Immersive Event ยท 2017
The Accused
A 1950s murder trial. The audience is the jury.
Trailer coming soon
The case is based on the trial of Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in the UK. Participants sit as jurors in a 1950s courtroom. They hear the witnesses, deliberate and deliver their verdict. Then they hear the sentence.
Real trial transcripts and court records, live theatre, music and film, and a live psychology experiment running underneath: how press coverage, expert opinion and even the order of witnesses shape a verdict. More than half the jury only realised at the very end that they had been judging Ruth Ellis.
Created with the Forensic Psychology Unit, with Ben Laumann as creative director. More than 600 participants.
Audience survey
What the jury said
"I think being part of something (as opposed to hearing a traditional lecture on all of these things) makes you much more likely to remember what you've learned."
"It was devastating to hear that my verdict led to someone being hanged, it felt awful hearing the sentence."
"Using a real trial was inspired. I loved the use of court records and real transcripts. Life is better than fiction."
"I was shocked by the extent the order of witnesses affected the verdict."
"We were audience and we were participants, we had fun, we collaborated to make science."
"A tremendous event. We talked about the trial on our way home."
Audience survey, February 2017, 53 responses
Gallery
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