Another night, another secret location in downtown Los Angeles.

It’s five minutes before show time. Standing outside the doorway to an anonymous tall building, I press play on my phone.

An electronic, ambient swell of music washes over my ears. Soon, a female voice starts gently encouraging me to take note of my surroundings.

It’s Friday night. The city is busy with revelers. Women in short skirts and big heels ready to dance at the club down the street. Guys laughing and swerving having had one too many. A car parked suspiciously by the curb has two men inside laughing, every once in awhile someone will come to the window, pause for a moment, then reach their hand inside. The driver passing them a little something in a not so subtle exchange.

All the lost partiers most certainly not thinking about what I am thinking about: my own death.

Death is what Bardo Thodol encourages you to ponder and reflect upon, but it also asks you some hard questions about life. Are you a good person? What have you learned and how can you use what you’ve learned to help others and to be the best version of yourself?

The show is a mental and physical journey through the Tibetan Book of the Dead and all the stages there-in. It starts with your death itself and continues through the intermediary stages of consciousness thereafter.

Tonight, I was already dead. I died in the hospital after a traumatic accident, a loved one by my side pleading with me to come back to life. It was not to be.

I was buried, I could feel shovelfuls of dirt smacking my face. In terms of my life in western civilization, all was lost.

Screenshot Productions, through examining and creating an experience focused on the Book of the Dead, lets you experience what happens to your consciousness after death and ultimately, if one makes the right choices, the chance to be reborn into the world and give life another shot.

Standing by the doorway, I am jarred from thoughts of my own death by a robed figure. He emerges from the depths of the building, opens the door and beckons me inside. Music and the female voice continue to fill my headphones as I follow the robed figure up several flights of stairs.

I try to listen as closely as I can to the voice, it is giving me instruction, but it comes in a flood of information that is sometimes drowned out by the music and surrounding noise.

We pass many identical doors and hallways as we journey upwards in the building. Eventually the robed figure leads me to a single door.

I am instructed to leave all my belongings outside and remove my shoes. He turns me backwards, facing away from the door.

I hear him knock three times.

After a moment, the door opens and I am yanked backwards into the room.

It is stiflingly hot. A veil is placed over my head and I am instructed to sit in the middle of the room.

A figure emerges and places his thumbs over my eyes, pressing, forcing them to close.

I’m suddenly sailing over mountains, my consciousness untethered to my body. Beautiful music once again surrounds me.

My face is partially covered again. Loud intense drumming. it’s visceral, exciting. They spin me around, cymbals are crashing. More rhythmic drums. Lights flash, the effect is startling and beautiful.

A demoness pounces on me. The demon drools and slobbers on me, she begs me to accept her invitation to drink from a mysterious cup.

To say too much more about what happens inside would not only be an injustice to the show, but also, the experience will be different for everyone who attends. A couple weeks before the show, we were asked to fill out a highly personal questionnaire. Each of these questions were incorporated into the show to create a personalized journey.
It is a major feat to create an individual show for each and every audience member. When the personalized elements worked, they worked stunningly well. At other times, they came across as a bit unearned.

What really would have landed the emotional impact Screenshot is searching for would have been if your death had been included in this show. Part One, in which you experience your death and burial, was presented a month earlier at Midsummer Scream Halloween convention. It was a fantastic short piece and, in some ways, more expansive than the main show.

As I went through Bardo Thodol, I couldn’t help feeling a disconnect from my own death and the subsequent journey through the afterlife. If this experience had unified the two shows, it would have added to the overall emotional power. It was hard to get my brain to the place of feeling like I had just died when that experience happened months prior. A brief reminder or physical connection to that last experience at the beginning of the show, could have provided a simple and elegant connection.

The separation of these two shows also feels like it would be problematic for audience members who haven’t attended the first show. Without experiencing death, how can you begin your journey through the afterlife? This, to me, seems like a giant leap for a standalone show.
Similarly, the constant stream of dialogue, information, and instruction made it hard for me to truly immerse myself in the journey. From the moment I put the headphones on, to the end of the show, there was almost no silence.This also made it confusing at points, making it hard to understand if I was supposed to move or speak or even take action. I would have appreciated a bit more opportunity to pause and reflect on some of the headier concepts they presented. I’ve found that silence within a show can oftentimes be more powerful than anything that is overtly said.

Screenshot takes great care in their choice of music and sound design and this show is no exception. The music is expertly chosen and placed, featuring cues from Phillip Glass, Darkside, and Oneothrix Point Never. At times intense and dark, at other moments, soothing.

This is the fourth full show from Screenshot Productions. Every show has been unique and in a different location, the unifying concept being that each attempted to tackle a large expansive concept, such as fear, birth, and death. Each one strived to reach the emotional core of the audience through their unique blend of art, dance, performance, and music.

Bardo Thodol is no exception. While not an extreme haunt, not even a haunt, it is most certainly not for everyone. It is physical and asks the audience to connect on deep, and for some, most assuredly uncomfortable levels. However, I would recommend this show to anyone who is looking for something fresh and new in terms of what theater can be.

I applaud Screenshot Productions and their cast and crew for creating such an ambitious mix of art, music, and personalized theater.

“Let virtue and goodness be perfected in every way”

Screenshot Productions upcoming October show, The Rope, looks to head into slightly darker territory. It will be running from mid-October through early-November at Think Tank Gallery downtown.

Visit screenshotproductions.com for tickets and more info.