This did not feel like a normal night out from the moment I arrived.<\/p>\n
What I got instead was a group of strangers politely sizing each other up like we were all about to co-sign a very suspicious mortgage.<\/p>\n
The Traitors: Live Experience in London did not disappoint<\/p>\n
The Traitors: Live Experience is part immersive theatre and part social experiment, but mostly a reminder that the majority of us would crumble immediately under mild psychological pressure and a dramatic lighting cue.<\/p>\n
The venue was a breezy 15-minute walk from Charing Cross and as soon as we stepped inside, it was clear \u2013 this is not your typical Tuesday after-work activity.<\/p>\n
Instead, it\u2019s a carefully orchestrated descent into distrust, with the addition of cloaks and candelabras.<\/p>\n
I have to admit, I was quite apprehensive beforehand.<\/p>\n
As much as I love to religiously watch the show and shout at the TV when yet another fellow faithful is voted out, this was different.<\/p>\n
It was an easy walk from Charring Cross station, or you could get the tube to Covent Garden<\/p>\n
On the train up to London, my friend and I made a pact that we would dive headfirst into the experience and completely commit.<\/p>\n
In all honesty, this is the perfect way to embrace the three-hour interactive activity.<\/p>\n
The set design leans heavily into the gothic grandeur of a Scottish castle, which is where the popular BBC programme is filmed.<\/p>\n
There are even props from the show on the walls and a knight in shining armour guarding the stretch of corridor you walk through.<\/p>\n
We grabbed a fizzy ros\u00e9 (a shout-out to the much-loved murdered faithful, Diane, in series two) and introduced ourselves to the group before being called for the game.<\/p>\n
Reporter Cara Simmonds and colleague Alex Langridge tried out the immersive experience<\/p>\n
Now don\u2019t panic, you can tell staff if you really don\u2019t want to be a traitor before it starts \u2013 but seriously, where is the fun in that?<\/p>\n
Then, after being led to our own round table room, it begins and everything escalates quickly. Everyone had switched into detective mode almost immediately.<\/p>\n
Now I don\u2019t want to spoil anything, but the game whizzed by. I was chosen as a faithful by our own \u2018Claudia\u2019, the amazing (and fittingly befringed) Morana, who guided us through the whole experience.<\/p>\n
Teams are formed, tasks are explained and trust is encouraged.<\/p>\n
Which, of course, is the first joke. Because within minutes, trust is already collapsing in on itself like a badly constructed souffl\u00e9.<\/p>\n
A chandelier made up of spooky cloaked figures hangs prominently in the main bar area<\/p>\n
The missions are well-paced and suitably theatrical, designed to get people talking and inevitably accusing each other based on what can only be described as \u201cvibes\u201d.<\/p>\n
At one point, someone was considered suspicious because of the way they covered their face when laughing.<\/p>\n
My friend was then accused of \u201cbeing too quiet and looking like she knows something\u201d, which, in fairness, is a dangerous facial expression to have in this environment.<\/p>\n
And then comes the round table, along with the classic banishments.<\/p>\n
Accusations are made with increasing confidence and decreasing logic. I was very much guilty of this.<\/p>\n
Even the corridors that you are led down reflect the gothic theming perfectly<\/p>\n
The people you met 45 minutes earlier are suddenly defending each other with courtroom-level intensity.<\/p>\n
It would be intimidating if it weren\u2019t so unintentionally funny, and we all constantly found ourselves cracking up in fits of laughter.<\/p>\n
Production-wise, it is super slick. Lighting and sound do a lot of heavy lifting in creating tension, and our fantastic host kept everything moving even when the group dynamic threatened to veer into total confusion.<\/p>\n
There is, inevitably, a moment where players are sadly either murdered or banished.<\/p>\n
But don’t worry, the experience doesn’t end there \u2013 instead, you are taken to another room where you can watch the remaining game unfold as you complete your own tasks.<\/p>\n
Players can win themselves shields to protect them from being murdered, just like the TV show<\/p>\n
I managed to fight my way to the final, where I was then sadly voted out.<\/p>\n
By the end, you leave with two certainties.<\/p>\n
One is that the production is cleverly designed, immersive and hugely entertaining.<\/p>\n
And two, if you were ever placed in a real-life traitor scenario, you would probably accuse your partner within the first five minutes and feel extremely confident about it.<\/p>\n
I myself left questioning the reliability of strangers, my friend and my own ability to judge basic human behaviour. In summary, it was brilliant.<\/p>\n
Celebrities David Olusoga, Nick Mohammed, host Claudia Winkleman, Alan Carr, Cat Burns and Joe Marler at the final of The Celebrity Traitors. Picture: BBC\/Studio Lambert\/Euan Cherry<\/p>\n