The Shelter | Here + There Productions

Trapped in a random person’s garage with a group of strangers and limited time to get out may not be everyone’s cup of tea or idea of a fun night out. For many, this probably sounds tantamount to volunteering yourself for torture.

If you’re in that category, bear with me, because I’m going to convince you getting yourself trapped will be a highlight of your Anywhere Festival.

The Shelter takes the audience to a potential future Brisbane. Climate change has made our town uninhabitable and a lottery system has been set up to choose a few lucky locals to be evacuated to  New Zealand.

You and your fellow punters are those lucky few who get to escape, but when you arrive at the rendezvous point, your armed escort is missing and you an injured stranger in their place. If you don’t figure out what happened, you’ll miss your transport to the land of the long white cloud and will be doomed to perish in a burning Brisbane.

Now if they’re not some stakes, I don’t know what is. Welcome to The Shelter.

The Shelter is part immerse theatre production, part escape room. Here and There Productions have transformed the garage of a private residence in Annerley into an urban escape room and use videos and a performer to add the right amount of stakes that invested our team into finding our escape.

Full credit to the team behind, ‘The Shelter’, as game design itself was inspired. A number of their have worked in escape rooms in Brisbane and the experience shows. While it had a few of the typical puzzles I’ve come across in other escape rooms, there were a number of quite ingenious and unique ones that our group really enjoyed solving. Unlike many difficult escape rooms where the puzzles are almost impossible to solve and you need constant prompts from staff, all of the challenges were logical and related to the broader narrative and uncovered more information about what had happened in The Shelter before we arrived.

Two such moments were particularly satisfying. The first was when one of group screamed out, “Hold up! What if it’s <censored>?” and a number of us laughed when we realised the solution was right under our noses the whole time. Even more satisfying was when I solved a puzzle, which unveiled a plot point for the broader narrative, and actually gasped aloud. It’s been a while since I’ve been that invested in a story. Full props to the Here and There Productions team.

Props also needs to go to our ‘stranger’ of the evening, played by Ben Barruel, was great fun to play with, and volleyed with us in character the entire time despite a number of bribes to give away clues for puzzles from our team.

The Shelter is a stellar first effort for new company ‘Here and There Productions’. The mix of immerse theatre with tricky, but logical puzzles that advanced an engaging storyline was the perfect combination for a fun night out. Whether you’re a devotee of immersive theatre, escape room expert, or just up for a good night out, you’re guaranteed to leave The Shelter smiling.

So, what are you waiting for? Plan your escape to The Shelter before it’s too late.

The Shelter plays twice nightly as a part of the 2021 Anywhere Festival until 23 May at a private residence in Annerley.