Escape from Peligro Island

A 'choose your own adventure' play with vampires, wolves and villains? Hand us our controller - we can't let the kids have all the fun!

First published on 25 Jan 2012. Updated on 6 May 2012.

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A plane crash-lands on a mysterious island. There are bloodthirsty vampires, assassin wolves and hideous villains with serious superpowers. With your interactive controller in hand, can you make the right choices to escape from Peligro Island alive?

Actor Jude Henshall tells Time Out what it’s like to be at the mercy of the audience’s choices…

You’re backstage, 10 minutes till curtain call, what are you feeling?
It’s possibly the most terrifying idea that an actor could be faced with! Before each performance the three of us are going over lines in a bizarre speed run. And if the audience hasn’t chosen a particular storyline in a while we start panicking and thinking we’ve forgotten it.

So how many storylines did you have to learn?
There are 24 different endings, depending on which way the audience votes. We stand on stage, waiting for the kids to vote with their controllers. They’ve got 30 seconds to cast their votes and you can see them coming in on a big screen. Once the votes are in we get to see which scene we’re doing next. It’s totally amazing and totally terrifying at the same time.

Is there a choice that you hope the kids don’t make?
No… but there is one that I always hope they do make. They can opt to go underwater and follow the diamond. It’s my favourite scene and it means we get to do a big show-stopping choreographed number that’s ridiculous! I get to pretend I’m Shirley Bassey and go nuts! There is one choice that can end in the show in five minutes flat so I hope that one doesn’t get picked!

How have the kids taken to the show?
We get deafened by them! We did an adult’s show with controllers which was exciting, but adults are so measured and restrained. With the kids it is a completely different experience – more like being at a football match. The kids are yelling at each other to convince, bribe and bully their friends into picking the same option as them.

Words by Esther Coleman Hawkins |

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