Seize the Show blasts off with a live, interactive virtual escape room, Rubix Control, which puts players on their way to civilise Mars when disaster strikes. Players are put into two teams, ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’, and take part in the interactive storyboard to discover who the snake amongst the team is. 

Their website states that “since Covid-19 shut down theatres, Seize the Show has been offering audiences a chance to enter the interactive world of a theatrical production from their homes”; and I took part in Rubix Control last night. There have been previous offerings and based on this one, there will be many more.

You don’t need to worry if you’re not good at puzzles; there is a chat that runs alongside the experience so you can talk to your fellow team mates and help each other to the right answers. There is also a character called SUM who is there to help you if you get stuck.

The beginning is a little slow if you are looking for puzzles, but it sets the scene brilliantly and the actors make it entirely believable that you are on a space mission with them and that you need to save them.

The whole piece is extremely well put together and is brought to your living room via Zoom; what happens on your screen and your phone syncs together well. Once you select your ‘player’ on a team vote, you are seamlessly taken through to another Zoom room away from the other team. Your ‘player(s)’ then talk you through clues and what is happening to them to solve a code. 

This then patches you in and out very authentically throughout the hour, where you spend time in a big Zoom room and then back to the smaller ones. 

Don’t worry for those of you that are camera shy, you and your microphone are off at all times so only the actors are seen.

Put together by CEO, writer and Broadway producer David Carpenter, he has a large and efficient team working with him to make this a working interactive experience. We spend most of our time with Michael Indeglio, who is excellent at playing Dr Quatermass.  Everyone’s experience and actors will be different and it is a real credit to the Seize the Show team that this is done live. 

Rubix Control is less of an escape room as there are perhaps 4 puzzles to be solved. I went in having done a lot of in-person and virtual escape rooms so was slightly disappointed at the lack of puzzles that were given. It is an enjoyable experience however, and if you have been to any murder mystery parties, it is more akin to this; like an interactive storyboard where you use your phones to select parts of the game and solve some small puzzles. 

The escape room offers different puzzles each time you play so you can play more than once.

Rubix Control is available from Thursday 4 – Sat 6 February 2021 and tickets can be booked here. UK readers should be aware that the times shown on the ticket page are EST time. 

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Emma Littler