PEAKY BLINDERS: THE RISE

About

A free roaming immersive theatre show where the audience could wonder through the pubs, bookies, nightclubs and factories of 1920s Birmingham, whilst attending a party thrown by the notorious Shelbys.

The System

A Game Layer

Alongside watching scenes and interacting with characters there was also game to play. Players would ally with certain gangs by stealing money from opposing gangs safes and transferring it to their own. Each safe could only be unlocked by a secret method: by interacting with objects in each space. These actions ultimately controlled the direction of the show’s finale.

Audience & Actor Interactivity

We provided the layer of show control that oversaw the gameplay elements of this show integrating with the sound and lighting departments accordingly. We came up with the automated methods to unlock the safes, a bomb diffusing task and a seance table. The seance table scene could be controlled by the actor so when different words were spelled out, it could trigger appropriate light & sound cues.

Data Collection

Each interaction was recorded automatically using our Google Sheets plugin for COGS, which made maintenance easier when looking for what had/hadn’t been touched over a show. It also showed what interactions were getting the most use.

Multiple Endings

Using the multiple branching logic ability of COGS, the stage manager would count the money in each safe and trigger different finales based on which gang had ‘won’.