By Holli Harms
Despite our best efforts, I and my five friends failed. Someone perished because of our ineptitude. Else happened.
Because you see, something is awry in our small town. Ivy Isklander has gone missing. We, her neighbors and townspeople, volunteered to find her or else…
That’s the premise of this theatre/detective mystery Plymouth Point that you participate in with two to six of your friends. The experience is designed and curated by theater artists, experience-makers Clem Garrity and Ollie Jones who are Swamp Motel, a UK-based immersive theater company. They were formerly Associate Artists with Punchdrunk Theatre, the theatre company that created the highly sought-after Sleep No More. Plymouth Point is Garrity and Jones’ 75-minute mystery-solving adventure that looks to push the boundaries of the online show experience. And it does. It had me and my friends searching websites and Facebook accounts set up specifically for the “game/show.” We were screaming and yelling, taking copious notes with the clues given, falling down rabbit holes, and getting pulled into closets of red herrings.
One of the participants said, “It’s like a crossword puzzle where one needs to really concentrate to keep up with the clues.” Another said, “…a reliance on each other is created. A clue camaraderie.”
We all agreed it was so different from anything else we’d been doing online and welcomed the concentration needed and the collaborative experience.
You, the participant, will travel through the intricate websites, youtube accounts, Facebook pages, and more. The details and work put into Plymouth Point are astonishing. An online universe has been created specifically for this production. Parts of it true, most of it not.
And when our team was hitting walls, drowning in information, our hostess – fear not there is a guide to help you out of the quicksand – was there to give us clues that were, as one participant, stated, “Just enough, not hand-fed.”
I’m not going to give you any hints or spoilers, you have to discover it all for yourself. However, I will give you this – every member should have Google open and ready to search, take your time, and LISTEN. Or, you could have as much fun and just go crazy madly dashing in every direction!
Thank you to my gang of detectives, Lisa, Kim, Abigail, Megan, and Amy. We laughed, we cursed, someone yelled, “Should we be drinking?” It was a blast, plain and simple.
And know that if you do not solve the mystery in your 75 minutes you do not find out what has happened. As one participant remarked “It was a fun adventure but I wanted more closure at the end instead of just getting booted! I wanted to know what happened!” A possible ploy to get you to come back, but also a great way to make sure that how it is solved is not leaked out. All who join are on the same blind playing field.
I urge you to gather a group of your mates/family members – six people max and go find Ivy. Or fail. Either way, you will have had a fantabulous shared experience like no other.
TICKETS for Plymouth Point may be Purchased HERE. You pick a date and time and buy one ticket. You will receive an email the day before with instructions and a link for you to forward to the other participants in your group.
