Visitors must duck through a labyrinth of tapestries, crawl under massive furniture and walk through a room that seems to breathe.
The ROŪGE: Theater Reinvented marks its 10th year working at the Hermitage Museum & Gardens in Norfolk with "What Remains: An Immersive Audio Journey," which tells a story of a woman and her house and when identities begin to blur.
The story starts in the piano room with the woman’s birth.
A narration plays through headsets and guides viewers through plot points. As the audience travels from room to room, it feels the tension of the woman’s childhood, the initial bliss of marriage and parenthood, and then the grief as the life she hoped for unravels.
Director Patrick Mullins said the story is a “loose retelling” of the life of the Hermitage’s original co-owner, Florence Sloane.
An avid art collector, Sloane was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the arts scene in Hampton Roads, including the museum that would become the Chrysler Museum of Art.
“Her legacy really is the house and the art that she collected and left behind, which has been a gift for so many people,” Mullins said. And after working with the Hermitage for a decade, he feels like he knows Sloane, who built the house in 1908.
“It's not unusual for us to tell her good night when we leave,” he said.
What Remains explores the larger questions about legacy — the sacrifice of what one builds and loses over a lifetime, and what is left behind.
The woman gives birth, to her shock, to children that are more animal than human. The house breathes, groans and whispers. The woman’s veins turn to wood.
“Gothic horror … it's kind of like existential horror.”
Instead of trying to impose any single interpretation or message onto his audience, “I tend to ask questions more than I make statements,” Mullins said.
The tour prompts curiosity. Lights direct viewers' eyes to details — picture frames, a statue, a door handle to be opened. Small groups of six to eight start the story every few minutes and remain together. Live performances are sprinkled throughout. Actors tempt audience members with unknown elixirs to drink and eerily prolong eye contact with guests. The scenes happen in tight corridors, bathrooms and stairwells.
Andrew Cronin, public programs manager at the Hermitage, calls the show “very strong coffee.”
“We really knock on your personal bubble,” Cronin said. “Not everyone will get it, and that’s okay … but it’s an experience you’ve never had before.”
Mullins said he wants to enter a relationship with the audience that uses tension and trust.
“They have to break a boundary and enter a universe where new rules apply,” Mullins said, “You bring them into the magic circle.”
Even the act of sharing this experience with strangers, Mullins said, is part of the point.
“You leave there feeling like you've met people because you've been in some pretty strange situations with them.
“And that's a lot of what ROŪGE is built on.”
What Remains: An Immersive Audio Journey runs Thursdays through Saturdays through April 4 at The Hermitage Museum & Gardens, 7637 North Shore Road, Norfolk. Visit the hermitagemuseum.org for tickets and more information.
