Fringe review: A HIGHLY SUSPECT MURDER MYSTERY: THE BETRAY-TORS, theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall
Taking inspiration from the BBC’s hit The Traitors, Highly Suspect’s interactive murder mystery throws us into the finale of The Betray-tors, where the finalists and host Claude are gearing up to reveal the winners of the show. However, when one of the finalists is found hung, drawn and quartered, we - the audience - suddenly need to solve a murder and figure out who the murderer is amongst us.
This is highly interactive – information packs are handed out to the audience and working in teams (most people seemed to stick to those they came with, so there’s no need to work with strangers if you don’t want to), we had to work out codes, solve puzzles and ultimately, identify the murderer’s identity and motive.
Along the way, the cast of four interrupt our sleuthing to share more information about themselves, their backgrounds and possible motives they may have. These scenes and monologues are full of jokes, puns and one-liners which have the audience in stitches while feeding us crucial clues to help us solve the case. Each performer effortlessly plays a caricature of a character who would definitely fit into a real series of The Traitors, and it’s clear from the very beginning that any of them would have had the means and motive to be the killer.
Even when the audience is given time to discuss our thoughts in our teams and try to figure out what’s happened, the cast are interacting with us, checking what we’ve worked out so far and giving us clues to point us in the right direction, all staying perfectly in character.
When it comes down to the final reveal, the audience are asked to share theories as to the killer’s identity, before they make themselves known to us. Any audience participation is entirely voluntary – we’re asked to volunteer our ideas, not forced to share them, so if participation isn’t necessarily your cup of tea, you can still play along without being forced to speak to an audience. No spoilers from us, of course, but we’re very proud to share that we did, in fact, figure out who the murderer was, even if we weren’t 100% sure as to the how and why of it all.
This was a highly entertaining hour at the Fringe, with lots of laughs and a brain-teasing mystery to solve. We thoroughly enjoyed our time playing detective and catching the traitor in the midst of The Betray-tors!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Lorna Murray