Heaps of praise have been lavished on this short story by James Joyce written as the final piece in his 1914 collection, Dubliners. Last year, Irish Rep adapted The Dead into an immersive theater piece. The play is performed at the American Irish Historical Society in their sumptuous Fifth Avenue digs across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Audience members arrive at once was a private mansion to join the partygoers for a bit of music, conversation and then dinner in the dining room. Seemed like a fun idea to join an Irish clan in the early 1900s for a home holiday reception the week before Christmas.
First, the dinner option. Regular tickets were $150 with some wine, whiskey and port served along the way. About a dozen of us were in this category. While you sit a little away from the action (when you are not standing, which is a lot of the time), there was no problem seeing the play. For $300, dinner is included and you sit around the center table facing the action. At the $1,000 level, you are at the center table amongst the actors. The meal looked perfectly adequate, if rushed. Not much else happens.
A few characters are late, one may or may not be drunk when he gets there. Thankfully he arrives a little tipsy. Many sing, some dance. Minor flirtations. A hint of political differences. After dinner, the audience is escorted to one of the visiting couples bed chambers to hear about Gretta’s lost love (Melissa Gilbert, Little House on the Prairie). What follows is a brooding meditation from Gabriel (Rufus Collins) after she falls asleep. Interior monologues may work on the page but not here. The scene drags an already slow evening into immersive boredom. While there are certainly worse holiday offerings in New York right now, this is a fairly expensive and skippable option.