Review: SAINT JUDE, Swamp Motel

Photo credit: Alexander Nicolaou

Founded by previous creative associates at renowned immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, Swamp Motel specialises in immersive entertainment across online formats and site-specific venues. Unlike the colossal scale of a typical Punchdrunk show, Swamp Motel’s latest immersive experience is a very personal, intimate and individual experience.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Swamp Motel’s latest offering, and we think the less you know going into Saint Jude, the better. Saint Jude describes itself as an ‘immersive psychological thriller’ and the marketing around the show is very dedicated to maintaining the illusion and the world-building around the experience. Upon arrival, audience members are greeted as ‘volunteers’ and handed some literature which explains the aims of the Saint Jude organisation – a medical technology company that allows volunteers to speak and communicate with unconscious coma patients.

For those not well versed in Catholicism, Saint Jude is the patron saint of lost causes. It’s only by fortune of being a Florence + the Machine fan that I personally happened upon that particular piece of trivia, and the apostolic resonances are not acknowledged in the experience, so the performance could certainly have drawn that out more. 

After a quick briefing, audience members are led to a room with individual booths where you are seated for your own private performance for an hour as you listen and communicate with your assigned patient. You are able to talk and listen to your patient, who responds with personalised answers courtesy of AI technology. There’s nothing like a disembodied voice repeated back your star sign and the name of your girlfriend to send a shiver down your spine.

Although opportunities to explore the space are limited, there is remarkable attention to detail in the set of this experience – from doors unnervingly labelled with obscure painful sounding procedures like ‘molecular trepanning’ to threatening posters with stringent rules for volunteers.

Swamp Motel emphatically insists that this is not an escape room, but you are tasked with challenges and puzzle solving which inject the same kind of adrenaline into the experience. We can guarantee that you will have never experience anything like this, and we’re already planning our next trip.

A completely unique, delightfully creepy and utterly immersive hour of mystery and intrigue.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

Saint Jude plays at 100 Petty France until 12 March, with tickets available here.