We’ve broken down which characters you should follow in this exciting but packed new show.
After you finish Life and Trust, the new immersive, three-hour epic from the producers of Sleep No More, you may want to start over. With more than two dozen characters to follow around six floors of gorgeously crafted environments in a former bank building, this choose-your-own-theatrical adventure demands multiple viewings to see—and make sense—of it all.
“I’ve now been seven times and there’s a million things that I still haven’t seen,” admits Jon Ronson, the seasoned British journalist and author making his playwriting debut with Life and Trust. “I think the best lesson is, don’t get FOMO. Each character has a full, rich arc. Some are bigger than others in terms of action, but the nice thing about following one character is they’ll take you to several different parts of the world, so you’re always experiencing something new.”
Unlike Sleep No More, which uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a framework, Life and Trust is an original story inspired by a variety of sources, primarily different interpretations of the Faust legend, including The Red Shoes and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The narrative revolves around J.G. Conwell, the CEO of the fictional Life and Trust Bank, who made a mint peddling an ominous green elixir. When we meet him, he’s a regretful old man poised to lose everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He sells his soul for a chance to time-warp back to his New York City Gilded Age youth for one last drama-packed day. The audience is invited to tag along—provided you agree to don a commedia dell’arte-style mask and lock up your smartphone.
“I think in a lot of immersive shows, some of the characters are just small parts in service to the main plot,” Ronson says. “This is different. It’s like an anthology of people, all of whom are inspired by real figures. Some are based directly on very recognizable people, like Evelyn Nesbit,” a performer whose husband murdered her ex-lover, architect Stanford White. “Others, like Mr. and Mrs. Vaudeville, had cameos in a Ken Burns documentary I watched as part of my research.”
Save for the introductory scene, there is relatively little dialogue. This is a dance-heavy, physical theater piece that repeats twice, so if you experience déjà vu, it’s time to move on to another character. Most folks chase after the young J.G. Conwell, but there are many compelling stories that all follow a Faustian template. J.G.’s drug-addicted sister Naima is having an illicit romance with her maid, Zavia. In the old country, Zavia was a nurse, and she violently crosses paths with a former colleague, a eugenicist now known as Dr. Kellogg. The third Conwell sibling, the artistically inclined Basil, descends into a bohemian underground while the age-defying Dorian turns heads. All the while, the corset-clad trickster Mephisto and his minions stir up trouble wherever they go.
“It’s like a river—just jump in.”
“Jon’s extraordinary script collides with the physical reality of the building and becomes this sort of feedback loop,” explains the director, Teddy Bergman, an environmental theater vet whose credits include the original immersive Off-Broadway production of KPOP. “Some people go in with a kind of completist attitude where they want to see every space. I actually think that inadvertently dilutes the momentum. It’s like a river—just jump in. Follow the first character you see and they’ll take you all around the world.”
Even though the show has only been running since June and is far from a cheap ticket, some fans have been numerous times. If you’re looking for tips and spoilers, including how to find hidden spaces like the poodle room or the lake, or what happens to the few chosen for one-on-one character interactions, there’s an active Life and Trust subreddit, a jam-packed Medium post and passionate Discord discussions.
“I’m actually thrilled that there’s that much conversation out there,” says Bergman. “I think these kinds of shows are meant to generate conversation, and they’re meant to generate community, too.”
“It’s best if you absolutely lose yourself and relinquish any form of control.”
That conjuring of community also happens in person. Once the show finishes, you end up back at the beginning in the Art Deco Conwell Coffee Hall, and it’s exhilarating to compare notes with strangers. After three hours of sensory overload in silence, everyone is dying to share. That’s how I discovered that in one private scene, a character gives one (un)lucky theatergoer a poster that reveals the chilling final tableaux.
Whether you fall down an online Life and Trust rabbit hole or decide ignorance is bliss, be sure to arrive rested—you will get your 10,000 steps!—and if you wear them, opt for contacts over glasses since the frames don’t play well with the masks. Dressing up is encouraged but it’s a hot evening, figuratively and literally. Keep an eye out for strategically located watercoolers and bathrooms. If you need to sit, find the vaudeville theater or vintage cinema—the seats are comfy and there’s usually something happening.
Above all, be open to letting go. “It’s very disorienting,” says Ronson. “But it’s best if you absolutely lose yourself and relinquish any form of control.”
Life and Trust is playing at Conwell Tower on Beaver Street, booking now through October 13, 2024. You can buy tickets here. There’s also a new monthly series called “Unlocked” which is a talk back about the creative process that’s free to attend. RSVP here.
Read below to find out a handful of the main plots to follow during your performance.
The founder of Life and Trust Bank, Conwell became rich selling a super-addictive cure-all "syrup." At the end of his life, just before he loses his fortune in the 1929 crash, he trades his soul for a chance to relive his youth. But will he make better choices?
This trickster in disguise acts as a supernatural force bent on seizing the soul of J.G. Conwell. Watch as he bends the will of Conwell and others (through his minions, The Lilliths, pictured here). The Lilliths are disguised as Conwell’s assistants and they conjure chaos and disorder.
Zavia is a maid in the Conwell household who pines for her mistress, Naima Conwell, J.G.’s sister. She previously worked alongside Dr. Kellogg but is only able to find opportunities as a domestic worker. Watch her relationship with Naima unfold.
Dr. Kellogg is a character inspired by eugenicist Charles Davenport, who believes in the concept of “low blood.” He’s an Eastern European immigrant himself and struggles with self-hatred. He pays bribes to keep his identity hidden so that Conwell continues to be his benefactor. Follow him on his quest to scout for more test subjects.
Evelyn is a famous singer in NYC who, while married to Stanford, has a flame burning for Conwell. She may have made a pact with the devil for her talent and fame, and if you follow her, you will watch her take drastic measures to keep them intact.
Stanford is a successful architect but feels overshadowed by his wife Evelyn and is jealous of Conwell’s wealth. That being said, he’s the president of the Alexandria Club, which is a secret society obsesed with achieving immortality. He’ll do anything to get more power.
Obsessed with her work with electromagnetic and radioactive materials, Dr. Marie is on her way to a breakthrough—with her daughter Sibyl in tow.
Sibyl has no interest in continuing her mother’s work. She longs to become an escape artist and entertainer like her late father. While she works at the Magic Lantern Cinema, she’s planning to achieve her dreams tonight.
These two vaudevillian tramps live in a tenement above the theater with fellow immigrants, Marco and Faruk. Watch them to see if they get their big break.
Meeting Officer Bryant, the chief of the American Protective Agency, you’ll learn that he will bend the law if the price is right. You’ll see him on his quest to capture a bank robber who humiliated him.
Harold is a captain of the vice squad at the APA. He’s morally strict and sees himself as a lone ranger on the hunt for NYC’s criminals and morally corrupt.
Dorian (inspired by Dorian Gray) is a gorgeous and androgynous man who is obsessed with material things. He hasn’t aged somehow and can be found in his “pleasure den,” the Green Carnation.
The Con Artist is the last person you’d want to meet but the first person you’d want to watch. This psychopathic criminal feels nothing and commits crimes just for fun. They run the Destiny Park Spiritualist booth and Madame LaFierte’s perfumery—and rob the bank. Watch out and keep your eyes peeled!
Running an artist collective, the Green Carnation, Isis is not considered “polite society” as they live outside social norms. A “wild provocateur,” Isis mentors Basil Conwell, J.G.’s brother, and is bent on making tonight one to remember with their art.
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