The Grift Review – A Breathless Immersive Theatre Adventure

For those of you who haven’t read our preview, The Grift is billed as an immersive theatre experience, with a focus on ‘the con’ and takes place at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, helping to give it a feel of the classic BBC show ‘The Hustle’

Taking approximately 2 hours, yet feeling like 20 minutes, this is an excellent evening out for groups of all sizes. You can go individually or in a group, I attended in a pair and had an excellent time, there are only about 50 people total at each show which are then organised into smaller teams of 10 or so.

You’ll want to turn up a little early to sign in and you’ll be given a colour coded key that determines your team. Then gather in the main room where you can buy a drink, mingle with fellow grifters and wait for the scene to be set and the action to begin.

From the start, you are thrown into a breathless adventure comprised of a number of ‘tests’ where you have to first locate the test, meet the character you are helping there who will then guide you through a creative problem to solve.

Solving this problem reveals the code allowing you to access a locked box containing instructions to pull off a small con. Successfully completing each con gives you access to the next location before everyone is guided to a large room for the denouement and the final ‘big’ con. The Crystal ‘Con’ Maze? Not quite…

Throughout the 5 scenarios, you are subtly and artfully guided by the actors – who are truly excellent at generating an immersive experience, improvising on the fly and creating a sense of urgency and nervous tension.

Some of the problems are genuinely difficult, and even if you know nobody else in your group, you all naturally bond through a shared sense of accomplishment. The actors do a good job of involving everyone and even those who are somewhat shy will eventually find themselves drawn in!

Go with the right attitude and a sense of adventure you’ll be guaranteed an excellent evening that you’ll be telling everyone about for weeks

Our group didn’t really struggle with any of the problems, so I can’t comment on how the actors will manage to guide groups that do, but my hunch would be they’d do it quite well and with a decent dash of humour to boot.

Part of the enjoyment also comes from the knowledge that this is your own experience – nobody will ever have the exact same Grift as you. The other clue in getting the most from your evening is in the genre name – immersive theatre.

Once you really start letting go and immersing yourself into your ‘role’ the fun really starts – you even get to the point where you are suspicious of random people who happen to be in the vicinity!

You can book tickets for the Grift here