Review: The Butterfly Effect
- ThomM
- Nov 25, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 25
What Would You Change If You Could Go Back in Time? And How About a Second Time?
Immersive Scene Los Angeles 2025 review
Time travel can be a tricky business. Just ask the sisters that run the Connection Café, a fittingly named coffee shop where family tension and whispers of time-jumping are both on the menu. As the title suggests, even the smallest actions can sometimes have large and unpredictable consequences. The audience at this intimate immersive theatre experience discovers this firsthand over the course of the 90-minute show.
Scheduled to play just three more dates in December, The Butterfly Effect, wrapped up its first run this past weekend. Held in an actual café (Stella Coffee) in the Carthay area, the show’s conceit is that the guests’ influence on the show can steer the narrative in any number of directions. At Immersive Scene Los Angeles, we are always excited about shows where the ending is unpredictable, and it’s even better if the cast themselves aren’t sure how that night’s performance will conclude due to the myriad of possibilities thrown at them from the guests.
To find out how much of a part patrons play in affecting the narrative, we visited the show, declined the optional mask each guest is offered if they don’t want to interact – this is immersive, we live to participate – and dove spiced tea head-first into the mystical tale.
Our nice-sized audience was greeted just outside the doors of the story’s Connection Café as the aforementioned sisters were inside readying for their grand reopening. Once inside, though, it was clear from the jump that we’d arrived at this auspicious event at a time when more than lattes would be swallowed. Family tragedy had shifted the sibling relationship and there was palpable tension in the air brewing just below their welcoming smiles. And it wasn’t just the owners who seemed strained, as nearly every character – from servers to patron regulars - soon seemed to reveal something to dish about.
Before entering the show, we were instructed to wander wherever we wished but were highly encouraged to latch onto one of the players that most interested us to learn their unique story and how they fit into the larger narrative. The production, both to its credit and detriment, is all set in one large room, so there’s no wandering off into other spaces to allow for personal and quieter interactions with the character(s) you’re following, which would be nice. On the other hand, you merely need to look this way or that to watch and listen to other stories unfolding around the space, all within clear proximity.
I was lucky enough to make my first meaningful connection of the night with the younger sister, Joanna (Emilynne Newsom), as she somewhat distractedly was putting up Christmas decorations, even though her older sister, Vivian (Liveria Lim), was insistent that one specific holiday shouldn’t be the theme this year. Joanna seemed really pleased when myself and another guest offered to help her put out the decorations around the cafe.
It wasn’t long before I was encouraged, holiday ornaments in hand, to visit another character just across the room. There, at a table, sat Angel (Sam Cavalcanti), an ethereal, blue-haired character who showed me and another guest a photo of them, or someone who looked exactly like them, from decades earlier, when they think they left this timely dimension. Time travelling skeptic or not, it was hard to dismiss the missing person’s flyer placed in front of us that had apparently hung in this very same café generations earlier when they disappeared. You see, time travel can blur the memories of the past, so what they were saying could be true or just what they believed to be so. Yet, here they were, in the flesh, looking not a day older, seemingly the same age as when they had vanished. Was it possible that the reason for their disappearance could be time travel? Trying to piece together their own foggy history from that sole photo and numerous letters from some who knew them, clearly required help. We would do what we could to assist.
As our latest mini excursion took place, so too were others going on throughout the room. Tahoe (Haven Schneider), a waiter at the café, was having an awkward reunion with an old friend while patrons watched intently. An amiable at first but increasingly stressed-out former high school teacher of Joanna’s, Cal (Mads McDonough) was fielding questions from an inquisitive group. Meanwhile, Vivian was rushing around the family-owned café establishing her dominance while having a very public battle with her younger sister and dealing with some disturbing news from her fiancée, Brendan (Colin Breslin). Other characters all had their arcs and each guest who followed them saw a unique piece of the puzzle, by connecting through conversations and tasks.
