Hollywood Lies at the People’s Theatre

by Steve
(Yorkshire)

Recently, I had the delightful (if slightly weird) experience of playing Bobby Treveeno in Hollywood Lies in Newcastle’s People’s Theatre. The whole game was lovely, but it was slightly weird because I was playing a game in a murder mystery I had written.

My good friend Tom had invited me up to Newcastle to see Hollywood Lies in action. At first, I thought I was coming as an observer (which I would have enjoyed), but no, Tom cast me as Bobby Treveeno (past his prime and looking to renew his career).

So obviously, I knew who the murderer was, so I didn’t worry too much about that. Luckily, there was plenty for me to do as Bobby’s career needed rescuing, so I got myself a new agent, sold more charity ball tickets than anyone else, helped make a movie and generally had a lovely time.

I’m not sure exactly how many people were playing, but it was more than 30 players (with three hosts), and the costumes were great to see. The game was held in the theatre’s foyer, with a finger buffet laid on and a red carpet and stage set up for photos, speeches and awards.

I think most of the players were either members of the theatre or friends of its members. A couple of people worked out who I was, because they didn’t recognise me. The costuming was great, as you can see from the photos.

Tom (who was running the game with his two co-hosts) made a few refinements that I would definitely recommend:

• At the start of the game, instead of asking everyone to say who they were, one of the hosts called out their name. That player then came up, took their name badge and posed for a photo with RT Markovitz (playing a press photographer and taking photos in real life). That meant everyone knew each other, and we ended up with lovely posed photos.


• Shortly after the start, Tom then awarded the Eric trophies (gold plastic statuettes) to the winners, which was a nice touch and gave those players a chance to bask in their glory.


• As part of the character envelope, Tom provided separate secret, clue and ability cards, which meant that players didn’t have to fold their character booklets. I didn’t use them (I don’t mind folding my character booklet), but others did.


• For each screenplay, Tom created a document with a synopsis and key characters to help inspire the movie-making.


• While the game didn’t need three hosts, it meant that the hosts were never individually overworked and gave them some company. (Occasionally, being a host can be a bit lonely.)


• At the end of the game, after the movie-making scenes, the winners were presented with more awards and their photos were taken.


Anyway, I had a lovely time – even though I’m extremely familiar with Hollywood Lies!

Click here for more information about the People’s Theatre and their photos on Flickr. (The photos are by Paul Hood.)

Click here for more information on Hollywood Lies.