What Will You Ascertain at ‘The Inquest’? (Review)

Don’t worry if civil service isn’t your idea of a good time. The Inquest delivers an hour and 45 minutes of fast-paced engagement that will leave you feeling energized and, if you’re like me, slightly nostalgic.

2020 was an existential sort of year. Productions moved online and all of a sudden every show was asking us to consider the nature of our relationships — to things, to each other, and to ourselves. Many of these shows changed my life.

The Inquest did not.

And that’s a good thing. Not every experience has to make us question our place in the universe. Some shows just need to steal you away for a whirlwind adventure before depositing you right back where you started. Don’t get me wrong. Exploring tender themes through immersive has absolutely helped me get through some (ahem) unusual months. But it’s been a year and that’s a long time to be processing feelings through art. So when the first show I attended in 2021 didn’t ask me to look inwards, I was relieved. All The Inquest wanted to know was “What happened to Scott Davies?”

The Inquest is Jury Games’ second remote offering. Set in the same universe as Jury Duty, their award-winning who-done-it from June, this experience brings up to twelve jurors together over Zoom to determine what led to Scott Davies’ death in 2010. You’re asked to sift through evidence and figure out whether Davies’ drowning was an accident or something more sinister. And you had better do it quickly, because the window for solving open cold cases closes in less than two hours.

The Inquest straddles the line between immersive theatre and escape room, with just enough world-building to make you forget your surroundings for a couple of hours. One of the smartest things this show does is provide a reason for jurors to be interacting remotely — aka the fictional “Justice Act 2020” in the UK — which has improved judicial efficiency via introducing the possibility of remote hearings over Zoom. Players, addressed as “jurors” from the get-go, start their journey with in-character summons that cleverly makes pre-game setup part of the fun. The rest of the game is full of similarly thoughtful details. (My favorite was noticing how annoyingly on-point our training videos’ background muzak was, moments before two of my fellow players posted similar thoughts in chat.) Joe Ball and Tom Black, the show’s creators, have clearly put a lot of thought into this production — and their performances.

Yes, Ball and Black are also The Inquest’s live actors. Ball’s “Coroner” exists as a voice behind a departmental seal. He’s always listening, ready to prod groups along when they come to a standstill. His hints are neither obtrusive nor overly obvious. Like a real government official, Ball gives off an aura of genial compliance that leaves players with a perverse sense of urgency. If we don’t solve this, who will?!

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In comparison, Black’s “Archivist” is subtle and reactive; earnest. He’s not cheesy in the way so many remote actors feel they need to be in order to make their point from behind a webcam. Instead, they behave exactly the way you’d expect public servants to behave over Zoom, which is weirdly refreshing.

After an audio review of witness statements, jurors must work together to search for clues to resolve the Davies’ case: was it an accident, suicide, manslaughter, or… murder? We’re given access to the same evidence that the original jury reviewed in 2010; the previous outcome was an “open verdict,” that is, a ruling that the death was suspicious but without any further conclusions being made). But we’re now asked to take a closer look in 2021. Inspection of the files (paired with the right questions aimed at your friend the Archivist) will turn up a number of strings that beg to be pulled. Each tug unravels a little more of the story and gets you closer to the truth.

(Spoilers follow.)

Unlike Jury Duty, The Inquest does not allow for multiple endings. The narrative is fairly linear and, since the jury is not split into groups up front, the gameplay is significantly more streamlined. I’m not sure this is a good thing, since the story’s strong forward momentum made me feel like we were hurtling towards an inevitable outcome. This meant rushing through some really elegant world-building in a way that I found unsatisfying and sometimes overwhelming. Fellow player and NoPro web developer Chris Grim noted that he would “love to get something like this in a physical pack and then have time to really study it,” and I think he’s right. There are so many fun details in the evidence; it’s a shame they didn’t have more room to breathe.

This is where I must admit that I enjoy exploring narratives a lot more than I enjoy solving puzzles. I loved Jury Duty for its clever world-building, but goal-oriented theatre isn’t my jam. In the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I’ve asked fellow juror and Room Escape Artist Hivemind reviewer Matthew Stein for his thoughts on The Inquest. Matthew said that it “provided excellent layered reveals and overall was cleverly architected with just enough redundancy,” but that some of the puzzles were a “missed opportunity to reinforce or augment the storyline.” That sounds right to me, so I’ll just add that there are a few different kinds of puzzle-solving going on in Inquest, which means that there are plenty of opportunities for everybody in your group to shine.

Ultimately, The Inquest is a pleasant form of pop-culture escapism. Playing puts you right in the middle of what felt like, to my American sensibilities, a 2010s police procedural. I enjoyed playing The Inquest the same way I used to enjoy watching Law & Order (original, not CI or SVU): it kept my attention, it gave me some satisfying “aha!” moments, and when it was over I felt more or less like I had felt two hours before. What The Inquest gave me was a momentary sense of purpose and, strangely, comfort. Maybe that was because the case in question happened over a decade ago, and mentally retreating to a time when Facebook had more cat videos than conspiracy theories was its own kind of escape. But I think it’s because Jury Games has found their niche creating solid games that let players lose themselves in somebody else’s drama for a little while. If you’ve ever wanted to swap your daily troubles for something a little spicier, secure in the knowledge that life will soon return to normal, The Inquest is a great distraction. And that’s my (legally-binding, as clearly stated in the Justice Act 2020) final verdict.

Tickets for The Inquest are on sale through April 1. Tickets are priced from £17.50.

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