Came across a new "interactive" theatre experience currently being offered in New York City that (according to its own website) is "part game, part theater and part tour". It's called Accomplice: New York, and over the course of three hours you--along with seven other people--are sent on a scavenger hunt of sorts across the city, meeting all sorts of interesting characters on your quest.
Not for the passive, it calls for teamwork, an ability to walk briskly and puzzle-solving skills. The "characters" are actors that have been hired to make things more interesting. At $50 a person it's far cheaper than most decent seats at a typical Broadway show, but you had better bring your walking shoes.
It seems to be the "next level" of interactive theatre, but it actually reminds me very much of a relatively short-lived experiment EA Games brought out in 2001 called Majestic. The premise is similar to that of Accomplice, in the fact that you get pulled into it via interaction with interesting, often shady characters. (Majestic dealt more with a sci-fi, conspiracy theory theme instead of a trek across NYC, but I digress.)
Majestic didn't fare too well with gamers, and September 11th pretty much sealed its fate. I was interested, but I never got a chance to play it so I can't say whether it was any good. Accomplice might have a better chance, mainly because the action takes place in real time rather than over the fax lines and through email like Majestic did. At any rate, it's always interesting to see new branches of theatre emerging.
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