were reunited, he still remembered the murder, as if in a dream, while she was oblivious. Their interaction at that point was very touching, and reminded me of Hamlet and Banquo's reset interaction at Sleep No More, which took on two different meanings depending on if you know of the events of the previous loop.

Things lightened up considerably after that. The next thing that really stood out to me was an amusing moment – Mary and Faye (Natalia de Miguel Olaso) talking in the street about Dwayne. Just two Socal girls from the 60's, each with their own, distinct, relatively thick accent (French and Spanish, respectively). It's the sort of thing that would drive me nuts in a movie, but in this context, just made me smile.

After that, they headed to the saloon, where Conrad (I think it was Adam again, but not 100% sure) was performing “Never Go Home Anymore.” It was really interesting to see the same scene again from Mary's perspective – there's a whole narrative going on over there, with notes passing back and forth between her and Dwayne. Afterward, as we were leaving the saloon, I caught a glimpse, out of the corner of my eye, of someone rushing after Mary. Whoever he was, he was really interested in her, but he was a newcomer and I had been with her all this time, so I quickened my pace – no way I was going to let this guy get in front of me. Then we passed through a pool of light, and I realized it was Dwayne.  He turned and left, probably because I scared him off (Right? Right?)

Speaking of Dwayne, he's a major part of Mary's story, so I should address him for a bit. Basically, I can't stand the guy. I see him in a scene, I want to go watch another scene. Doesn't matter who plays him, I just don't like him. Watching the first portion of Mary's loop, though, actually softened my stance on him – at least this particular incarnation. Part of it, I'm sure, is seeing him through Mary's eyes, but part of it is that I was finally able to pick up on the soulfulness and gentleness in Vinicius's eyes that serves to offset all of his alpha male bullshit that tends to repel me. Also, his cartwheel over Mary, off the hood of the car during their sexy car dance, is ridiculous – in a good way.

Dwayne also, of course, gave a bracelet to Mary, which led to a fight between her and William on their front porch. This time, it turned out a little different than usual – when he pulled it off of her wrist, he tore it apart completely, scattering beads all over the swing. He took off right after, so poor Laure then had to spend several minutes gathering up the beads and hiding them in the rafters of the porch (!), all while keeping character. She did a good job of it; if it weren't for the bizarre choice of using the rafters instead of a drawer or something, I'd never have known anything went wrong.

Not long after that, we approached hoedown time, which meant my loop was coming to an end. Mary got dressed up, pulled out the postcard (a brand-spanking new one, I might add) from between the pages of her bible, and then a really amazing moment – as she looked at herself in the mirror, a note from Dwayne in her hand, Marshall (Fionn Cox-Davies) appeared in the reflection, holding his invitation to the executive party and mirroring her movements. Although I followed her back to the saloon afterward, in my mind, that was the dramatic conclusion to my journey with Mary.

When we got to the saloon, it was just about time for the drafting room to open up, so I headed downstairs to look for it. I still wasn't 100% sure where it was, but the timing of my departure from Mary allowed me a few extra minutes to search. Turns out, it was unneccessary – the drafting room could be found right next to the stairway I used to get down to the basement. A nice surprise, but it also meant that I was a bit early, and couldn't get in. Fortunately, the exec party/orgy was just starting up nearby. As the counterpart to the hoedown, it was a similarly good opportunity to quickly identify a large portion of the cast for the night, and I took full advantage before returning to finally make my way into the drafting room.

I will remain vague on exactly what I saw in the drafting room, again, as per what seems to be the convention. I will say that in many ways, it really is a cave of wonders. I spent the first few minutes staring wide-eyed at everything around me, my jaw agape and my hands frantically working the air in front of me. I could easily have spent hours in there – and I would love to return. But, in the end, I don't think I would ever want to give up actual show time to do it. The true magic was always happening outside of the drafting room. This was the message that Phoebe imparted to me, after I had spent more than a half hour pouring over dossiers and notebooks. She told me that “If I do nothing, nothing will ever happen,” and sent me back up to the saloon. For that, I thank her.

