Accomplice the Show — Attraction in New York

May Contain Spoilers

Lapin bought tickers for this show for our anniversary. We able to register last minute for the event but since no one else registered for our group, we got a call at 10AM to say if we can move our booking around so we can go with other people. A bit annoying and was last minute. We were mostly afraid that we would get stuck with a big group of people and we wouldn't get a chance to play any of the puzzles.

The game started a bit after the allotted time. After, the first puzzle -- we were taken to a bar where we had one drink and solved another puzzle. We didn't know how long to stay there or what do, so we stayed there a bit to long as another group showed up while we were there. When we went to the next location, the person didn't show up until 10 minutes later and we asked if she was the person we were supposed to be talking too, instead she gave us a dirty looking and walked away. Now, were we supposed to follow her and get hit with harassment charges? The actress finally realized and came back to talk to us after another 10 minutes has lapsed. We thought another person was a part of the game and instead he was just a regular person who very annoyed with us.

My main gripe is that the game wasn't spaced out to give time and some of the puzzles were easier that we thought --- we just made it more complicated. A couple of the puzzles, we were rushed to get on that we couldn't get a chance to fully appreciate everything. The light appetizers and drinks, we barely had any time to eat or drink or even got to use the restroom. If the food and beverages were going to be that far spaced, they should have provided bottled water/snacks -- especially at $80 (+tax and fees) these are built into the price. Some of the actors were rude and over the top -- borderline annoying. They called another person in our group "mentally retarded" and yelled at them. We are native NYers and we felt bad for the other people as they were here on vacation. The people at the end were a bit rude, we overheard them saying how we were so slow and after the event -- they just went to the back to drink and laugh. Like there was no point for them to have so many people in the end if all they were going to do was hand out more flyers to do more games, the last thing I would do is spend another afternoon being insulted by actors and the organizers while dying from exhaustion and lack of food/water.

Also, wear comfortable shoes, time yourselves and bring...

We love immersive theatre and have been to many immersive theatre productions in the US and the UK, including Accomplice London. Accomplice New York is well acted and fairly well written. It's a nice way to combine a theatre show with a walking tour of parts of NYC you may not otherwise see.

However, one of the scenes involves buying a live frog from a Chinese food store, completely sealed in a plastic bag. We then had to carry it through several, very hot, city blocks, while it slowly suffocated inside the sealed bag. We were to deliver it to another actor, who presumably returned it to the shop for the same thing to happen again.

This was deeply distressing to us and other members of the "audience". We were told when we complained at the end of the show that they "look after" the animals. However given that the frog was bought from a food shop it was inevitably destined to be eaten, but with the added cruelty of being suffocated in a plastic bag while being carried around busy city streets. Frogs, unless they are in well-oxygenated water, need to breath air through their lungs, but this frog could not possible have had sufficient air inside the sealed bag for it to survive for long.

I understand that we are not the first to complain, but the producers insist on keeping this segment of the show. I find this bizarre, since the frog was in no way essential to the narrative (not that that would excuse it). The scene requires a bizarre item to be conveyed - this could have been an inanimate object!

I am in no doubt at all that if Accomplice London had incorporated the frog into their show, they would have been prosecuted by the RSCPA.

PETA have also raised it with the producers to no avail - google "PETA Accomplice New York" for details. PETA may sometimes take a somewhat extreme view on animal rights, but on this issue, they are spot on!

If you care in any way about animal cruelty, do not book to...

I recommended this experience with my family for Mother’s Day and we were the only group (9 people) for the time slot.

The experience had changed since the last time I’ve done a different prompt with this same company and they were much more rushed for time and much fewer puzzles compared to last time (basically no riddles/puzzles and on a pretty strict timeline, back to back with other groups).

Additionally one of the actors (Leo) broke character to lecture me to decrease my energy level as if I were a child.

I got a little excited (not disruptive, never interrupting him, never raising my voice, and we were the only group. I veered off the story line a little bit because we coincidentally named our group the same as another character in the story and my comments were within the premise of the story with that interpretation) and the actor broke character to tell me off.

Never did I expect an improv actor in an improv / puzzle solving experience to talk down to me simply for being excited. If he felt uncomfortable, he could have politely asked “Will you please stick to only the premise given to you by the last person, the naming is just a coincidence please don’t read into it” or even “m’am we’re on a pretty tight timeline please follow the flow of the story as written”it would have been fine.

I did not expect to be so disrespected and talked down to during a premium experience with live...