Was it worth it?

Just over a month ago we welcomed our first guests to Treowen to experience The Key of Dreams. The run up to the show was months of preparation; writing, rewriting, editing, designing, testing, redesigning, cutting, painting, crafting, burning, fighting with technology. There were weeks of 16 hour days, short tempers and disagreements.

Just under a week before we opened the doors to the first guests we gathered as a team at Treowen and set about transforming the house, rehearsing, learning stories and mechanics, and yet more fighting with technology.

Then came the morning of the first show. The team were in costume, the house was ready, the food was being prepared and the writing and design team were pacing the halls wondering how the first guests would find it. Would everything work? Knowing that we could trust the actors but struggling to let go of the creature that we have nurtured into being for months.

“A voyage into the extraordinary”

At the end of the first evening, as the bells rang, exhausted investigators gathered in the bar for cocktails and discussions of the events of the day and particularly the night. Who had done what? Why had they done that? You did what?! And the design team breathed. For a whole day, these people had existed in our world, they had poked it, tested it, pulled at the strings to see where they led. They had been unnerved, excited, surprised, shocked. They had made choices then seen the results of them. Some leaned in harder, others realised what they’d done and worked to undo it. They cared about the characters. They understood part of the world - though as with any cosmic horror - some now wished they did not.

In other words, it did what we had planned.

So why were you worrying?

When you create a show like this, it’s hard to know what will happen. Most theatre, including much immersive theatre, has a script, timings and endings. Attend most shows by a company like Punchdrunk, and you move amongst the story, you may, if you are lucky, be pulled briefly into the story. There is often more than you can see in one visit, but if you return, the story will play out the same as it did before though you will see it differently.

If you attend a LARP, you create the story, the characters and have to put in lots of time to prepare in advance.

The Key of Dreams is neither of those.

The world is deep, founded on literary works, folklore and real history. The characters seem real. They are not following a script. How they react to guests will be genuine and guided by the story of the character, and by the hours of rehearsals in which they calibrate the characters to the world and each other. Each story within the house, be it one of the story strains to be discovered, or the arc of a character, are not fixed paths. Guests’ interactions and decisions make a difference to the way things turn out, for good or ill (and depending on your point of view).

Giving our audience so much agency, and ourselves as a team so much to track and communicate during a show that runs for 24 hours (with the exception of sleep) is a tough thing. I never thought I would value spreadsheets so much!

To answer the question…

Yes!

It was totally worth it and more. And honestly, I knew that would be the case really, but it’s hard to see what it can be when you’ve worked on each part without seeing it all come together before it has to for real. Excitingly, we had lots of press interest and there are reviews in No Proscenium, The Daily Express and Travel with Pau and there are a few more still to come.

But you know, each of the three reviews published so far, asked the same question - is it worth it?

The Express said, “it’s totally worth it and you’re going to have a blast.”

No Pro, “it is worth it. For a 24-hour no-lull-except-sleep experience in an exclusive and beautiful environment with all meals included and a deeply personal experience, it is a remarkable value for cost.”

And Pau, “Absolutely! Overall, there’s nothing I can compare it with….I have visited hundreds of immersive experiences and this one has been one-of-a-kind.”

So what now?

Well, we took a short break. But we’re back at it now. Never one to be content with resting on our laurels. There were things that having seen it all in action, I thought we could improve, so that’s my first task. Then attentions will turn to Christmas. If you know about our previous experience, The Locksmith’s Dream, you may have seen that Christmas is a big thing for us. For Key of Dreams, it will be even more so. Leaning into Welsh folklore, and Christmas Ghost stories is honestly a dream come true, so expect spooky updates.

The Midwinter Feasting shows will include new story strains and a seasonal menu. And delightfully, our last show of the year will actually be on Midwinter. I think its going to be magical.