Up in the saloon, the “Never Go Home Anymore” scene was repeating, so I wandered back out to the trailer park instead. There, I noticed that Dwayne's trailer was shut and locked – which mean that Romola was inside doing a 1:1. At this point, through process of elimination, I had a suspicion as to who was playing her, so I waited around to see if I was right – and sure enough, after a couple of minutes, a bewildered white mask emerged, followed shortly after by Romola, in the form of Sonya Cullingford. This was a classic two birds/one stone situation: I had wanted to do a loop with her as Romola, and I wanted to see what Romola's third loop alternate ending was – so my plan for the rest of the night was fully locked down at that moment.

I've mentioned before that Sonya's Romola is my favorite version of the character, and one of the reasons for this is that she allows herself a few moments of happiness, bits of light that make the darkness all the worse by comparison. The best example of this is her scene in the secretary's office – once she realizes that it's her office, that she belongs there and has a job, she attacks the job of cleaning up with gusto, thrilled to have found out where she belongs. She even smiles – not a half-smile, not a sad smile, but an innocent, joyful smile. It just breaks my damn heart. When the moment broke and she became, seemingly, possessed – frantically typing out the dialogue of her later scene with Conrad – it felt like the worst kind of betrayal.

Once we got down to the basement, I was pleased to see that her scene with Stanford (Sam Booth) had been revamped since September, fairly heavily. Not that there was anything wrong with the original – I'm quite fond of it – but I do like to see new things, especially in unexpected places. Originally, the scene played out more organically – things seemed to flow naturally from talking, to dancing, to slapping. In the new version, the level of artifice has been significantly increased, with a lot more instruction and direction to be had. Points to the new version – it's a change for the better.

I should also add that they've given her a couple of new interactions with the Doctor (James Traherne) as well, and they are a fantastic addition. Her final scene with him plays out so much more interestingly in light of these earlier interactions, to the point where I have a hard time imagining the loop without them (they also partially invalidate, or at least discourage, some of my theories about Romola and her place in the story. But that's a discussion for another day).

That final interaction with the Doctor meant it was time for the story to branch off from its normal path, so instead of heading for the motel, Romola took a rose from her shrine and took off down the stairs. Outside of Studio 2, she started to fumble with her purse and spilled its contents into a pool of light. She knelt down, collecting them, and noticed something about her page of notes – something that she would normally have noticed during the motel room 1:1, so it will go unmentioned here. After tearing the page out of her notebook, she brought her hands to the car crash wounds on her face, anxiously studying the bits that rubbed off on her fingers. She quickly pulled a cloth out of her purse and dabbed at the wounds, pleased at the results. “It's just makeup,” she said. She had made the same protest, futilely, to the Doctor -but now she sounded so relieved that she was right. She held the cloth out to me and I took it from her and cleaned her face, undoing the seamstress's work and restoring her undamaged beauty. When I finished, she traded me her rose for the cloth and walked me to the woodchip pile where Wendy was about to murder Marshall (really wish I had a picture of that cast list right about now. . . .sorry ). We watched the murder together, and at one point she whispered in my ear, “It's okay. They're just makin' pictures.” Once the deed was done, I threw my rose and she dropped me off by the caravans to watch the finale, pressing her notebook page into my hand and, smiling widely, repeated, “It's just pictures. We're just makin' pictures.”

Again, I was stunned by how impressive the final number is when viewed from afar, especially the early portion, which looks for all the world like the entire cast of characters is just fooling around on stage, joyously. I was elated – Romola was free, and I had helped her escape. And there she was, happy as can be, taking part in this massive celebration. I watched Faye dance with a white mask and Lila slide across the stage. I watched Conrad fling himself along the handrail and Frankie hop on a table with a handfull of balloons. Everyone was so happy. That was when I realized I was crying, and had been ever since Romola left me by the caravans. 

