I Pledge Allegiance Crafts a Politically-Tinged Horror Experience

No matter what your political leaning is, the 2016 presidential election remains fresh in the minds of many Americans. Rife with controversy, the election and ensuing socio-political landscape have become a fertile breeding ground for modern horror, influencing everything from Jordan Peele’s sleeper hit Get Out to the most recent season of American Horror Story. I Pledge Allegiance

With that in mind, Chris LeVan and Tristan Wells crafted I Pledge Allegiance, a hybrid of an escape room and immersive theatre experience that uses a bedrock of politics upon which to build a tale of an extremist who will stop at nothing to restore the United States to its former glory. Unlike the charismatic, but ultimately chaotic, Kai Anderson of American Horror Story: Cult, I Pledge Allegiance’s Jonathan Barnes III is steadfast in his convictions, preaching whole-heartedly to his prospective followers.

“He truly believes in what he’s doing, and he believes in order, and he believes in making the country great again. Because in his mind, he is a patriot,” says LeVan, who also portrays Barnes in the show. “But unfortunately, what you’ll learn from the show is that he has some twisted ideas of making that happen. Some stuff has happened to him in the past which has led him to being such a crazy character.”

Citing Darren Lynn Bousman and Clint Sear’s The Tension Experience as their inspiration, yet working with a fraction of the budget, LeVan and Wells designed I Pledge Allegiance to take place in a single setting: an industrial warehouse in which Barnes has summoned a group of participants to aid in his efforts. It’s a pragmatic decision as much as it is anything else, but according to Wells, it hasn’t been without its benefits.

“Our original concept was this minimalist concept of an interrogation, and we said, ‘How can we do this in the most minimal way that you could do immersive theatre?’ And that’s in one room,” he says, connecting the locale of I Pledge Allegiance back to the antagonist at its heart. “We started adding characters and stuff, but the one thing that felt good was this one warehouse room. The room itself has significance in the story, it kind of stems back to a previous cult that tried to perform the same ritual that Jonathan is trying to do tonight, and the room was kind of their safe haven, kind of their compound.”

It’s inside this haven that guests will get the chance to learn more about Barnes and his quest for the Ocularion, an Egyptian Book of the Dead, but they won’t merely be passive spectators. I Pledge Allegiance is not only a multi-sensory experience, but one that may have different twists and turns determined by the actions of the participants.

“One of the important things that Chris and I have talked about is having a full sensory engagement experience. So throughout, you’re smelling things, you’re touching things, you may be asked to consume something, and of course, you’re seeing and hearing things, too,” says Wells. “Having the escape room [element] was kind of important for that, so people aren’t just sitting in a circle, looking at an actor talking the whole time. They’re getting up, they’re doing things, they’re kind of creating their own story. And by passing or failing the escape room, it could end the story different ways.”

A worthwhile immersive experience boasts many moving parts, engaging multiple senses, employing a malleable narrative structure, and using its environment to its advantage, all boxes that Chris LeVan and Tristan Wells have checked several times over.

Between its larger-than-life villain and the machinations he has planned for his guests, I Pledge Allegiance will surely be a rally to remember.

I Pledge Allegiance opens on Thursday, June 7th in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.ocularion.com