Witness for the Prosecution | Review

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Witness for the Prosecution Review | Step inside the magnificent surroundings of London County Hall and experience the intensity and drama of Agatha Christie’s gripping story of justice, passion and betrayal in a unique courtroom setting. Leonard Vole is accused of murdering a widow to inherit her wealth. The stakes are high – will Leonard survive the shocking witness testimony, will he be able to convince the jury, and you of his innocence and escape the hangman’s noose?

 

Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution has been intriguing amateur sleuths since 1925 when she first penned the story in her short story ​​”Traitor’s Hands”. Originally adapted into a stage play in 1953 by Christie, the play has seen the West End, Broadway and a film adaptation. This current production of Witness for the Prosecution takes place in the stunning London County Hall, which served as the headquarters of London’s local government until 1986. The play is performed in-the-round, with the site-specific courthouse setting allowing for very effective immersion during the courthouse scenes.

The show has been described as both immersive and interactive, so, as this is The Escape Roomer, my review will be in two parts. The first will look at the show as a piece of theatre and the second will focus on the immersive and interactive elements of Witness for the Prosecution.

 

London County Hall. Photo by Grace O’Kefe.

 

I originally had tickets for Witness for the Prosecution at the end of March 2020 (we all know how that turned out), so I was delighted to have the opportunity to see the play two years later. Director Lucy Bailey immediately establishes a superb level of tension in the nightmarish opening sequence, with Mic Pool’s sound design particularly getting my heart pounding before the courtroom is transformed into the play’s secondary setting: the accused’s barrister’s office. As an American who had spent one entire summer interning at a law firm, occasionally making it into the city’s courts, I was intrigued to see if there were any differences in the British legal system. My takeaway: it seems that we basically stole everything except for the wigs. 

The County Hall is a stunning venue that immediately transports you into the drama and sets the stakes as life or death. My seat in the courtroom stalls was perhaps the comfiest theatre seat I’ve had the pleasure to sit in for two hours. As the performance is in-the-round, you are basically guaranteed to have a great view, although note that there are quite a few flights of stairs to get up to the seats in the galleries.

 

The cast of Witness for the Prosecution. Photo by Ellie Kurttz.

 

Christie’s script is well-paced and timeless, touching on issues of class, gender relations and xenophobia, without ever feeling dated despite being a period piece. The introduction to the case is in the defendant’s barrister’s office, who, as portrayed by Jonathan Firth, has all the wit, vivacity and presence that you’d expect of one of Christie’s detectives. Our defendant Leonard Vole’s arc is actually a very interesting examination of male vulnerability, the role is played with a great deal of sensitivity and range by Joe McNamara throughout the piece.

Witness for the Prosecution is at its best during the courtroom scenes, which allows the site-specific setting as well as its full company of actors to shine. There are many non-speaking characters in the play as various members of the court. In particular, I found myself drawn to the court stenographer, played by Lorna Lowe, who fittingly was an attorney before training at Lamda. Without drawing focus, her reactions to the scandalous court proceedings added a level of realism that reminded me of my time spent observing court cases. 

As this is Agatha Christie, of course, this is no mere courtroom drama, it is also a mystery. Christie’s clever plotting leads us through several twists and turns, and if you’ve managed to remain unspoiled, trying to solve the case alongside the characters is a great deal of fun. Although my guest and I had different guesses of ‘whodunnit’, I must admit we were both entirely wrong. Leave it to Agatha Christie to be ten steps ahead of us even half a century later. Overall, Witness for the Prosecution is a gripping murder mystery and a beautifully-executed piece of theatre.

 

The cast of Witness for the Prosecution. Photo by Ellie Kurttz.

 

Immersion and Interactivity

Sorry Brecht, but the appeal of immersive theatre appears to be here to stay. Over the past few decades, immersion and interactivity have become increasingly prevalent buzzwords in the entertainment industry. The terms are often conflated, but as readers of The Escape Roomer, I hope you’ll indulge me with a brief, very nerdy examination of the two terms. I turn to my favourite scholarly article on the subject (yes, I do have a favourite): Catherine Bouko’s “Interactivity and Immersion in a media-based performance” from 2014. If you are a nerd like me, I highly recommend reading the whole article, but here is my cliff notes version of my understanding of her definitions:

There are three levels of immersion: the first involves the breaking down of the “fourth wall” between performers and actors, the second has the audience placed within an environment and narrative, and the third (which is nearly impossible to achieve without VR or similar technology) sees the audience experiencing confusion between reality and fiction.

