Posted in: Pop Culture | Tagged: Last Call Theatre, los angeles, The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect: Immersive Theater Experience Offers Connections

Los Angeles has a new immersive theater experience called The Butterfly Effect, revolving around relationships and time travel

Published Sat, 22 Nov 2025 10:33:03 -0600

by Eden Arnold

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Article Summary

The Butterfly Effect is a new immersive theater show in LA exploring time travel and human connection.
Audience members help shape the storyline and characters’ fate at the Connection Cafe setting.
Interactive quests and branching narratives let viewers impact the outcome of each night’s experience.
The production delves into themes of grief, tradition, and the consequences of changing the past.

The Butterfly Effect is the newest immersive theater experience in Los Angeles from Last Call Theatre that delivers realistic performances based around time travel and relationships.

The Butterfly Effect: Immersive Theater Experience Offers Connections — Liviera Lim as Vivian Fang; PC_ Charly Charney Cohen

The Butterfly Effect places the audience directly in the story, attending the grand re-opening of the Connection Cafe, a local cafe where rumors of "strange disappearances" and theories of time travel accompany the family-run cafe's mission of bringing people together. A cast of eight actors mingle with the audience playing patrons or staff, all with agendas, anxieties, and problems of their own that they employ the audience to help solve. Each character (in addition to the spot-on casting) has individual motives, some pure, some selfish, as they all navigate the realms of love, loss, and what those things drive them to do.

The show explores time travel, morality, and connection of all kind with the mid-point of the show bringing a scripted "coming together" moment where storylines converge for a twist that branches the story off in several potential directions, depending on how the audience that night shapes the characters' narratives.

"Last Call shows have always explored the power of choice and the question of 'what if'" says Creative Lead and Director Ashley Busenlener. "With The Butterfly Effect, that idea takes center stage when you throw time travel into the mix. I'm excited to see what audiences discover about the characters and about themselves with the decisions they make."

Last Call Theatre productions are fully immersive and put you in movie-caliber storylines that let you shape the outcomes while also getting to interact with your surroundings, very much akin to a narrative game. There are pretty clear dialogue options given by actors' social cues and they all excel at steering the conversations through points the story needs to hit.

The Butterfly Effect is a journey through grief exploration and embracing tradition through shifting quests that answers the question, "What lengths would you go to in order to change the past?" and it delivers astounding performances in an intimate but not cramped venue. The show itself offers many "tasks" or quests the characters send the audience on, making for a delightful interactive show that is just active enough to keep the audience engaged.

The Butterfly Effect concludes Last Call's 4th season and is its 11th overall production. The cast consists of Colin Breslin, Sam Cavalcanti, Michu Cure, Liviera Lim, Rosalind Loren, Mads McDonough, Emilynne Newsom, and Haven Schneider with swings Michael DiNardo, Desireé Roy, Aleen Vartivarian, and Ye Zhong.

The Butterfly Effect runs select Thursdays – Saturdays from November 14 – December 6 at Stella Coffee in Los Angeles. Tickets are $65 for general admission and $75 for VIP tickets, which include a slice of mochi pandan honey cake, warm beverage, and memento. Tickets and more information can be found here or on IG or TikTok (@lastcalltheatre).

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