When Particle Ink: Speed of Dark opened in an Arts District warehouse in spring 2022, it was with the caveat that its run would end in the fall. “Dawn goes down to day/Nothing gold can stay,” as the poet Robert Frost wrote. Knowing beforehand that this imaginative collage of projection-mapped animation, laser light effects, augmented reality, puppetry, dance, acrobatics and performance would simply disappear after a time put a melancholy shade on the experience. Visitors wanted to linger in that portal to the “2.5th dimension” for as long as they possibly could.
They needn’t have fretted. From the beginning, the producers of Speed of Dark—the“mixed reality” entertainment company Kaleidoco and Vegas-based visual art collective The Light Poets—envisioned the show as a first peek into an ever-expanding Particle Ink universe. Now that portal has re-opened, this time at Luxor, with Particle Ink: House of Shattered Prisms. And while the producers, granted an unlimited run and much more space, have made some thematic and storytelling changes to the Particle Ink experience, they’ve held onto what made the original show so dazzling: The superb visual surprises waiting in every new room and every unexplored corner.
The basic notes of the story remain intact. Over the course of an hour, and through the show’s variety pack of storytelling mediums, a heartbroken artist struggles to mend his broken heart. He’s aided by “Lumins,” light creatures who materialize and vanish through walls and objects, and menaced by “Ink,” a black-robed acrobat who sometimes appears on stilts. The story is narrated by a hand puppet who’s carried around, so to speak, by a mystery figure with a top hat for a head…
Look, to be completely honest with you, I’ve had trouble following the story at both Particle Ink installations, even though it’s both narrated by that puppet and literally spelled out on the walls. House of Shattered Prisms is at once both fairy-tale direct and elaborately layered. But it moves briskly. Ushers and characters lead the audience from room to room, where they’ll find performers and technology working in close partnership. A performer emerges from a bathtub and performs some wild breakdance moves; a dancer with an umbrella twirls in a laser-light “rainstorm”; another performer falls into an alternate dimension via projected animation and some deft aerial work. The music, by multi-instrumentalist Sky White Tiger (Louis Schwadron), provides dreamy accompaniment to every unexplained event.Your senses are rarely left wanting for something to delight them.
Smartly, this new manifestation of Particle Ink offers two experiences—the show I just (kind of) described and a daytime “Wanderlust” experience, which allows visitors to explore Particle Ink’s rooms and hallways for just $25. It’s a good way to interact with the show elements you may not have time to play with while following the Lumins around—in particular the hand mirrors, which are actually augmented reality viewers that place Particle Ink’s animations in real space. And the “spray paint” cans allow you to tag the walls with pure light and color.
A lot of talented people have poured their efforts into Particle Ink: House of Shattered Prisms, some of them originally from Cirque du Soleil productions or other large-scale interactive shows like New York’s Sleep No More. They’re the real heroes of Particle Ink: What happens when you give the world’s most expensive coloring book to artists who’ve spent their lives striving to color outside the lines? The answer is now at Luxor, and it’s ready for you to come in and make your mark.
Particle Ink: House of Shattered Prisms Thursday-Sunday, 7 & 9:30 p.m., Monday & Wednesday, 7 p.m., $65. “Wanderlust” daily, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., $25. Luxor, particleink.com.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