A clear definition of interactivity and its varying degrees is more elusive: the baseline for interactivity involves some form of reaction to the participant from the performance, more advanced interactivity allows the audience to make choices that will affect the narrative in a predetermined way, while the final stage of interactivity allows the audience to affect the narrative in unforeseen ways beyond the control of the performance. It’s actually very rare for experiences that we might describe as interactive to reach the later stages of interactivity, as most interactive experiences have a predetermined outcome (or outcomes).

In a way, all live theatre is in some sense both interactive and immersive, as actors on stage feed off the energy and reactions of the audience, allowing the audience to interact with the performance and audience members often feel immersed in a production through the magic of live theatre. That being said, this is The Escape Roomer, so let’s break down how much immersion and interactivity you can expect in Witness for the Prosecution. 

 

The cast of Witness for the Prosecution. Photo by Ellie Kurttz.

 

Is Witness for the Prosecution Immersive or Interactive?

Witness for the Prosecution certainly has immersive elements, chief among them being its site-specific setting. According to the very trusty source of an uncited claim on Wikipedia, “it was always Christie’s wish to see the play in a site-specific location”, and if that is indeed true, you can easily see why: it is a stunningly effective way to bring you into the world of the play. This immersion is slightly undercut during the times when setting switches, despite the set changes being beautifully realised through direction, lighting and sound. While Christie’s script is tightly woven as is, it would be interesting to see a version of the play that was adapted to take place entirely in the courtroom.

The interactive elements of the play are limited to the VIP Jury tickets who decide the fate of the accused. Notably, the tickets come with a reminder that “as a member of the Jury you must shut out from your minds everything except what will take place during the trial”, which seems quite a difficult task as the entire performance plays out in front of you. I was not a member of the jury, so I cannot truly attest to the level of interactivity of the experience. That being said, from my outside perspective, there seemed to be some limit to the amount of influence they had on how the play unfolds. That being said, it seems like an excellent VIP theatrical experience, where you become part of the show and have an increased level of immersion: throughout the play, witnesses, solicitors and the judge speak directly to the jury, the jury has a brief moment to deliberate and the jury foreman gets to announce the verdict. 

Taking this all into account, if asked specifically about the level of immersion and interactivity, I would describe Witness for the Prosecution as a really fantastically executed site-specific piece of theatre that creates a heightened level of theatrical immersion. If you are interested in more immersion, as well as elements of interactivity, I’d recommend going for the VIP Jury tickets. And of course, as with any Agatha Christie mystery, the audience gets to put on their detective hats and decide for themselves: whodunit?

 

Witness for the Prosecution can be booked at London County Hall here.

Please Note: We received this experience for free in exchange for an honest review.

Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive | Review

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It’s not theatre, or cinema. It’s not an escape room, theme park ride or VR game. Yes, there are pyrotechnics, projections, holograms and special effects. But this is quite different to an arena show (there are only 8-12 tickets per performance). As London’s multi-award winning, top-rated “immersive night out,” this event combines them all.

Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive Experience

In an unassuming period building on Leadenhall Street, just a short walk from Bank Station and dwarfed by nearby skyscrapers, a whole new world can be discovered. This building houses Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds Immersive Experience, but until you stick your head through the door and notice the enormous Martian towering over the bar, you’d never have believed it!

This live immersive experience has been in London since 2019 but thanks to the pandemic (an event not too dissimilar from the death and destruction the story itself tells), it’s been shut for most of 2020 and 2021. The moment tickets came back on sale, we re-downloaded the album and started getting ready for our very own Martian adventure.

Photo (c) Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive

What to Expect at War of the Worlds Immersive

There’s no denying that Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive is a huge experience, and bookers should be prepared to have their socks blown off over the course of the 2 hour event.

