Lockdown trip to Plymouth Point – Andy Dixon, CEO Scene2 Ltd

12 weeks into this online only world has meant endless virtual meetings, zoom socialising and video call consulting, with little scope for problem-solving, other than how to socially distance in every scenario of life.

When our friends at Swamp Motel, geniuses in the immersive theatre world, launched Plymouth Point, I was intrigued to see how their immersive magic could translate online for an engaging experience – so instantly signed us up.

“Plymouth Point is seriously gripping stuff” says Miriam Gillison in The Guardian, giving it a 4 star review; so our expectations were high & Swamp Motel did not disappoint.

An anxious lady from Plymouth Point neighbourhood watch appears on our chat and is our live guide into the online puzzles that lie ahead.  This lady clearly “needed our help” & instantly added a sense of mystery and excitement.  Her neighbour has gone missing…..the game is on.

The brilliance of this online event is that there is nothing new to learn to take part.  We are all now experts on Zoom and using social media channels – Google, YouTube and Wikipedia is no problem for any of us.  Involving 3 families (including our own 3 teenagers) the requirement to search Facebook to uncover hidden secrets in a person’s profile, engages the younger generation straight away.  Who knew they were such experts at digging deep to work out someone’s password!

Historical research (something for the oldies) is mixed with profile probing (perfect for the youngsters) giving everyone a sense of a collaborative private detective agency.  Our neighbourhood watch leader keeps her distance but drops a clue or two into the chat bar, to save us from disappearing down a rabbit hole and help to get us back on track – we have a job to do and it really feels like we are the only people who can help uncover the mystery of Plymouth Point.

Plymouth Point feels like a real-life lockdown mystery and has been cleverly created with the careful attention to detail and superb storytelling craftsmanship we expect from the team at Swamp Motel.  Of course nothing will ever replace the experience of an immersive journey through real-life sets, but this clever use of the online trickery and virtual tools keeps us engaged in this virtual storytelling alternative right until the end.  We did it, and solved the mystery of Plymouth Point.  It is irrelevant that tomorrow another team will do the same -we helped an anxious lady against the clock and at times like this, surely that is what matters?

Thank you Swamp Motel – a brilliant and truly different night in!

 Plymouth Point is online until 2 August and booking up fast – this has to be one of the Don’t Miss events of Lockdown.

If you want to find out more about Scene2…Get in touch