Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brent Morgan on June 4, 2013 at 14:09

Hi just to stir things up a bit.

It would of been really interesting to split you guys up a bit so you were not all in a group together.

With 2 different paths that the audience could take it would be interesting to see how they compared and how your understanding of the story might of been different. But time travel isn't possible so oh well lets move on.

Just to fill you in a bit on the people who came to play. We had a mix across the week young and old, pregnant to um not pregnant, Theatre audiences to hard core gamers and all in between. It was a real joy to see how each group approached the situation completely differently. No two doing the same thing.

The last thing the audience was asked to do was to go to the Packet pub in the Bay, it was exciting how buzzing the audience was and how many questions they had and how much they wanted to share the experience with each other as well as us the performers. You also got a glimpse at relationships that had been formed in teams that had been put together either from the start or nearer the end.

Just on a personal note from myself, I think what Yellowbrick managed to achieve on what was a very small budget for this type of event was amazing. Gaming is very new to arts scene in Wales but hopefully it will continue to grow and become as established as it has over the bridge and beyond and that we don't have to wait long for the next Yellowbrick show.

P.S. If you have been bit by the gaming bug look out for 2.8 Hours the Asylum by Bristol company Slingshot I have had the pleasure of working with them a few times and they have been doing this since 2008 so have a few years behind them.

Permalink Reply by Buddug James Jones on June 4, 2013 at 21:36

Hey Brent! 

In hindsight, I regret not splitting up as a group...We were all curious to find out what happened on the other path, if the story was different etc .If we knew there was 2 different journeys to take we probably would have, however being told this right at the start could possible ruin what YelloBrick were looking to create... Also we did miss out on seeing you Brent!

You know you say you had young, old, pregnant, non-pregnant(haha!)- would you still say though they were the theatre crowd? This is just something that I wonder about in general at the moment, but Reverie just made me think more about it because it is something for everyone. I was explaining just last night actually to some friends (who never go to the theatre) about it and they were gutted they missed it. It's just a question to ask- how do you reach beyond the 'theatre crowd' you know? Maybe YelloBrick did do it? But I can't help but wonder, what if they did it through the Millennium Centre who have got a broader reach? (P.S I LOVE Chapter!)

I think this company can grow soooo much, I mean. If this is what they do on their second ever street game (and with low budget), just IMAGINE what they could do with loads of money!! 

Brent, maybe you can clarify one thing for us? You know the characters we were meeting at each station (you were one of them right??), what was their relationship to Tom? 

I've already had a look at that- TOTALLY going! The bite I got from Reverie is definitely going to leave a scar and I think I am hooked... 

Here's a link if anyone is interested in 2.8 Hours - It's coming to Cardiff in August!

Permalink Reply by Brent Morgan on June 5, 2013 at 7:56

My understanding is we as characters were friends of Tom people he was trying to help pass over fully instead of being trapped in limbo.

Did you buy Tom's note book. It helped fill in some of the story about what happened between Everwake and Reverie such as characters like Adam who didn't feature much in the game only in passing mentions.

However after it was discovered Red Men were using his blood to pass into limbo Tom split his sole up and gave it to the character to take care off to stop the Red Men from taking more blood and continuing crossing over into limbo.

Basically mates doing what they can to help each other.

I don't think we did just have a theatre audience, games do seem to have this crossover power and some how filter through to people who normally steer well clear of theatre.

Permalink Reply by Lauren Blacklaw-Jones on June 6, 2013 at 3:56

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t put anything on the comments board until now, also I’m really sorry we missed the Packet, I wanted to speak to everyone involved! Here are my thoughts on REVERIE.

It’s interesting that you question whether the participants were a theatre crowd or not, because whilst I certainly attend theatres, Reverie appealed to me wholly from a game playing perspective. I would say that Reverie is neither completely theatre nor game but a mixture of both, and perhaps personally for me it leans more towards the game element.

I appreciate the intention that the participant’s experience starts as soon as they buy the ticket, but my own preference is for most of the story to be revealed during the game as I do try to avoid spending more time than necessary at the computer (as seemed the case for a number of other players in our team too). This, combined with the fact that I only secured my ticket last minute and so didn’t have time for the amount of research needed to understand the online content beforehand, meant that a girl on our team who had read and watched everything had to explain the very thorough story to us at several points throughout.

We were really tired after the 3 hours! I realise the 3 hrs were needed to get from location to location on foot, but consequently the moments of action felt quite far apart and a bit sporadic. Donna did a fantastic job of setting the scene and making us really tense in preparation! I loved the beginning, for our group it was the narrow alley with the Red Woman in the middle who we couldn’t pass but had to flatten ourselves against the wall, I really believed the scene! I thought the idea of having to slow down, be silent and even stop was a great twist to the chase game which made our alley experience feel even more perilous. As the woman approached us, all I wanted to do was run screaming but the alley was so narrow we couldn’t, she even came so close as to sniff around for my presence! However, once we’d arrived at the second and third locations it was clear to us that there were no real dangers in between. This was disappointing as the website had let me to believe there certainly would be chasing with advice such as ‘’… explore and RUN... Run like your soul depended on it.’’  I thought reducing the game area or increasing the number of Red Men would both have the effect of condensing the perilous experiences advertised online (which is of course what made me want to play).

As we first approached the area outside the millennium centre I thought this would be where we were chased, it’s such a perfect spot for it. But here it was confirmed there would be no chasing, the Red people mostly watching us pass. In fact once, the Red Woman on the square was talking to some members of the public and didn’t notice us, another time she walked into Sainsbury’s looking at her phone (was it her break time?) and the man walked away from us too! I hoped it was to lull us into a false sense of security and that there would be a burst of chasing there somewhere.. However around the corner was an exciting moment as again the area was narrow. We hadn’t noticed the Red Woman hidden amongst the crowds until we were next to her. I thought her well placed, as if the combination of our thrill at her closeness and our urge not to be seen behaving oddly (having stopped mid step and then doing Scooby Doo-creeping away) in front of everybody was predicted.

I thought the boat was great, loved the idea of dodging around in the dark trying not to get cleaned -  the countdown made us a lot more frantic, and loved fishing for the correct piece of soul, his was another story that I believed because of his earnestness! He was very engaging. I also enjoyed the mini monster truck obstacle course for Auntie Elsie’s birthday and our time spent with the mad guy wearing the colander felt like we had foiled the Red Man’s plan when all our wires connected and enabled us to overhear his conversation outside. This was also the only time we came close to being chased.  What was the connection with the salon? Did Toms mum run the salon? Was Moby Dick Tom’s favourite book? I really really enjoyed the interactive quality of the whole game, and in some fab locations too.

 I enjoyed that our two groups reunited towards the penultimate scene, we had enough time to speculate about what was coming and to discuss what had happened to us (at this point I realised there had been no black Audi chasing us, which I had hoped for). The scene inside was great, I felt the importance of the stand-off between Donna and the Red woman, the Red woman’s frustration and how imperative it was that we understood. However, by that time I was tired and was struggling to put together everything we’d found out, all the online content and what we were learning during that scene.

During the final scene all was revealed, again felt a bit in danger as we were on their turf and the door was blocked. I felt it was a bit of a shame that Tom’s story wasn’t as alive for me as it could have been, but accept that it was my preference to avoid the online content that caused this. Thanks for a fantastic experience and well done to everyone involved, I would certainly play another of your games!

Lauren Blacklaw-Jones

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page