For starters, there are 24 unique scenes. Typically when reviewing escape room experiences, we mention how many unique spaces, or ‘rooms’ there are in an experience. I didn’t think I could be any more impressed after 221B’s five spaces, but The War of the World’s Immersive Experience has 24 unique spaces in it.

Players are guided through each of these 24 scenes, scattered through time and space, to tell the story of the Martian invasion of Earth. You’ll find yourself running through trenches with huge robots up above, slipping down slides, scampering across rickety bridges, entering VR areas such as on a boat or up in a hot air balloon. This thing is huge.

The Earth Under The Martians by Fluid based on originals by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim

Of all the areas, the VR sequences were definitely some of the most impressive and they worked well to transport players from one area into another seamlessly. For example, at one point you sit down in a boat, don your headset, and off the boat gentle sails through London. By the time you emerge at the other end of this VR sequence (a bit wet and rather terrified), a clever lighting change gives the impression of being in an entirely different location. Quite clever, really!

According to the creators (Layered Reality) populating the immersive world they’ve created are 17 live actors too. These actors dip and out of your experience, setting the scene and guiding you along the way.

On the day we attended, it was this particular batch of actor’s final show day – and it was a lovely (albeit unexpected) treat to be joined by the bar after our experience by the actors themselves, who were absolutely fantastic.

Photo (c) Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive

Our Experience of the Apocalypse

Currently, you can only book The War of the World’s Immersive Experience in a team size that’s a multiple of 2 – so 2, or 4, or 6 etc. We went as a team of 4 on a quiet Sunday evening and were 8 other players for the show.

The show sizes are small and intimate, and it felt like the team had gone to good lengths to ensure everyone’s safety… Especially in light of the global pandemic. Masks were worn at all times and there were plenty of places along the experience to sanitise your hands, as well as regular cleaning of the equipment inbetween every group.

We weren’t sure what to expect, but what few expectations we did have were totally blown out of the water. Equal parts terrifying, and tense and thrilling, the experience jumped from scene to scene to scene in a fast paced retelling of the War of the Worlds. The story has been lovingly recreated by the Layered Reality team and stunned us from start to finish. Even now, days later, I’m still thinking about it and remembering some small detail in one of their amazingly intricately designed sets.

Was it fun? Oh yes, absolutely! It was incredible.

Was it worth the price? Well, this part is a little bit trickier to answer. The website says tickets start at £40, but we were unable to find any session in the next few months for less than £70 per person. This likely due to Christmas, and peak times – but we can’t help but compare it to escape rooms! This comes in at around double the cost of an average escape room. At this price point, it’s still absolutely worth it. So far, so good, except the experience is definitely geared towards making you spend even more. With two bars on-site that you are required to spend time in, and your team photo costing an extra £12, this puts the price more on the £100 per person range. Slightly cost prohibitive, but they have gone above and beyond making it worth the price. The verdict? Definitely worth it!

…And yes, we definitely did order a drink before to calm our nerves, and a celebratory drink afterwards… Or two… Or three!

Team The Escape Roomer about to enter The War of the Worlds Immersive

The Spirit of Man Bar & Restaurant

We’ve mentioned that there are two bars on this immersive adventure, and with both stocking a fantastic range of delicious cocktails, they’re well worth the trip! In the first, The Spirit of Man, customers are greeted by an enormous Martian towering over the tables pumping coloured steam into the dining area on a rotation times to the music.

The second bar is appropriately named The Red Weed Bar and is located at the 50% mark of your immersive experience. At this point, the Martians have truly taken over the world and those humans left are in hiding… Hiding in the sickly red world the Martians have created. Creepy!

Presently, the bar is offering it’s Christmas menu complete with themed food and cocktails. Whilst we were there we tried:

Christmas Eve of War

The Christmas Eve of War

A delicious concoction of: Dry vermouth, cointreau, disaronno, lemon juice & blackberry syrup. This comes in a martini-style glass and is decorated with blackberries and raspberries. This is one of their winter exclusive cocktails.

