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In keeping with its well-earned reputation for cloak and dagger, the stage adaptation of the hit gameshow Traitors will present audiences with different renditions of the story depending on which night they attend.
The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal will take the form of a five-play cycle, with weekend crowds able to determine which version of the BBC show dramatisation they see.
The stage production comes from Studio Lambert, the company behind the TV series, and Neal Street Productions, a company co-founded by Sam Mendes.
The studio’s boss, Stephen Lambert, said the stage adaptation would feel like the BBC show, which has been one of British television’s biggest hits in recent years, with the celebrity instalment’s finale pulling in an overnight average audience of more than 11 million.
“The show feels quite theatrical anyway,” said Lambert. “The cloaks, burning fires, banishments and murders. It sort of suggested maybe there would be a way of turning it into a play.”
Lambert had initially considered a production that took audiences into a fictionalised version of the show, telling the story from the point of view of production staff.
But that idea was jettisoned in favour of a more complex interpretation of the show, launched in 2022, that has attracted Gen Z enthusiasm, with 81% of viewers aged between 16 and 24 watching linear TV on the night of the celebrity finale tuning in to see it play out.
The innovative approach came from the play’s writer, John Finnemore, who suggested having five versions of the story, with different players being banished, murdered and – ultimately – coming out on top.
Each show will work as a self-contained story, but those who attend multiple performances will see different outcomes. On Saturdays, the audience will play a part in deciding which of the five versions of the play is performed.
Finnemore said he was partly inspired after watching the show’s second series and wishing Aubrey Emerson – who became a fan favourite despite being the first murdered faithful – 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 said that audiences who saw one show would have a great night at the theatre, adding: “But if you come and see a second one or a third, obviously more, then your involvement in the world, your investment in the characters, will only grow exponentially.”
The show will open on 11 May at the Gillian Lynne theatre in London.
Its director, Robert Hastie – who is deputy artistic director of the National Theatre – said the play would use the same “rules” as the TV show but would not give more details, only adding that “we set ourselves the challenge of telling a story within the Traitors universe”.
The show continues to be one of the biggest draws on British television. Richard E Grant, Michael Sheen and Bella Ramsey have been announced as contestants in this year’s The Celebrity Traitors, which broke viewing records with its previous edition won by Alan Carr.
