Swamp Motel, the guys that are notorious in the immersive experience world for creating site specific adventures have done it again. This time we’re invited into a mysterious ‘Government building’ in Westminster, between The Ministry of Justice and The Department of Health & Social Care.
Here you’ll be immediately thrown into a dystopian world where you get to know the work of Saint Jude, a company which uses software to communicate with people in lifelong, irreversible comas – reading their brain patterns and translating them into speech.
You’re given a booklet to read whilst you wait to be taken up. Here is where you’re asked to take on the role of a ‘guide star’, to help administer St Jude’s pioneering treatment, in the hopes of awakening a sleeper. I hadn’t done any research into the experience before I went so it felt so eerie but I was invested.
The experience
Ok so once we’ve had a little read of the booklet, we’re taking upstairs through creepy, 90’s office style corridors and into a room. There, Stefan, the only live actor in the show, explains how the Echoslump (machine used to talk to the sleeper) works. It feels a bit daunting, especially because it’s a solo experience but I promise, it’s fantastic.
Once you go through the “induction” you’re taken to your cubicle and it’s time to connect to your sleeper. You can make notes and print them out and speak to your sleeper. Even though I know it’s not real, my brain really believed it was!
The show is only an hour long and there’s no bar or Instagrammable bits or much in the way of interaction with anybody who isn’t an AI. But ‘Saint Jude’ is a way more engrossing piece of storytelling than near enough every other immersive show in town. It’s really a brilliant peice of work which has no doubt countless hours put into it.
Tickets are priced at £25 but if you let yourself get into it, I can guarantee it’s nothing like you’ve ever experienced before.
Where: 100 Petty France, SW1H 9EW
When: Tues-Sun through 12 March 2022
Tickets: www.saintjude.ai
Hello You
I’m Rosie!