The Martiantini

Martiantini

Available all year round, the Martiantini contains Vodka, melon liqueur, green apple liqueur, lime, sugar & cherries.

Not into cocktails? Fear not – both menus also sport a range of regular beers, wines, and non-alcoholic beverages too.

The Verdict

Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds Immersive is like nothing else you can experience in London right now and I’m still humming along to the tunes and remembering small but delightful moments days later. My only real regret is not going in the first few months – oh why did I wait so long! *shakes fist at the global pandemic*

It’s a great experience for families, couples, or for a special occasion for that sci-fi fan in your life.

How soon is too soon before I can book another ticket, eh?

Tickets for Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive Experience can be purchased on their website here.

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Meet Grace O’Keefe, our newest writer in London!

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We are absolutely delighted to announce that Grace O’Keefe has joined our team as our new writer in London, UK!

Grace hails from Baltimore, in the USA but finds herself writing, directing, acting and teaching over this side of the pond! You may know her as one half of the production company, The Queens of Cups, one of the organisers of the New Moon Monologues, or as the director of Saturn’s Return and Bad Teacher, coming soon to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Her favourite board game is Mysterium (*high fives from all the team*), and as a lifelong immersive theatre fan, we’re sure that Grace will fit right in at The Escape Roomer! Grace will be focused on reviewing all the fantastic escape room and immersive theatre events in London, as well as at-home puzzle games!

I know you’ll make Grace feel very welcome, and we’re all so excited to share more on Grace’s escapades in the near future!

Without further adieu, here’s Grace to introduce herself!


Introduce Yourself!

Hello! I’m Grace, I’m a theatremaker, TV addict, and self-proclaimed astrology expert originally hailing from the US. I currently live in London where I work as the Head of Community and Theatre at Greenlit, a UK-based crowdfunding platform designed by and for creatives.

Escape Rooms, Board Games, Immersive Theatre… What’s your poison?

I think as a theatre nerd, I have no choice but to say Immersive Theatre, but I like to dabble.

When you’re not doing Immersive Theatre, how do you spend your free time?

Watching and making theatre, unsurprisingly, does take up a lot of my time, BUT I also frequently indulge in trashy reality TV and an endless stream of YouTube videos on topics ranging from witchcraft tips to the Sims. I also love food and cooking and used to have quite the reputation for throwing parties with themed menus.

What are some of the most memorable immersive experiences you’ve had here in the UK?

The one that sticks in my mind was C-O-N-T-A-C-T, which was an outdoor immersive theatre piece that involved you following two actors around central London with dialogue happening in your headphones. It was the first theatre piece I saw after the first lockdown, and I loved seeing how theatre could be innovated in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

What are you most excited for, now that the world is reopening?

I really miss meeting new people and exploring new places! Also, it would be great if it were easier to see my family (that probably should have come first).

If you were given a blank cheque to create your dream immersive experience, what would it be like?

I really want to figure out a way to do an immersive musical. One that I think could be really interesting is Once Upon A Mattress, a retelling of The Princess and the Pea from 1959 with music from Mary Rodgers (really rare to have a female composer on a Broadway Musical) that is way ahead of its time. It features a loud, moat-swimming princess, a HBIC Queen, and a knocked-up ingenue, and it’s just buckets of fun. The structure of the show sets it up really well to allow the audience to become part of the court and I would love to give the musical (and Mary Rodgers) the credit it deserves.

Once Upon a Mattress (1958)


A huge shout out once again to Grace O’Keefe! You can keep up with Grace’s on Instagram, Twitter or at graceokeefe.com. Read Grace’s reviews and articles here.

The Egg Assembly: Routes | Review

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You’re a stranger here, who you trust is a choice. So, choose. When your friend goes unexpectedly missing, you are the one tasked with finding the answers. But, in a dangerous world of high-stakes dealings, rapidly eroding ancient lands, and volatile shifting alliances, do you have what it takes to untangle the web?

Rating: Unique!
Completion Time: 1 hour
Date Played: 3rd June 2021
Party Size: 2
Recommended For: The environmentally conscious

I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw the words environmental crime thriller… But heck, I think that’s the best way to go into this interactive show. Routes was so immersive and exciting. I felt on edge from the moment it started, asking myself whether I should be there and what kind of difference I could make to this story as it unfolded precariously around me.

