The Cabinet of Curiosities of Eat the Cake Studio
On November 4th last, we prototyped a new live experience for a select audience of guests. Based on our existing universes, we wanted to create an intimate and exclusive experience, with the potential to constantly renew itself.
That’s why we created The Cabinet of Curiosities of Eat the Cake. A unique immersive experience that invites participants to become members of an exclusive private club, a society of connoisseurs of temporal wonders, eager to meet and interact with characters from all periods of History for one evening. The name also reflects our love of curiosity, spontaneity, and the unexpected, which are key values of Eat the Cake.
To follow this theme, each door of our Cabinet (hosted in a private apartment in the center of Paris) would hide a different historical period and character, which would change with each new show so that participants never know what to expect. It also allows us to keep spontaneity on the production side by forcing us to always come up with new ideas. We want this experience to be as exciting for us as it is for our guests!
Our first mission was to prepare the apartment to host our curiosities. We hid everything that was too modern (computer, TV, magazines...) and used everything that could be used (vases, candlesticks, fabrics)... but first, we took photos of each room to be sure to put everything back exactly the same at the end of the evening!
The apartment was elegant and timeless, which helped us a lot with the transformation of each room into an appropriate setting for our time travelers. The kitchen, with its beautiful tiles and dark wooden cupboards, would perfectly welcome Legs Diamond, our prohibition-era gangster. The elegant living room, with its antique table and marble fireplace, would be fitting for the elegant Marie Antoinette. And the bedroom, with its cozy bed and white walls to project our starry lights, would become the bohemian home of our Bearded Lady fortune teller.
By using strategically placed lights to create a soft atmosphere (which unfortunately made the experience not very photogenic!), we also adjusted the music in each room so that each space had its own sound ambiance without turning the apartment into a cacophony.
In less than four hours, everything was ready; the apartment was decorated from floor to ceiling, music filled every room, snacks and drinks awaited the guests, and our actors were in costume and ready to perform.
The Cabinet was ready to open its doors!
Without the slightest idea of what awaited them (some had never taken part in an immersive experience!), our guests each received an invitation to visit our “Cabinet of Curiosities” in a secret location in Paris.
Once arrived at the destination, a team member led them to the apartment door, where the sparkling Madame X welcomed them in her Cabinet and explained the course of the evening.
Guests, with a glass of champagne and treats in hand, had time to admire photos of our worlds decorating the hallway while listening to the serenade played for them by a violinist from the bathroom (you have to be clever in using the available space 😉). They were also invited to draw a card at random; the card bore one of the symbols decorating the doors of our cabinet, a lock adorned with a subtle clue about the treasures they contained.
Once all guests had arrived and were separated into three groups, the Cabinet doors opened. I will not tell you what happened next so as not to spoil the surprise, but I can assure you that everyone had a memorable evening. The participants sang, danced, drank, played, and laughed with our curiosities and with each other, and when the Cabinet doors closed again, no one wanted to leave!
An unexpected benefit of this evening was the companionship among our guests, all coming from different backgrounds; we had not realized that our club could also be a source of serendipitous meetings between its members, but we were delighted!
Our first session of the Cabinet of Curiosities was a resounding success, so much so that we are going to make it a monthly event for future connoisseurs! We look forward to opening its doors to you.