Finally, after characters were defined and their relationships clearly established, everyone’s attention was drawn to the front of the café for a much-anticipated open mic performance. This is when the real excitement began and The Butterfly Effect found its wings.
As Immersive Scene doesn’t want to spoil what you might or perhaps might not see on that small stage and beyond, just know that everything we and you experience before the open mic might be an illusion or even a different reality. For both believers and non-believers of time travel, the events they experience at this quixotic café will eventually cause all to ponder what butterfly effect might result from their own actions in the story. Can my interactions with the characters do something to affect the narrative? And, if so, on a different night, could Angel, say, just be someone having a cup of tea, while another character is the possible time traveler? Might they all be? It’s pretty heady stuff.
Determining the answers to those questions with certainty is nearly impossible after just one visit to the show. While your conversations, discoveries and perhaps even suggestions to the actors might influence the play, only through repeated viewings could you confirm if they actually alter the direction and outcome of the night’s proceedings. For the record, the creative team at The Butterfly Effect have told me that multiple endings are likely and common.
At our show, the somewhat rushed ending was a happy one. The conflicts were resolved satisfyingly while the characters didn’t have to swerve too far out of their established lanes to get there. By the end, I’d say most in attendance were rooting for things to work out. On another night, could the opposite be true? Could time travel end up in a disaster scenario rather than in the positive denouement that we experienced? Of course, only the cast and the show's director, Last Call Theatre’s, Ashley Busenlener, know how far the show can deviate from its intended glidepath.
Busenlener adeptly keeps the action moving and manages to maintain the multi-scene-playing-at-exactly-the-same-time approach from becoming overly confusing. No easy task. She also quite smartly has her characters occasionally pull you a bit further away from something else that’s happening nearby that could confuse, interfere or just get too noisy. It’s not a perfect situation but it works for the one-room geography of the show.
The young and engaging cast fully commit to their roles. While they can never get a break from the scrutiny of the audience they handle the constant attention well and manage to shine when approached with questions - even challenging ones. When I posed a pointed question to one character, possibly provoking an angry response, he skillfully deflected it with an assured response. The performers are also adept at keeping the story on track, and if there is ever an occasional waver, a stage manager in black pops into the scene to subtly redirect.
One of the standout aspects of the show is how well the cast deal with handoffs to other characters. You will get to see enough of each one to have an understanding of their part of the tale. While it would be impossible for any audience member to spend significant time with the entire cast, your lead actor will find a way – subtle or not so - to make sure you get to meet at least a few different storytellers and gain insight into their perspectives. By the end of the performance, you’ll know just enough about most to understand their connection to the Connection.
Speaking of the Connection, the café that is, the Stella setting couldn’t be any better for the story. A real coffee shop playing an alternate reality version of itself is a marvelous stroke. Inside it, there is just enough art direction to serve the story, without overdoing it.
While the story itself isn’t mind-blowing, it is enjoyable and thought-provoking in the questions it proposes. Production values are somewhat modest. Aside from a few flashing lights and a bit of otherworldly audio, there isn’t much in the way of an awe-factor, but in the end this is really a character study of family dynamics with a little time travel thrown in for metaphysical sake. Speaking of that, there is one wow sequence about halfway in that makes the show truly memorable. As the tagline of the show asks, “What would you change if you could go back in time?” At The Butterfly Effect you just might get a chance to find out.
One small modification might be considered when the show returns in December. As our audience waited outside before the performance began, we couldn’t help but notice the cast inside the shop sitting around waiting for the audience to enter. It sort of threatens to take you out of the moment before the performance has begun. Perhaps something as basic as construction paper covering the windows could serve both the story and to give the cast a proper green room space they need. Peeling off that paper as the Café reopens and just before the guests enter would do both.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Immersivity: 4.5 (of 5)
at
Stella Coffee
6310 San Vicente Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
Returns December 4-6
Tickets: $67.30 - $77.50