At it’s core, Routes is a cross between the video game “Papers, Please”, a theatre performance, and a play at home escape room. The idea is deceptively simple – one of your friends Axle is missing. He’s left behind a trail of breadcrumbs but, due to the sensitive nature of his work, you can’t alert the authorities yet. Instead you’ve got to access his laptop and see what you can dig up in his files and password protected documents. Your main aim is to find out what happened to your friend. Is he alive? Where could he be? But you must hurry, the connection will only last 1 hour!

The ‘keep a low profile’ aspect was actually what made this game brilliant for me. You see, Axle has a day job at the Ministry of Parks and Preservation. Applications for logging permits come in at regular intervals, as do emails from his boss and other colleagues. You’ve got to approve forms, reject forms, and most importantly try not to do anything out of character.

For this reason I’m glad it only lasted an hour as I made the ‘mistake’ of not even reading the new employee induction document and I probably let through a LOT of dodgy logging permits. Oops! That explains the angry emails from my boss.

For sure, it is less a traditional ‘escape room’ style experience, Routes feels more like a discovery game – a treasure trove of information as you dig further and further into the rich landscape they’ve created. It’s intriguing each time you crack a password and access a USB, or another hidden folder – but all the while you’re pulled back into the ‘present day’ as *ping* a new email from your boss comes through.

The video content you find and discover weaves a tapestry of a story tackling big environmental issues and, after choosing your own ending, the game also leaves us with a startling message which, despite the fictional setting, grounds us in the real life disaster that is deforestation.

Overall, it’s utterly charming and excellently designed to give a sense of tension all the while easing you slowly into the story. Lately I’ve been super impressed by escape room-style games and immersive theatre designed by young people and Routes is no different. 23 young creatives at the Egg Assembly have put together this performance piece in a comparatively short amount of time and honestly… They’ve aced it!

A day later I’m left wondering if I did make the right decision in the end. Thankfully, the game will let you replay as many times as you like in the same day any time between 2pm – midnight. Will you make a different choice the second time round? Will you discover something new? It’s worth giving it a go!

Routes is running from the 1st – 31st of June and tickets can be purchased from Theatre Royal Bath for £10.

Kaleider: The Money Live | Review

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The Money. Theatre where YOU the audience is in charge. Kaleider, one of the world’s leading companies in extraordinary live arts, presents The Money®. The show that can lead to some incredible acts of kindness, some moments of madness and always a fascinating conversation about the value of money and what is important.

It is May 2021 and theatres are finally allowed to reopen after an agonisingly long second-lockdown. So, when I was invited to some see (or should I say play) The Money Live, I absolutely jumped at a chance to be in another space other than the four walls of my apartment… And what a show to return to!

With a super limited run of only 8 weeks, The Money is a show you’ve absolutely got to try and catch before it ends.

How does it work?

The idea behind The Money is deceptively simple and yet makes for fantastic entertainment! At the start of the show there is a pot of money, a judge, and a timer counting down from 60 minutes. It’s our job (the audience) to decide how we spend this pot of money. Fail and we get nothing!

Watch… Or Play?

The audience is divided into 2 types of players:

  1. The Players – those at the centre of the action, they are deciding how to spend the money.
  2. The Silent Witnesses – unless they ‘buy in’, these players cannot influence the decision

The Rules

  • The money cannot be split between Players
  • The money cannot be spent on a charity
  • The money cannot be used for anything illegal
  • How, when and where the money will be spent must be unanimously agreed on by all Players
  • The Silent Witnesses cannot influence Players in any way whatsoever
  • …Unless they spend £20 to ‘buy in’ to the game. Then they may have a say in what happens to the money
  • If the timer runs out and no decision is made, the money rolls over to the next show

My Experience

We played on a warm, sunny bank holiday Sunday, so it was absolutely no surprise that the first suggestion was to spend the pot of money at a nearby pub to get drinks for everyone. Quickly, this idea was shot down in the favour of more charitable suggestions, building to a climax near the end where the timer read just 5 minutes and still no unanimous decision had been made… *gasp*

I played The Money as a Silent Witness which, unsure of exactly how the game would run (or what I’d spend the money on) made a lot of sense. This didn’t mean we weren’t a part of it however. At any point in the game Silent Witnesses can chuck their £20 note onto the table and ‘buy in’ as a Player.

