Writers: Mia Jerome, Omar F. Okai and Casey Jay Andrews
Director: Omar F. Okai
Enitan’s Game, an immersive theatre cum escape room for children aged 6-11 years, follows Enitan (Rachael Oriowo), a woman of Caribbean and Nigerian heritage on the day of her grandfather’s memorial. We are customers in her inherited bits and bobs shop, full of trinkets and memories that trace both her upbringing in the UK and the places her family have brought their memories from. She is struggling to come up with a eulogy and needs our help.
With the encouragement of employee Ged (Julian Smith), she uncovers a beautiful handmade wooden game, made for her as a child by her grandfather. To win the game we must solve three riddles and puzzles to find pieces of memory. Think a wholesome, un-terrifying Jumanji. Running at a tight 50 minutes the narrative moves forward with force and leaves no room for drifting eyes or hands which is both a blessing and a curse in that the show is always engaging, but it sometimes feels that there is an unexplored richness in the environment.
Enitan’s Game gestures heavily towards finding whimsy in memory. It is no mean feat to inspire nostalgia in a group of children who haven’t lived long enough to hold the distance required to elicit those kinds of feelings sincerely, but the whimsy is certainly achieved. The set, led by Kate Rigby, is incredible, bringing a true-to-life shop and its yard to a warehouse in Wembley. It is full to the brim in every corner with physical moments of a long life lived. Lighting and video by Sarah Readman bring the magic to the realism, conjuring both the physical and the ephemeral presence of other characters. Oriowo and Smith both give robust performances, steering the audience towards a wholesome end.
Entinan’s Game is an excellent introduction to immersive theatre for the next generation of audience members. The show contains within it the same wonder and amazement that many adults felt seeing Punchdrunk’s more mature work, proof that theatre on a smaller scale for smaller people need not be small in effect. It perhaps lacks the physicality that makes some of Punchdrunk’s other work so special but is otherwise a pitch-perfect and well-constructed piece of immersive family theatre.
Runs until 1st September
