The stage adaptation of the hit gameshow The Traitors will offer audiences five different endings, depending on which night they attend. The production, titled The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal, will run as a five-play cycle at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London, with weekend crowds able to vote on which version they see.
Interactive Storytelling
Studio Lambert, the company behind the BBC series, and Neal Street Productions, co-founded by Sam Mendes, are producing the stage show. Stephen Lambert, Studio Lambert's boss, said the adaptation will feel like the television phenomenon, which has become one of British TV's biggest hits. The celebrity finale drew an overnight average audience of over 11 million.
"The show feels quite theatrical anyway," Lambert said. "The cloaks, burning fires, banishments and murders. It sort of suggested maybe there would be a way of turning it into a play."
Initially, Lambert considered a production that followed production staff in a fictionalized version of the show, but that idea was dropped in favor of a more complex interpretation. The innovative approach came from playwright John Finnemore, who suggested having five versions with different players being banished, murdered, or winning.
Multiple Viewings Rewarded
Each show will be a self-contained story, but those attending multiple performances will see different outcomes. On Saturdays, the audience will decide which of the five versions is performed. Finnemore was inspired after watching the show's second series and wishing fan favorite Aubrey Emerson had lasted longer.
"I wanted to see more of Aubrey," he said. "I wanted to see how he would have got on. In this version, if you go out first in one play, you might be a protagonist in the second play and then you might be a secondary traitor in the third and so on."
Lambert added that audiences seeing one show will have a great night, but those who return for multiple performances will have their engagement with the characters grow exponentially.
Opening and Cast
The show opens on 11 May at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. Director Robert Hastie, deputy artistic director of the National Theatre, said the play uses the same "rules" as the TV show but declined to give more details, noting that "we set ourselves the challenge of telling a story within the Traitors universe."
The TV show remains a major draw, with Richard E Grant, Michael Sheen, and Bella Ramsey announced as contestants for this year's The Celebrity Traitors, which broke viewing records in its previous edition won by Alan Carr.
