Uncanny Alley A New Day (VR) Review: Infectiously Charming

Ferryman Collective nail the live theater VR formula once again in Uncanny Alley: A New Day, which combines irresistible worldbuilding and technical execution with a story with a heart.

Then came Ferryman Collective, which specializes in live performance in XR: you might remember them from the Venice-premiering Gumball Dreams and Raindance “Best Narrative Experience” winner Welcome to Respite. Together, Rick Treweek and Ferryman Collective co-founder Stephen Butchko co-created A New Day, the former acting as artistic director and world designer and the latter as theatrical director, co-writer, producer and performer, with Ferryman Collective co-founder Deirdre V. Lyons on board as co-writer, assistant director, producer and performer, and frequent collaborator Christopher Lane Davis (aka Screaming Color) taking care of music and sound design.

By this description alone, you might start to get a grasp of just how much work went into making an experience that is not only highly impressive on a technical level, but that also feels like a true labor of love. Uncanny Alley: A New Day starts in a dark room, where the participants assemble. In front of them is a button, and all it takes to let the adventure begin is the simple action of pressing a button. Soon, you’re in a prison cell with a brand new avatar, and you discover that you’ve committed a crime. The dystopian world where you live is governed by an entity called Adaptive Learning Industries, which is about to launch an update that will give you amnesia, through weaponized Radio Frequency waves. You were caught as you protested against these measures, but cyberpunk hacker-whiz Gh0st (Deirdre V. Lyons) is there to save the day.

And so, you and your fellow protesters are soon on the run, led by Gh0st and her Service-Bot Atom (Stephen Butchko), and the fight for your freedom begins. You’ll embark on a dangerous journey and meet new characters who’ll teach you the true meaning of family. And as the path in front of you gets more and more treacherous, you’ll ultimately be faced with a choice.

One of the perks of attending a live Virtual Reality play is that the characters you meet are played by actual people with whom you get to interact in often unexpected ways, creating truly unpredictable experiences that you’ll remember all the more for that. At some point, as Atom asked me a question about what it means to be human – a recurring theme in Ferryman Collective’s work – I found myself going all “Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie” on him, which I hadn’t anticipated at all and made me think about these themes even more.

If you’ve seen Deirdre and Stephen perform in VR in the past, you might have an idea of what you’re in for, but what surprised me here is that, compared to 2022’s Gumball Dreams and other past project of theirs, it all feels so much more relaxed. You have an enthralling storyline to keep you invested in it, but just as much time is dedicated to the worldbuilding, which makes A New Day so much more affecting on an emotional level. The experience is one hour long, and yet you don’t perceive it at all, as you’ll become so attached to Atom and Gh0st to want to spend as much time as possible with them. The combination of the gorgeous avatar design and the palpable, authentic affection the two characters have for one another – reflecting, perhaps, Stephen and Deirdre’s own, as they are married in real life – makes you genuinely care about them, and their enthusiasm and resilience are contagious.

Nothing feels rushed in the play, yet so much still happens in it: suffice it to think that, on top of many other performers and voice over artists, Deirdre and Stephen play five and nine characters each, respectively, and every single one is memorable. The world itself is just as gorgeous as MetaRick’s first creation, but has been further developed to make room for even more stunning designs that will give you so much to look at in every single room – I’m told they look even better with a pc tethered VR headset – and a pinch of irony. The writing reflects this, with a story that has an equal dose of sci-fi elements, heart, and pop culture references that will definitely make your inner geek smile; and then there’s my personal favorite line (trust me, you’ll get this): “Follow me, down the drain!”.

If Ferryman’s past projects took us back to the past, making us relive our childhood and urging us to remember who we are, here they look at the future instead, with a gripping dystopian story that tackles universal themes like home, family, standing up for what we believe in, and how our memories and experiences make us who we are. Storytelling and execution go hand in hand in a way that feels effortless but that is without a doubt an impressive technical achievement for everyone involved. Uncanny Alley: A New Day is not just a VR play you experience; it’s one you inhabit, for every single minute of its runtime.

Uncanny Alley: A New Day can be experienced at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it had its World Premiere. Read our list of virtual reality projects we watched at 2024 Venice Immersive!