 That was how I ended the show, with an experience that was completely novel to me – tears that came not from tragedy, or from bittersweet feelings, but rather made of nothing but joy.   I left the show thinking it may well have been my very best - and with no idea that, only a single hour later, things were about to get even better.

My Time at Temple Studios, Part 8

Show #8

Friday, December 27: 9 pm

Straight out of show 7 and back into the line, I wasn't quite sure how to start the next one. I wanted to try Lila's loop, but I wasn't sure where to find her at the start of the show. There was a new (to me) Faye, who had joined the cast after my September trip – but one of the spoiler group people in line kind of warned me off of her, saying he found her much weaker than the others. Still, I figured I would see for myself, and I continued figuring on that right up until it was time to load the lift, when I changed my mind – it was time to get a better sense of what Laura Harding's Alice was all about.

I got off on the first floor and rushed over to Studio 5, where I found her with Claude (River Carmault) and Frankie (Carl Harrison). Timing-wise, this was where they would normally be having their “That's an arm! That's a leg!” dance/interaction, but instead they were huddled up, having a quiet discussion about Frankie's future with the studio. I guess white masks rarely make it there so early, so why not run an easier, alternate version of the scene? Soon enough, though, Alice asked Frankie if he wanted to meet the boss, and we were off.

Last time I tried to follow Alice down, I lost her completely due to a thick crowd, but this time it was just me and one other. I stuck to her like glue and saw that, on arriving in the basement, she disappeared in to her locked room just outside of the masonic temple. I followed her in and the other white mask tried to follow, but Alice quickly shoved the door closed after me. I thought for a moment I might have stumbled into a 1:1, but I was pretty sure it was supposed to happen after Frankie's initiation, not before. Instead, Alice began to strip down, completely oblivious to my presence. Just a tiny bit awkward. She put on the creepy old man suit for the initiation and pulled out a script (the one they would give Frankie after the initiation), laying it on the table. When she turned away to retrieve her mask, I leaned in to take a closer look at the script, and when I looked up at her, she fixed me with the most horrible, withering glare I have ever seen. I shrank down into a puddle. So much disgust in that look – I was sure that I was not supposed to have followed her in, and she hated me for bursting in and watching her change clothes uninvited. Or maybe it was just an Alice thing – it would be perfectly in character. No way to know for sure, but I felt pretty uneasy.

After the initiation, I followed her back to the room, confident that this time it would be okay to go in. I was the first one through the door after her, and she turned to me, fixed me with another glare, put her hand on my shoulder. . . . and pushed me back out the door, pulling the white mask behind me inside.

Yep. She hates me. And she is still utterly terrifying.

As usual, I didn't want to wait around, so I switched plans when I saw Frankie walk by. I'd never done his loop before, and he'd been a part of both scenes I had caught already, so I was kind of de facto following him anyway. Frankie is the most unappealing character for me in the show, outside of maybe Dwayne – and even then, it's a close call. This isn't a criticism; much of it seems to be by design. Carl's version in particular has this horrible, squealing laugh that's actually quite impressive, but also really unpleasant.

It's an interesting contrast to Faye's story, as they are mirrored characters. Where Faye can't get anyone to love her, Frankie spends his whole loop relentlessly pursued by Claude, who he effortlessly wraps around his little finger. In the end, Frankie seems to get everything he wants – but in a way that appears to only exist in his head, Ultimately, it leads to a breakdown, and his reset at the hands of the seamstress (Kathryn McGarr). This part was very interesting to me – I had no idea Frankie and the Seamstress had any sort of connection. She acted very protective and nurturing toward him – perhaps she's his mother? Of course, the surnames don't match (Gardner and Dove), but I've heard talk that maybe her name isn't what it seems to be, so who knows?

At this point, I decided to bail on Frankie, even though I hadn't made it back around to where I picked him up. I wasn't really connecting with him, and since it was just after reset time, I thought it would be a good point at which to pick up a new character and see their whole story in order, from the start. Instead of a new character, however, I found Conrad (Adam Burton), sitting in the seamstress's shop, changing into a black dress, stockings, a wig, and heels. This was perfect – the same performer from the previous show, at a point that must be only a few minutes after I had lost him. Time to see the rest of the loop.

