An interactive theater show opening soon at Northwestern University will allow audience members to walk through the magic (and menace) of the 1893 World’s Fair. “Fair Game: A Chicago Spectacle” by Sit and Spin Productions explores Chicago in the years 1891 to 1893, as the city builds and then hosts the Columbian Exposition.

Written and directed by Eli Newell, the choose-your-own-adventure “FAIR GAME” is described this way:

As the 1890s commence and the new century beckons, Chicago is a city reborn into grand opulence, danger, and, above all, spectacle. Throughout the town, people of all ages and from all walks of life have one thing on their minds: The World’s Columbian Exposition. Yet, someone is hiding something. The audience has the agency to investigate just what that might be while individually navigating their way through this magnificent and terrifying age. As the 1890s commence and the new century beckons, Chicago is a city reborn into grand opulence, danger, and, above all, spectacle. Throughout the town, people of all ages and from all walks of life have one thing on their minds: The World’s Columbian Exposition. Yet, someone is hiding something. The audience has the agency to investigate just what that might be while individually navigating their way through this magnificent and terrifying age.

Sit and Spin aims to use their performance space in an unconventional way, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the spectacle of the fair while exploring “every nook and cranny” of Cahn Auditorium and following the various characters through the space as the story unfolds.

Among the characters in “FAIR GAME” are several well-known people of the Columbian Exposition, including architects Daniel Burnham, John Root, and Frederick Olmsted; Bertha Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Managers, and George Ferris, engineer of his great wheel on the Midway. Also populating the show are other historic figures, including Sophia Hayden, architect of the Woman’s Building; Amy Beach, whose composition “Festival Jubilate” was commissioned for the dedication of Woman’s Building; and Sol Bloom, who was in charge of the Midway Plaisance attractions. Mayor Carter Harrison and his assassin Patrick Prendergast are characters in the show, as are the killer “H. H. Holmes,” his accomplice Benjamin Pitezel, and victims Minnie and Anna Williams.

The show is produced by Gracie Brakeman and Austin Manross with music by composer Alec Steinhorn. Sit and Spin is a not-for-profit student theatre group. The Daily Northwestern offers more about the show HERE.

“FAIR GAME” runs from November 30 to December 2, 2017, in Cahn Auditorium on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston. Shows begin promptly at 6:30 and 10:30 pm, and the house will open 15 minutes prior to showtime.

Advance ticket sale information is not available at this time. The Sit and Spin Facebook event page may provide more information in the coming days.