Smite: An Immersive Murder Mystery Review

Murder, murder! Read all about it! There’s been a murder of the streets of London and Scotland Yard are looking for individuals to help their investigations.

Parchment Sword Stone are an immersive and interactive Theatre Company based in London. Their passion is for placing the audience at the very heart of highly reactive narratives, and empowering them with agency in every interaction. And their latest immersive world is Smite: An Immersive Murder Mystery, set in London in 1892. With five innocent souls murdered and the city gripped with fear, who will heed the call to help.

Scotland Yard is under pressure to deliver for a failing Government and the outraged residents of London are starting to ask questions. You will become a Special Constable and aid the Metropolitan Police in cracking this curious case. Those in power have failed in their duty to protect London and Smite puts you at the heart of the investigation. Your decisions will shape the evening and your choices really matter.

The experience takes places at Crypt, a new immersive theatre venue in the heart of London’s West End. It’s an atmospheric underground space located in St Peter’s Church in Bethnal Green. Upon arrival you are greeted by Constable Robert Tailor, Bobby for short, played by Ethan Palmer. You are immediately immersed into the production as Bobby greets us as special constables arriving to assist the investigation. Taking us inside the venue you instantly feel taken back in time with the feel of bygone Victorian times.

Passed onto Detective Lincoln Manning, played by Ewan Bagshaw, he explains the two teams that you’re able to assist. The deployment room is run by Sergeant Seán McGriel, Johnjoe Irwin, whilst Miss Quinn Michaels, Poppy Waldron, runs Profiling. In deployment you oversee the teams in the field, send them out to garner clues and gather intel. Surveying a map of London, you are trying to determine where the next murder will happen and get ahead of it.

In the profiling department it’s all about piecing together information from police reports and assembling facts. Trying to determine who the killer is from all the information known about each death. Alongside very comprehensive police report you could also make calls on the department’s telephone. The detail that went into this production was extremely impressive! You only needed to look at one of the many police reports, clues, and maps, to see just how much hard work had gone into it. Parchment Sword Stone produced an impressive experience!

Things could be quite chaotic at times as new knowledge came to light and clues were shared between teams. I spent the majority of my time at Smite in the deployment team. I got far too invested at times whilst my friend sat back and took more of an observer role. The great thing with Smite: An Immersive Murder Mystery was that you could choose your personal level of interaction. Both of us enjoyed the performance so sitting back doesn’t take away the whole experience.

The whole production takes two hours but the story flows leading to finding the murder suspect and motive. The cast would bring the audience together at key stages to keep everyone on track and updated. The whole experience was so much fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Smite: An Immersive Murder Mystery is a unique experience and one I’d highly recommend. And thanks to barmaid Rosie Blight, Amber Dawn, who kept us hydrated for the night whilst also sticking in character.

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