In our game, a lot of people bought in. Probably around 5 or 6… Bringing the pot up by a healthy £120! The atmosphere was electric though. Even after vowing not to buy in, my hand was hovering over my wallet at so many points in the game. There’s a real pull to throw yourself into the ring and see if you can win the money for yourself, or even just to have a voice to argue with someone you disagree with. THAT is the pull of the game.

In all, the experience felt a lot like a social experiment. A lot of questions were thrown around about the value of money – how could we make a meaningful impact with the money? How can we judge a deserving cause? Are we even the right people to make that decision? There was something oddly Kafka-esque about the whole spectacle. I loved it!

Photo (c) The Money Live

London County Hall

Even though The Money Live has been run all around the world including in Australia, Nigeria and China, Kaleider could not have picked a better venue in London than the London County Hall. This venue has also hosted the infamous “Witness for the Prosecution” play pre-lockdown, and it makes sense! The tall vaulted ceiling and cold marble really lends itself to an atmosphere of being judged.

The Conclusion

In our showing, we unanimously chose to spend the money on a musician to perform in COVID-19 wards in North Wales. I say unanimously, but as a Silent Witness I quietly thought that some of the other Players gave better suggestions. But unless I was prepared to put my money where my mouth was, I had to stay quiet!

All in all, the experience was really different and I highly recommend giving it a go if you’re in London (or indeed another city it’s showing at). In just 60 minutes you’ll see the best and the worst of the human race, feel very frustrated, feel sympathetic, feel thankful, but most of all will exit the theatre wondering the big question: “What would I spend the money on?”

Tickets for The Money Live can be purchased for £20 on The Money’s website.

ANTS Theatre: We Still Fax | Review

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You receive a mysterious machine in the post. You plug it in and something strange happens… You connect with an alternate dimension; one in which the internet doesn’t exist and someone needs your help! To take on this important mission, you will need to crack codes, send faxes, unlock secret hatches and, when the time comes, push the big, red button. They are counting on you; their world depends on it.

Rating: Extraordinary!
Completion Time: 2hr +30 minutes for Easter Eggs
Date Played: 28th May 2021
Party Size: 6
Recommended For: People who know how to fax, and enjoy interdimensional travel between universes.

Disclaimer: No ants were hurt in the writing of this review! Despite my postman cautiously handing me an enormous box that says ANTS and pictures of ants on it, I can confirm there are no live ants in this game… Probably.

If there were any ants, they’ve travelled an extremely long way through many parallel universes to get here.

But do you know what there IS a lot of in this game? Faxing.

To prepare to play this game I extensively Googled what that word means… “What is a fax machine”, “Youtube Fax Machine tutorial”, “Why would people fax?”, and “Do Fax Machines still exist?”. I also enrolled the help of an absolute power house team consisting of Brett, Rich and Krista from the USA, and Phill joining me from the UK.

So how does this work?

We Still Fax is an immersive theatre experience played on a Fax Machine! It’s available from February – June 2021 in London, UK. Sadly, at the time of writing, it looks as if they’ve sold out until the end of the run – but that’s not to say We Still Fax won’t return again some day soon!

With humble beginnings as an Indiegogo campaign last year, We Still Fax might well be one of the most exciting play at home escape room games I’ve played so far this 2021? And that’s coming from me 2 weeks after escape rooms have reopened. This game is so immersive, quirky and ‘out-there’ that it defies definition and has excited me more than any other play at home game in a long, long time.

If I had to categorise We Still Fax, it would be a cross between live immersive theatre and tabletop escape room. The idea is simple – ANTS Theatre sends you a large Fax Machine in the post. This Fax Machine is a relic from another universe… A universe the same up until one key divergent point: The internet was never adopted and people still fax.

