Watch the play that takes you prisoner

Part performance, part game, the audience has to find the mystery behind a murder at the prison and eventually find an escape by collating a blueprint

Planning to watch a play this weekend? Here's how you can take that extra step and be part of one. And this isn't acting workshops that we are talking about but an immersive theatre experience where you form a central part of the performance. Ethiros Theatre Group's Prison Games premiered in February this year after month-long rehearsals that involved converting director Nishil Kamalan's home into a three-part rehearsal space. The performance space is divided similarly, and audience members receive prison uniforms on arrival. They are blindfolded and taken into the 'first room'. "We tap into their senses this way. We tell them they will sleep on ice slabs. Ice cubes are used for that and odour pouches to replicate the smell inside a prison," says Kamalan.

Part performance, part game, the audience has to find the mystery behind a murder at the prison and eventually find an escape by collating a blueprint.

The audience members will be given prison uniforms as they become a part of the play

This is interspersed with rehearsed monologues from the actors including one at the beginning of the performance that leads them in. Sharing about the idea, Kamalan says, "I took inspiration from mystery room games and immersive theatre around the world. The form isn't too common here." The process, he tells us, was unconventional too. "The majority of our time was spent in putting the clues together. The acting and execution didn't take as much time," says Kamalan.

What sets it apart from escape games, you ask? Kamalan is quick in saying, "Here, we needed to design clues that are conducive to every venue. A mystery has the advantage of being set in a single space."

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