Fully dressed up (and surprisingly effective in drag), Conrad wandered off to the saloon, where he flirted with Harry (James Sobol Kelly), Dwayne (Nicola Migliorati), and the Barman (Francois Testory). Throughout all of these interactions, I was never quite sure whether the people of the town were meant to think he was actually a woman, whether they were just playing along with him, or whether the guys are just into drag queens. I lean toward the middle option, because the vibe I get from most of the interactions could best be described as “good-natured fun,” but who can say for sure? Not long after that, William (Paul Zivkovich) and Mary (Sara Black) came in and Conrad hopped onstage to sing “You Can Never Go Home Again.” I was again struck by the comparison to the mirrored scene – in this case, Dolores's birthday party, which must have been going on at the same time, one floor below. All of these structural details are really cool once you start picking up on them.

Afterward, Conrad stripped out of his dress and wig and went for a walk through town in his underwear and stockings. Bold man. I, and about ten others, followed him into his motel room, where he suddenly took on a much more authoritative air and ordered two of the white masks to hold the doors shut. He sat on the bed and stretched out his stockinged, high heeled foot to a woman standing next to me. She looked at them quizzically, then stepped back. He looked at her for a moment, then pointed his leg at me.

Now, I have a rule – I never refuse interaction with a character. But I can't say I was super excited about helping him undress, either. Still, a rule is a rule, and I pulled off his shoe. Once that was done, he was kind enough to pull the stocking down to below his knee before asking me to pull it off, sparing me from having to reach up his thigh (much appreciated, Adam). After the same for the other leg, he jumped to his feet, and began a lecture (“Obedience is the first level”) while he put on a suit. Conrad seems to be a member of some sort of odd self-help, scientology-ish cult that is fixated on immortality, and this lecture was all about its teachings. . . but sadly, I can't remember any of it.

Now that Conrad was back in the form I remembered from the earlier show, he headed into the studio. Interestingly, he had to bribe the guard to get in – I would have thought he was already a part of things there. Was he somehow infiltrating them? Is that why they sent him to Studio 8? I'm still not sure. What I am sure about is that he took me in for a very cool 1:1 in his dressing room shortly after we arrived, which gave me some key insight into who he is. I swear, a surprising number of these 1:1s are not optional. If you don't see them, there's no way you'll really understand who some of these people are.

Next up was the magic act with Andrea (Miranda Mac Letten), which essentially marked the point where I picked him up at the start of show 7, even though the act didn't actually occur that time. I followed them in to Studio 3 to watch, and had a great time – it's a wonderful bit, even if I had to take my mask off and listen to people talk in the bar. As a side note, this was the first time I had ever seen Miranda without sleeves (she had only played the Drugstore Girl in September), and I feel the need to point out that she has tremendous upper arms for a woman of her size. Not at all in a bad way – they're well toned and feminine and all that – just, well, impressive.

After the magic act I stayed behind in the bar while the executives (Jo Bowis and Matthew Blake) performed a song. Now, I'm really interested in seeing what goes on in there. I know there's character stuff, and even 1:1s, but in the end, I just couldn't do it.   It felt like I was outside the show. One song and I was done – I had to put my mask back on and get out of there.

At that point, I was adrift again, but it didn't take long for me to find a new purpose - inside Studio 2, the Fool (Rob McNeill) was putting together his Woyzeck script/map. I wasn't particularly interested in doing a Fool loop at that point, but I knew he was only one scene away from meeting up with someone I did want to see: Lila (Kath Duggan). He met up with her in the sound studio for the always compelling drowning scene, which I had seen twice before - but this time I stuck with her when he left. Of course, the only new bit of business I got out of that was watching her change into her green dress and head the exec party/orgy, which I had, of course, seen many times before. After that, she headed into the office/tape recorder room for the “Lila's Discovery” scene, which was also a repeat for me, but one that I was much more interested in revisiting. Sadly, just as I stepped through the doorway, right behind her, I felt something catch in my throat, followed by an intense need to cough. I tried to do it quietly, but no help. Had to cough again. The scene got underway. I tried to choke it down. Stanford entered. A cough slipped out, then another one. Still needed to cough again. Son of a bitch.