At your allocated time you open the box, dial the Helpline, perform your Fax Machine health checks and the game begins! Thankfully, as this game is Games Master-ed means that if anything does go wrong, they’re on hand to help.

The Story

The story centres around your Fax Machine, named Berna 3.142. In a strange blip in the space time continuum, Berna arrives into your possession and from here she acts as a communication device between you and a parallel universe. In this parallel universe the internet was never invented, Blockbuster and Woolworths are booming, Mars is on fire, Elon Musk is missing, and Jeremy Corbyn is in charge of the UK.

In this strange universe there’s somebody at the other end of the line, and they need your help! You’ve got to work together with your fax machine and save the day. The universe is counting on you!

As you power through the main storyline you’ll probably miss A LOT, but you’ve a handy 30 minutes at the end of your game to explore Easter Eggs along the way. By “Easter Egg”, I mean numbers you can dial on the fax machine’s phone to get additional content. There are around 20 of these numbers hidden throughout the game in the most unexpected places.

Ff you want to fully understand the world ANTS Theatre have created, you’ll want to press every single number you can. I absolutely adored the lore and worldbuilding the Easter Eggs in We Still Fax provided. Even now, days later, I’m itching to know more about the world – more about Berners Lee, Elon Musk, and more about the secret mystery of spoons.

The Fax Machine

Ok, so I have no idea what a fax machine is supposed to look like – but I’m fairly sure they don’t sing, flash rainbow colours, and pour smoke from a chimney at the back. But what do I know? I’m only from this universe.

Berna is the real star of the show throughout. What a beauty! We were warned she’d break if we insulted her, but it was easy to treat such a majestic machine with the respect she deserved! All that blue and pink flashing… *hair flick* I think Berna and I have a lot in common.

The Puzzles & Interactivity

Puzzles to solve come in a few forms, they’ll either be faxed to you, or they’ll exist on the machine itself. Players can expect to have to hunt around for 3 digit codes, padlocks and keys as well as analyse the ciphers and codes that come through intermittently.

More important than the puzzles were the moments of interactivity with the fax machine that the game presented. Funny “aha!” moments and surprising twists. By fax you’ll also be prompted to draw diagrams, answer questions and tick boxes, sacrifice objects (or in our case, people!) all whilst faxing back and forth in a two way dialogue with another universe. At one point something we said into the telephone receiver was played back to us which absolutely blew my mind! It was a real ‘wow’ moment how well it fit in, and I almost didn’t recognise my own voice.

I’d also be remiss not to mention how much I enjoyed the music. It was incredibly vibey. From “Dare” by Gorillaz, to hits from the 90s, to music composed entirely of the dialup tones. Did I mention the game’s also got the Nokia ringtone in it? Yeah. Can’t unhear that!

Playing Remotely

As a final note, I wanted to mention our specific experience as we didn’t play the game exactly as it was intended to play. There was a partial team ‘on-site’ as it were, playing with the physical box. Other team members followed along closely via Zoom. If you intend to play this way, I’d definitely get in touch with the team to help facilitate this!

Screenshot by Brett

Another note is that whilst playing We Still Fax we did come across a couple of technical hitches, but after chatting to the team after the game it seems like these are incredibly rare. For example, we were unable to join the call at the start of the game due to a software update on that very day, and later our ‘signal amplifier’ ran out of battery unexpectedly, requiring a remote reset. It also probably didn’t help playing the game with a team spread out across the world via Zoom, so we’re happy to forgive any hiccups. Thankfully the game is GMed remotely by the team, so they’ll very quickly pick up any issues that might arise!

Overall

I absolutely adored this game! Purchased as an early birthday present for myself and played along with some of the loveliest escape room people I know made it an all round great experience. If nothing else, We Still Fax is unbelievably quirky and innovative an experience! I mean… An escape room played on a fax machine? Wild. It’s made all the better by ANTS Theatre’s excellent writing and world building.

I can’t believe I’m saying it but… I hope more escape room games are played by fax machine in the future!

We Still Fax can be booked for £60 via Design My Night. Check out the ANTS Theatre website here.