Les Enfants Terribles present a pioneering new immersive adventure Sherlock Holmes

Called upon by Watson, to help him and Sherlock figure out who killed The Foreign Secretary, The Home Secretary and Lord Chamberlain I donned on my finest detective gear.

It was time for me to travel back in time to Victoria London to immerse myself into the world of Sherlock Holmes where my powers of deduction were required to solve the case of who killed the MP’s before the murderer struck again.

Thanks to Les Enfants Terribles for recruiting me to help solve The Case of the Hung Parliament.

Les Enfants Terribles

Les Enfants Terribles were founded back in 2001 and run by Artistic Director Oliver Lansley, and joined along with Creative Director James Seager. They have worked together pushing the boundaries of immersive theatre, bringing a unique take on the more traditional stage show. They are known for their striking visual aesthetic and innovative use of props, puppetry and live music and are constantly pushing the boundaries exploring new ways of telling stories and immersing audiences in the weird and wonderful situations. Their artistic policy is simply to make theatre they love that more exciting.

This pioneering theatre company has bought to venues around the world ground breaking immersive productions of Alice’s Adventures Underground, Dinner at the Twits, The Game’s Afoot, Inside Pussy Riot and United Queendom, as well as original and innovative stage shows The Trench, The Terrible Infants and The Vaudevillans.  Plus outdoor family touring work such as The Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie and The Fantastical Flying Exploratory and large scale public events and installations in the corporate and cultural sectors for the likes of The British Library and the V&A.

Bringing these amazing shows to life they have won a variety of top industry awards, and even been nominated for an Olivier Award back in 2015, made the Stage Power 100 List in 2017 and was nominated for The Stage Innovation Award in 2016. 

In collaboration with virtual reality company LIVR and suitable for 12+, Les Enfants Terribles present a new pioneering multi sensory, intricate immersive adventure The Case of the Hung Parliament which is played entirely online. Written by Oliver Lansley and Anthony Spargo with inspiration taken from the 2016 live show The Games’ Afoot.

“Our hope and desire with this experience is to offer a fun and engaging alternative to the traditional board game! We wanted to provide an alternative and enjoyable way for families and friends to be able to come together to crack the case and enjoy a new form of theatrical entertainment during this time and also bring back some connectivity to live entertainment which has sorely been missing over the last year.”

James Seager and Oliver Lansley

With live performance, immersive 360 technology and over 100 clues to discover the question on everyone’s lips is who killed the MP’s and why?

Solving The Case of the Hung Parliament from home

As one of the newest recruits of Scotland Yard, it was up to me and other called upon detectives to solve The Case of the Hung Parliament along with Dr Watson. The question is though who done it, what was their motive and method?

“The Home Secretary, The Foreign Secretary and the Lord Chamberlain have all been found hung in their own chambers. Each victim was killed on their birthday, and each received a card containing a cryptic quote. But what does this mean?”

As Sherlock was away on another crime Dr Watson was at hand instead to help us unravel this Victorian murder where I got to investigate the crime scenes, search for hidden clues, hunt for facts and even got to question the suspects along with other sleuths.

Working against the clock, though we just had 75 minutes to hunt for clues, read reports, and interview live suspects.

Guided through the process by Dr Watson who sent me and others online links to the crime scenes, and links to interact with the suspects, who included a factory owner, an anarchist, a political activist and a newspaper editor it was up to us to solve the case.

Looking around each crime scene using 360 degree technology we roamed and hunted every corner of the rooms. Zooming on a book, map, letter, whiskey bottle and so much more along with a few red herrings there was much to discover.

Once we had explored each of the crimes scenes of where the MP’s were found dead we was then all split into groups to question a forensics expert or delve into Scotland Yard’s files on the suspects and the deceased.

After unravelling even more information it was time to interrogate the suspects. However as time was ticking we each got split up to question one suspect of our choosing so I opted to question the owner of the factory Ms Cartwright. Afterwards we went to Holmes’ study to take a glimpse of the clues on his deductions before he had to head on off.

With all our evidence in hand it was then on for each of us to name who we believed to be the murderer of the MPs, and their method and motive in why.

Unfortunately I and none of my fellow other newly recruited detectives managed to solve the mystery correctly. Thankfully Sherlock Holmes was back in the nick of time to arrest the culprit before they murdered again. Sherlock then proceeded to explain how he pieced all the evidence together to lead to the arrest.

Neverless even though we might not be new Sherlocks it was a great group bonding experience.

Verdict

Sherlock Holmes The Case of the Hung Parliament is a combination of immersive theatre and escape rooms merged together.

I have played quite a number of online murder mysteries and online escape rooms at home during the pandemic and even though they have been fun this one by Les Enfants Terribles has been my favourite and here is why:

• well written murder mystery by the creative team
• whole experience is played online via zoom and there was no glitching and no pausing
• high quality rooms to explore with 360 degree technology making it easy to navigate around the each room
• rooms are full of props to explore and zoom in on
• over 100 clues to discover in all
• great performance played by all cast

• 

• 

I particularly enjoyed looking around the rooms of where each MP was found hung, clicking on numerous objects to discover if there could be a link to help solve the case of their murder. Even some objects you could play such as the piano.

Plus I enjoyed visiting the lab to ask questions about how the victims may of possibly died.

The only one quibble I do have though about the whole game is that I think it was a little hard to solve and there was a little too much reading. Also I would of liked to have been able to have real interaction with the characters throughout the show which you couldn’t as scenes with the suspects where all pre-recorded. The way you got your answers was like an adventure game by clicking on boxes.

Dr Watson though is played by a real performer though to help navigate you through the whole experience. As there are a range of different time slots Dr Watson is played via a number of performers. On the night I played it was played by David Ahmad who performed out the role really well and easily guided us through the whole game making it a real delight.

As a fan of immersive theatre and escape rooms I do miss exploring and immersing with people in real life but this is the next best thing.

This immersive murder mystery is a fun way to connect with friends, family or even work colleagues and was equally as fun with other like minded strangers.

So if your a theatre fan who loves a good murder mystery, then I highly recommend booking this.

Will you be able to solve the mystery of who killed the MP’s and why?

Les Enfants Terribles Sherlock Holmes book now

Les Enfants Terribles presents Sherlock Holmes The Case of the Hung Parliament running until 4 April 2021.

Online murder mystery: www.sherlockimmersive.com
Book: Variety of time slots, book Public ticket or Private slot
(NOTE Tickets are per person NOT per device)
Cost: Public ticket £17.50 or Private £105 for up to 5 friends
Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes approximately
Age suitability: 12 years plus
Email: bookings@lesenfantsterribles.co.uk

Thank you Les Enfants Terribles for letting me help Sherlock, Dr Watson, and others solve The Case of the Hung Parliament. All views are my own honest opinion.