Breaking into theatre with Heist Live

Last night I broke into a building, navigated around mechanical and human obstacles, stole something precious and escaped scot-free. If I’m being a bit cagey about the details it’s because I don’t want to incriminate myself, or perhaps I just don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who hasn’t made it to Heist Live yet. It’s an exhilarating experience and though it hasn’t made me rethink my career choice, it’s definitely made me a better theatre goer.

Taking over five floors of Theatre Delicatessen’s 35 Marylebone High Street, interactive company differenceENGINE have invited you to take part in a robbery. You are introduced to each other with code names and told you must plan the job – there are 17 possible outcomes. Our gang committed the perfect crime but for those who got caught or corrupted the ending is somewhat different.

differenceENGINE specialise in choice-laden, immersive experiences that fuse theatre, games and technology together. They’re not alone in recognising the public’s hunger for performances that are more like events. Last weekend saw Nabokov celebrated the fifth anniversary of their Arts Club, a party that mixes new writing with DJ’s, cabaret and visual arts. Meanwhile, immersive theatre makers RIFT – previously RETZ – are taking their cue from the incredibly successful Hotel Medea and hosting an overnight Macbeth this summer in a London tower block.

The question ‘are these experiences theatre?’ is one that has quietly rumbled along since the granddaddies of this movement – Punchdrunk – first took over the Battersea Arts Centre. It’s obvious these examples are on a scale. But while Nabokov’s is more experience led – as I would say is Medea – and RIFT’s has yet to prove itself either way, I’d say that at its heart Heist Live is theatre. It’s a celebration and interrogation of the performance/audience interaction. What’s more Heist Live is teaching us how to get the most from being a theatre audience.

For me what makes differenceENGINE’s different is how much it makes its audience focus on their role in creating the story they are a part of. Their emphasis on proactively making decisions that open up the next part of the narrative places us in the centre of the performer/audience collaborative relationship.

Heist Live works so well because differenceENGINE understand that audiences cannot be expected to jump into such a central role without a lot of hand holding. Like the computer games that inspired it, the initial interactions with both the characters and each other are sophisticatedly orchestrated to make everyone feel comfortable. They’re like training levels if you will and by the end of them even the most passive member of the group feels that they have a voice and is ready to break in.

I’m told Heist Live sold out within hours and that it is members of the general public who have bought the tickets, not just the usual theatre goers. Perhaps it can act as a door way to inspiring Joe (or indeed Jane) Public to see more theatre. And perhaps when they do, they’ll teach us a thing or two about how to engage with it.