Why just watch a show at this year’s Fringe Festival when you can fully immerse yourself in the experience?!
With the new ‘Interactive’ category in this years program come several shows and experiences which give fringe-goers the chance to play along and be a participant rather than a mere observer. Undercover Adelaide is a brilliant, fun, adrenaline-pumping example of this – putting participants in the shoes of an undercover spy-in-training.
As candidates for BI-RD (British Intelligence Reconnaissance Division) your team of 1-3 people must undertake covert missions, tail other agents, and rendezvous with deep-cover operatives. It will see you trying to blend-in around the city – at times dashing (without drawing attention to yourselves) from one end of Rundle Mall to the other and approaching strangers, who may or may not know what you’re talking about, as you casually try to receive code words.
At least one member from each group must log into the secure ‘HQ mobile site’, a well designed and easy to use app where you will receive missions and notifications and must enter clues and codewords. In a city where every second person is looking down at their phone, you’ll be eyeballing everyone trying to work out if they are part of the game or not!
All of a sudden everyone looks like a spy.
Throughout the game you will be pitted against other candidates; tailing them, trying to intercept their missions and knowing full well that you are also being followed. It’s hard not to get caught up in the experience and find yourself pulling some James Bond moves that you didn’t realise you had up your sleeve!
Undercover Adelaide is mostly about wit and strategy, however you will be required to get yourself around quite quickly and with stealth. It’s imperative that you choose your teammates carefully. It makes a brilliantly quirky ‘date’ with your partner, or hilarious activity with a group of friends. Rated ‘G’ it would also be a great family activity with older kids or teenagers.
At the end of the ‘assessment’ all teams meet back at HQ for a debrief and to receive your results. Enemy spies become friends as you share a drink and laugh about the tricks you pulled on each other and the lengths you went to on your missions!
The team behind Undercover Adelaide is a group called ‘Fire Hazard’. Hailing from Adelaide, but now based in London, it’s great to see this innovative collective back on home soil sharing their success. Fire Hazard have a second interactive game in this years program; ‘Citydash: Escape from Wonderland’ and I am now trying to shuffle the diary around to fit this in before they head back to the UK.
This is the type of authentic Fringe experience that I crave. Fling yourself well outside your comfort zone and reap the rewards. Throw caution to the wind, buy tickets and go along with a sense of adventure and a fully charged phone. ‘Undercover Adelaide’ will leave you and your fellow operatives with a years worth of laughs.
I can’t wait to see what Fire Hazard bring to next year’s Fringe!
‘Undercover Adelaide – The Spy Experience’ is operating around Adelaide, starting at Aperitif Bar (Ibis Hotel) on Sundays throughout the Fringe Festival.
For more information about this show and ticket bookings please see the Adelaide Fringe website here.
See our posts about all things Fringe here.
What: Undercover Adelaide – The Spy Experience
When: Every Sunday until 13 Mar | 1pm & 3.30pm
Where: Starting and Finishing at The Aperitif Bar | Ibis Hotel | Grenfell Street | Adelaide
Who: Rated ‘G’
Play & Go Adelaide have media access to the Adelaide Fringe 2016. All reviews are our own opinion from personal experience, unpaid and not influenced by the artist/s and/or promoter/s in any way.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Want to get other Play & Go Reviews, plus all the latest events and activities straight to your inbox?
Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter below to keep up to date with our latest posts and find out what’s on, where to go and what to do with the kids in and around Adelaide. Newsletters are only sent once a week, and you may even get the odd ‘special offer’ exclusively sent to our newsletter subscribers only!
