Inside the Box – UPDATED

What can a puzzlemaster and theater do when a pandemic sweeps in and makes putting on a live show with an audience an impossibility? They think Inside the Box.

Part of the announced scheduled for this year’s season at the Geffen Playhouse included a show called The Enigmatist. It’s a show the New York Times called “An evening of tricks and brainteasers, it’s like a spin class for the frontal lobe, with drinks available.” That show’s creator is David Kwong. If the name sounds familiar it is because he has created crossword puzzles for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Inside the Box is the end result of Kwong figuring his way out of this conundrum. Fresh on the heels of the Geffen’s massively successful show The Present by Helder Guimarães, he and the Geffen Playhouse came up with another live streaming show.

After receiving via e-mail a 9-page packet with instructions and some advance work required on your part, Kwong will challenge audiences with a series of games and wordplay, all while offering insight into some of the greatest puzzle-makers of all time.

The games that viewers are invited to participate revolve around words and the ability to see and hear those words in variations of themselves. The games also require the ability to recognize familiar words that are associated with the ones you see and hear.

Inside the Box runs approximately 90 minutes. How much you’ll enjoy the show will entirely depend on how much you like word games.

Only twenty-four tickets are available for each performance. They are a hot commodity, are $75 per household. Or rather I should say, were $75. The initial run sold out immediately as did the extension into January that just went on sale Thursday, October 8.

Update: Inside the Box has been extended through February 14th. Tickets go on sale on November 27th.

Second Update: Inside the Box has been extended through March 7th

To check on ticket availability/returns, please go here.

Photo: David Kwong in Inside the Box (Photo by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy Geffen Playhouse)