Mercer Islanders delve into immersive theater production

Michael Bontatibus and Trey McGee have known each other for about 25 years and they’re still bonded by their Mercer Island theater experience.

They met at Island Park Elementary School and both later became active in Youth Theatre Northwest (YTN) and Mercer Island High School (MIHS) drama productions. At MIHS, they acted together in “The Crucible,” “The Threepenny Opera” and other plays. Along with performing in YTN plays, Bontatibus wrote and produced a handful of short plays and McGee acted in some of them.

Fast forward to today, and the friends are both 32 years old and teaming up with a host of others to bring “The Double” — a new immersive multimedia theater performance — to life in Seattle.

Bontatibus is the playwright/producer and McGee is the sound designer for the Witness theater production, which is directed by Charlotte Murray. “The Double” premiered on June 27 and is set to run through Aug. 10 within LIT Immersive (1000 First Ave. S.).

“Transforming a vacant downtown office in Seattle into a fully-designed space for a contemporary psychological thriller, ‘The Double’ re-imagines Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novella with shades of ‘Severance,’ set within the unsettling, liminal environs of a modern tech office,” reads a press release.

As the audience shuffles into the space, people can choose to watch the performance by sitting at desk chairs, popping into the break room or kitchen for a different view, or take it all in by standing up or sitting on the floor. Some people roam around the entire time, said Bontatibus, adding that the 40 attendees can open drawers and bankers boxes and rummage through files if they wish.

On the acting front, there are four live performers — sort of a Greek chorus of co-workers who are trained dancers — and one recorded actor who is beamed onto screens.

“Throughout the entire thing, there’s sort of dueling monologues playing that are like depositional interviews of a sort of mysterious nature. And those are happening on screens around you,” said Bontatibus, who studied playwriting as an undergraduate at New York University and currently works full time in television development and is involved in theater in London.

Bontatibus read “The Double” and thought it was a cool, unsettling story to dig into in the theater realm.

“It seems to deal with themes of like isolation and sort of living in an uncanny world and things that seemed very pointed, especially in a sort of post-pandemic world,” he said, adding that it touches upon office politics and competition.

McGee earned his bachelor’s degree in performance arts at Western Washington University and currently acts and sound designs in New York City.

He finds it exciting to work with Bontatibus on “The Double” and other unique projects.

“(It’s) always a really fun challenge to kind of wrap my head around, both technically and creatively, thinking about what sounds are going to play in which rooms at which time,” said McGee, adding that he taps into his creative side by writing soundscapes that can nudge the attendees and make “it feel like they are entering a new world and leaving the old one behind for a moment.”

In “The Double,” McGee focuses on room tone as the office goes from empty to inhabited again, and he also weaves the sounds of phones ringing, air conditioning humming, refrigerators opening and closing and more. He also wrote an original composition that adds to the atmosphere of the office scene.

“I had a lot of fun turning the office noises into something that could be percussive or rhythmic and musical to accompany the actor’s movements,” he added.

The audience’s response to the out-of-the-box production of “The Double” has been great, said Bontatibus, adding that, “I just hope it encourages people to go start seeing stuff that they thought they might not have liked.”

Both Islanders praised YTN for giving them their jump-start into theater and instilling the love of the art that they carried on to their fun times at MIHS and beyond.

“We still are great friends,” Bontatibus said. “We’re making work that feels risky and interesting and experimental, and it’s such a treat and such a pleasure.”

Added McGee about their close-knit relationship: “Not only is it so wonderful to work with one of my best, oldest friends and make stuff together, but the team that he brings together is also incredible. The work that we do together is always really interesting to me and always difficult, and I feel like I learn a lot with every process.”

For tickets and additional information, visit www.witnessimmersive.com.