Review: exit strategy's How to Win A Gameshow (Edinburgh Fringe)
- Immersive Rumours
- Aug 11
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Is everyone having a nice time?
Photo: The Garrett Theatre
In the opening moments of exit strategy's wonderfully stressful How to Win a Gameshow, the full legal name of an audience member is read aloud by the show's host (Marykate Glenn), and they're invited to the stage. How their name was found and why they were chosen is unknown.
They're the first of many audience members selected to take part in a popular game show, which has featured Graham (Rupert Krüger) as its star contestant for either 4 or 327 days. Across 55 minutes, Graham competes in a series of off-kilter games both alongside and against members of the show's audience in an attempt to leave the game.
At least, he would leave if he hadn't already been conditioned to do exactly as he was told at all times, responding to clicks of a dog training device.
How to Win A Gameshow looks to interrogate our relationship with surveillance, our complicity with the systems that track us, and our willingness to surrender what little privacy we have left. The audience is repeatedly placed in situations where they're never quite sure what information they're giving away or what might happen to it, creating an experience that's built around uncertainty, paranoia and the understanding that the audience aren't allowed to remain passive observers.
Photo: The Garrett Theatre
That uncertainty is established early on, when an early victory is secured by Graham and the audience member. After the game finishes, both stand with their hands interlocked and arms in the air, celebrating their victory as a camera operator (Jane Skapek) films the pair and takes close-up photos of the audience member's face. We don't know what will happen with those photos, but as a reward, they're given a piece of candy and sent back to their seat. The process repeats several times, with everyone happily having their likeness captured from up close, clueless as to what those photos could be used for.
As the show progresses, audience members also find themselves revealing personal information about themselves with little hesitation, handing over everything from their postcode and several digits of their mobile number to their mother's maiden name (a common internet banking question) simply because they were asked for it.
In much the same way Graham has been conditioned to do as told, the audience undergoes the same process, one step at a time. After a while, it becomes hard to tell if at any given moment, we're all being collectively tested, watched or manipulated, yet continue to play along anyway, doing exactly as we're asked.
Overall, exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow is an impressively crafted piece of immersive theatre that makes surveillance feel immediate and personal. Rather than telling the audience that they're being observed, it makes them ponder who could be watching on, what those in control have to gain from it, and how much of ourselves we've willingly handed over along the way.
★★★★
exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow runs at Lower Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) until 15th August, and Venue 45 at theSpace @ Venue 45 between 17th and 22nd August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com
See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.
