IMMI HQ Productions & Products

                                        Aussietheatre.com 'Melbourne puts on a show'
                                        Sept 2 Curtain Rising Magazine 'FOUR PAGE INTERVIEW' by Karen Jackson [extracts below]
                                        Sept 23 The Age 'Fringe Benefits'
                                        Sept 27 mX ' Tasty Morsels'
                                        Oct 6 Express Media: Buzzcuts 'REVIEW' by Rosanna Stevens [below]
                                        Oct 12 The Age 'REVIEW' by Tim Hunter [below]

Sept 2 Curtain Rising Magazine 'FOUR PAGE INTERVIEW' by Karen Jackson [extracts]
Curtain Rising: Explain how an Interactive Murder Mystery Installation works.
Vanessa B. Baylen: The basic idea for all the IMMIs I've created is that you (the audience/detective) will walk into a room and all the things you need to solve the crime (all information, clues, and red herrings) will be contained in that room. There may be live suspects, strange objects, videos, computer games. All things are fully interactive, that is, you are meant to play with them, touch them, talk to them, or whatever suitable sensory and mental experience applies to that item. Your purpose is to try and solve whodunnit. [...] The answer, as so often in real life, will come later…
CR: How did you conceive of this idea?
Baylen: Unlike so many ideas, the idea of an IMMI had a clear starting moment. There must have been a lot running around in my head to make it all converge like lightning one day, but basically I was standing in line at the Melbourne Uni bookshop and there was a big sexy book, Pandering by Heidi Fleiss, sitting near the checkout wanting to be looked at…. I think it was the way many of her pages mix text and image together in an unusual (for what I'd seen so far) way. I was soon convinced I was going to make a book exploring the interrelationships of text and image, drawing on Graeme Base's so called children's book The Eleventh Hour.…But not being much of a 2D artist, the idea quickly transformed to the 3D realm. What could have been presented on each page of a book soon became one area in the gallery. And I knew I wanted people to come play, to explore, and I knew they would need to have a reason to, so I drew in the idea of a murder mystery. After this first show, Evidence, I was still hungry for more, and I wanted to bring more of my broad skill set to the format…. Death By Chocolate itself was a desire to continue in the IMMI tradition I'd started in 2003, and a desire to want to try something new - an aim I have with every show. I had come up with many IMMI ideas by then and they're still sitting in a myriad of sketchbooks, but it wasn't until I took my best friend out for her birthday on one of Suzie Wharton's Chocoholic Tours that an idea began to stick. Following Suzie through the arcades of Melbourne, meeting various chefs and sampling the goodies - now here, I thought, here is an interesting idea. I had been wanting to do a roaming IMMI tour for some time, but hadn't worked out how to tie it together yet. I had a sit down with Suzie and told her about my work, and here we are. Not a tour, it's true - I think there are only so many stimuli an audience can take at once - but a mystery in a chocolate shop, with chocolate to eat, and a poisoned cup of cocoa laying before the victim.
CR: What attracts you to the murder mystery genre?
Baylen: I like the challenge behind them most, I think. I love to problem solve and there are not many genres that bring that out as much as murder mysteries. I like that you have the excuse to closely study characters, and that the writer (as these are most commonly created in novel form) must know their characters very well, which can be sadly lacking in other texts. In a murder mystery we have full and complex characters with secrets and self-justifications, and there is commonly a strong momentum propelling you to reading further. The desire to know more, to discover more, to try and work out whodunnit before the author reveals it to you. There is also an element of competition in this - of trying to beat the writer to the punch, of trying to outsmart them. There is the exploration of the dark side of human nature as well…and I find it fascinating to try to get inside people's heads - no matter how twisted the minds may be.

Oct 6 Express Media: Buzzcuts 'REVIEW' by Rosanna Stevens
Chocolate has never been so sinister to the palette. Young, indulgent Jessica Dixon has been found dead after drinking a rather bitter hot chocolate, and it's your responsibility to pin the perpetrator. Vanessa B. Baylen's recently composed Interactive Murder Mystery Installation (IMMI), Death by Chocolate, provides each participant with a pen, a suspect booklet (with which to compile evidence), and the responsibility of sustaining their role of detective in a fictional circumstance for two hours. Each element is a vital ingredient to ensure a successful and enjoyable night. Admittedly, some who were unfamiliar with the proceedings of an interactive performance found it a confronting task. Not everyone seemed willing to call forth their inner extrovert and interrogate the eight suspects, who scattered themselves about the upstairs rooms of Lygon Street's Koko Black. The venue was littered with an array of truffles, chocolate drinks, and devilish desserts. Where a space lacked in chocolate, a body would fill the gap. Such a crowded arena validated the way in which some suspects remained immobile throughout the evening. Most avoided sashaying themselves about the room in the manner carried off by 'It Girl' and suspect 'Pria'. Yet each character impressively sustained their disposition throughout relentless interrogation from many a novice sleuth. The interactivity and character engagement dissolved the usual fourth wall, submersing each participant in the deadly scenario. What's more, there is honestly no better way to solve a crime than with a complimentary mousse or hot chocolate in hand. 'Death By Chocolate' is the fourth of Baylen's trademark interactive murder mystery installations that she has been producing since her graduation from the University of Melbourne (Creative Arts). Her penchant for creating interactive performances via game-play and theatre shines through in this delicious whodunit.

Oct 12 The Age 'REVIEW' by Tim Hunter
A play with the audience as detectives trying to work whodunit from a cast of suspects is strangely involving. 3.5 stars. It's just like being Miss Marple, but instead of tea and pound cake, you're sampling hot chocolate and truffles. This two-hour interactive show puts the audience in the hot seat as student detectives visiting a crime scene, where a young girl has been found dead. There are bags of clues, and eight suspects are brought in for the audience to cross-examine to try and figure out whodunit.
It's strangely involving and, with good performances from the cast of suspects who have to remain in character and answer questions for two hours, it's far too easy to get caught up in the whole drama. The anticlimax? There's no final denouement - you have to go to the website to see if your suspicions are correct, but only after the final show on Saturday.