Pittsburgh Fringe 2026
Are We Part of the .enclosure.?
Savage Art Escape
Genre: Fringe Theatre, Immersive, Interactive
Venue: Coexistence Collective
Festival: Pittsburgh Fringe
Low Down
A madman has kidnapped the Lauren Judson’s friend and, as the audience-participants find upon entering the performance space, she has called them to aid her in searching for the clues to her friend’s whereabouts before time runs out and her friend is killed. The challenge of collectively canvasing the room for any detail during the event allowed us, the participants, to take control of the story, to attempt to craft the narrative – the why’s, the who’s – but .enclosure. is not a “choose your own adventure” story, and Lauren revised or corrected our attempts to lead the story more than once. Savage Art Escape’s productions are exciting, interactive creations with a specific order of events and narrative that, if not always clear to the audience, eventually reach their intended conclusion and ensure a terrifically fun time for all those involved.
Review
I knew .enclosure., written by Liz Tripoli and Savage Art Escape, would be one of those very fringe-y adventures when I walked into a stylish art gallery where a few folks were having wine and hors d’oeuvres and thought they were also there for the performance. An older gentleman quickly corrected me, telling me I needed to go to the basement, a space that proved much more fitting for a potential murder mystery with its concrete walls and floors. I waited along with other audience members for the event/performance to begin.
Once the door to the performance space opened and two performers welcomed us in, we learn they have called us to aid her in searching for clues to her friend’s whereabouts. A psychopath, or madman of some kind has kidnapped her; it is up to us to figure out a complex code before time literally runs out on the room’s large digital clock. Failure, we are told, will mean the friend’s death.
This intriguing premise felt rather like being a participant in a true-crime podcast. Before we started looking for clues, though, one of the performers, the man, left to contact the police, while the other, Lauren, stayed to give us a few brief directions regarding what we could/should and couldn’t/shouldn’t check in the room. For example, specific areas and items in the room (i.e., windows, cabinets, drawers) that we should not examine had been marked with tape. Everything else theoretically could play some kind of significance in helping us figure out the reason behind the kidnapping, so the 8-10 of us all started scouring the room for anything possibly relevant, calling out what we had found and bringing items to a table if they were thought to be of possible importance.
The challenge of collectively canvassing the room for any detail allowed us, the participants, to take control of the story, to attempt to craft the narrative – the why’s, the who’s – but .enclosure. proved not to be a true “choose your own adventure” kind of story. There were several times when Lauren revised or corrected our attempts to open something, or to shift the narrative in a specific direction. In fact, I almost discovered an actor hidden under a sink when I started opening cabinets; the cabinets were behind a bench, but they didn’t have tape on them. About five minutes later, Lauren purposely opened the cabinet and “discovered” the friend, another of the madman’s kidnapping victims – thankfully alive – who also started helping us. What would have happened had I opened the cabinet? Would the story have changed? If it had, would the performers have been able to shift and improv a version of the story along with us? The fact that the performers nudged many of us toward certain clues (“I wonder if that’s…”) and away from others (*puts tape on a door*) leads me to think the answer to that question is no. Imagine the possibilities if they learned to let the audience lead a bit more!
In the end, our small group had a great deal of fun collaborating on this game, each offering our own talents and expertise in finding and solving the various clues. We did end up figuring out the code to save the friend and with time to spare!
Savage Art Escape’s productions are exciting, interactive creations with a specific order of events and narrative that, if not always clear to the audience, eventually reach their intended conclusion and ensure a terrifically fun time for all those involved.
