‘Escape From Godot’: An Immersive Escape Room and Theatrical Experience

A few minutes after the play begins, the actors stop, empty their pockets, and repeat their last few lines. They do this again and again, gradually growing louder and more testy. This repetition, mimicking a vinyl record stuck on a loop, continues for a few more minutes. The actors claim they can’t move because they are “waiting for Godot.” However, they are really waiting for the audience to get up, walk onstage, and start piecing together a puzzle from the scattered paper fragments.

In “Escape From Godot,” an escape room entwined with theatrical performance, traditional boundaries are blurred. The audience becomes participants in a game that requires interaction with props to propel the narrative forward. Puzzles are embedded in the script, ensuring that the players become actors who communicate abstractly with the performers.

Drawing inspiration from Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot,” this theatrical escape room explores similar existential themes. It delves into human communication, self-interest, free will, and empathy. There is no Godot, just as in Beckett’s original, leaving everyone caught in a world where the mundane and absurd coexist.

When my group of seven strangers and I hesitated to jump onstage, it broke social norms of theater and personal boundaries. One person nervously scanned his ticket for clues, while another flipped through a notebook. We whispered, unsure about the next step. After seven minutes, realizing that the show wouldn’t proceed without our intervention, we started working together. We crafted a message from the ephemera the actors had dropped, which allowed the performers to move forward to the next scene.

Jeff Crocker, co-creator of the show, later shared that my group wasn’t the longest to sit in awkward silence. Jeff and his wife Andy, the duo behind Mister & Mischief, have created experiences for theme parks, zoos, and museums. “Escape From Godot” is their first escape room.

Jeff explained that the dilemma of getting up onstage in the middle of a scene is a hidden puzzle itself. It challenges the audience to break social norms and act boldly. “Escape From Godot” premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2018 and has been periodically revived. This latest run, part of a convention organized by escape room aficionado site Room Escape Artist, sold out so quickly that it has been extended.

The idea originated when Jeff heard about an escape room in Europe set throughout a train. Joking about potential projects, the Crockers hit upon “Waiting for Godot.” Jeff noted that while “Waiting for Godot” is famously known as a play where nothing happens, it holds deeper existential questions, often overlooked in not-so-great productions.

“Escape From Godot” weaves puzzles into monologues and props, including bowler hats and baskets with locks. Solving these puzzles often requires interpreting the actors’ lines and collaborating as a group. The experience even nods towards other theatrical works. One puzzle involved a monologue about famous cats, requiring us to unlock a combination lock affixed to a basket. The show won’t start unless guests solve an initial puzzle, aligning tickets with a theater seating chart to find the correct seat.

The longer the audience takes to solve a puzzle, the louder and faster the monologues become, creating tension but also maintaining a playful tone. Audience members find themselves clapping for each other by the end of the show, as actors often become spectators, watching the audience tackle the puzzles.

Jeff Crocker noted that while they initially aimed to have fun with escaping a monotonous play, the puzzles began to support the themes of “Waiting for Godot.” The interactive nature of the show engages with Beckett’s existential themes while adding a touch of mischief.

By the end of the show, roles are reversed. Audience members become performers, while actors turn into spectators, waiting much like Beckett’s characters. The final message aligns with Beckett’s text: we’re all performers, waiting for our cue.

Source: LA Times