I finally had to bail on the scene, rushing out to the hallway and eventually to the restrooms, where I gulped down a bit of water from the sink and finally felt normal again. It was kind of a low point for me – I was embarrassed that I had stayed in there so long, potentially disrupting the show for everyone else. I was disappointed that I had lost Lila before managing to catch anything (besides the dress change) that I hadn't seen yet. But there was nothing to be done about it – no time for regrets in Temple Studios. If I didn't suck it up and press forward, all that would come of it would be even more regrets.

So I headed upstairs to find Harry (James Sobol Kelly) and the new Faye (Natalia de Miguel Olaso) in the motel room. I watched about half of the scene, but it wasn't really working for me. I had already seen two Fayes that I flat-out adored (Sonya Cullingford and Katie Lusby), and Natalia, while not bad, just couldn't measure up to that high standard. So again, I bailed mid-scene. That was when I had a brainstorm. I still had no idea where Lila started the show, but I did know where she started the loop – in the desert, digging Miguel out of the sand. I rushed up and there she was, dancing with Miguel (Ed Warner) next to the dune. Excellent, crisis averted!

Lila's loop is an interesting one, but not particularly emotionally involving, at least for me. It's full of really cool set pieces, though, and it has a wonderful sense of motion to it, as Lila's journey into the bowels of the studio corresponds to an actual descent through the four floors of the show. I also have a much greater appreciation of Kath Duggan now – when I would periodically encounter her for a scene at a time, she never made much of an impression on me. Watching her for an extended period is another matter, as her warmth and fragility become much more apparent, even though there were only a handful of scenes that were actually new to me. I love her scene with Harry and her dance at the gates (during which her spinning flung sand all over me). The scene with the tape recorder, right after her table dance with Lila, is particularly chilling - although I wish the voice on the recorder wasn't so obviously an adult woman pretending to be a child.

My final moments with Lila involved watching her hop around the sound room, recording effects for the movie – which was just fun to watch. I love the process of moviemaking. When the fool arrived, however, I took my leave.

I had no real plan at that point, and no real time to execute one if I had. I headed upstairs and stumbled upon Andrea and Wendy (Sophie Bortolussi) in the dressing room, talking about the exec party. I stuck around to watch Wendy do her makeup for the party, because it was such a powerful moment when I followed her loop back in show 6. It was still tremendous – watching her face transform in the mirror from abject misery to (soon-to-be-shattered) hope is both magical and heartbreaking. I didn't want to go back to the orgy again, though, so I headed upstairs. There, in studio 5, I found Romola (Katie McGuinness) doing her scene with Conrad. I stuck with her through her makeup session for the car accident and her final encounter with the Doctor (James Finnemore), but rather than follow them down to the murder, I decided to see what the Seamstress would do. Turns out the answer is immediately disappear behind a locked door with another white mask.

I headed back downstairs, but just as I was about to walk into Studio 2, I noticed some commotion in the dressing room. It was Andrea, but all I got to see was about 30 seconds of her breakdown before she composed herself and grabbed Ben from the spoiler group for the finale. Completely out of time now, I rushed after them into Studio 2, caught the murder, then took the opportunity to position myself in the back for the big finale. I had never seen it from that perspective, always preferring to crowd the front of the stage – but it's actually the sort of number that really benefits from some distance. Such a huge tableaux, with so much going on – it was like watching it again for the first time. All in all, not my best show - a couple of missteps and too much time spent wandering uncertainly - but there were still plenty of bright spots. And the best was not only yet to come, but right around the corner. . .