Do you want to continue the interrogation with the guard? Or is it better to listen to Annette Herzog, head of the high-tech company Golden Mind? She looked nervous, almost scared, as she asked for a conversation. But the details of the murder in Herzog’s office that the guard may have been watching would be interesting too. Inspector Alina Decker looks at you waiting. What now? An either-or question is imposed on the viewer, one in which there is little to lose. In the worst case, he gets a more boring narrative thread. That would be kind of bad luck.
“Solo” is the name of the interactive crime series that supports it State Theater Augsburg released as a virtual reality production. The VR division has continuously expanded the theater. Especially at the beginning of the year, during the lockdown, Augsburg had taken on a pioneering role nationwide. It is, so to speak, the virus-proof variant of a live experience that Augsburg has continued to develop. Sebastian Klauke has now written a thriller, interactively staged by David Ortmann for both stage and VR. The audience helps determine the course of the evening. In the VR version, the viewer is naturally alone and looks into the VR glasses supplied by the theater. The simple form of a game can be seen in it, transferred to the theater space and then transferred to virtual reality. So it’s not for someone who wants to gamble fast or is looking for the most sophisticated VR solutions. “Solo” is a theatrical thriller with different stations that are composed differently depending on the decision. Game and theater are mutually dependent, the tempo that you know from both areas is not part of the concept.
The episode ends with a cliffhanger, the second part should appear in March
Despite modern VR technology, the production has a nostalgic charm, as it works like the game books popular in the 1980s. The VR viewer is virtually on stage. There, white stripes on the floor mark the offices of “Golden Mind”, a few pieces of furniture – a desk, locker, armchair – also serve as sparse markings. At the beginning you see a corpse, receive initial information from Inspector Decker (Karoline Stegemann), then the joint research begins, which involves the head of the company (Elif Esmen), the security guard (Paul Langemann), the assistant (Anatol Käbisch) and the friend of the Dead (Julius Kuhn), depending on which decision you make in the selection menu.
The whole thing lasts around 45 minutes, followed by an interrogation, a “crime scene” in a reduced VR theater format. At some point the first part ends, of course with a cliffhanger, in March 2022 it should continue with part two. “Solo – Episode 1” is nice entertainment in the VR version as long as there is less and less to investigate outside in the real world.