One of the City Adventurers took a trip to Alcotraz in Brighton. Also known as Cell Block One-Three, this is the secret home of a speakeasy prison experience.
Located just off the seafront, this immersive experience sees you and your friends banged up in cells and taking part in an interactive theatre show. Just like a dinner show, but without the dinner and with lots more cocktails instead. What sort of cocktails? Well that all depends on what alcohol you can sneak in past the guards. But don’t worry if you are not a drinker. The prison mixologists will create mocktails to keep the jailhouse rocking.
What happens at the event?
You and your friends gather at the entrance and are met by one of the prison guards. They go through a few housekeeping requirements, then let you into the building in small groups based on your allocated cell. Being a large group, we were split between a couple of adjacent cells.
Don’t worry about being locked in. The cell doors are open the whole time.
Once you have been signed in you are allocated your prison uniform. Yes, you will need to wear a standard-issue Alcotraz orange jumpsuit. One will be provided for the duration of your stay.
Being on the larger size, this was not something I was looking forward to. However, the venue claim their Alcotraz jumpsuits cater to all inmates, with sizes ranging from XS to 4XL. They also suggest tying the arms around your waist to make it more comfortable. If you are at the larger end of the scale, maybe give them a quick call to check they have the biggest size available. In my case, the jumpsuit fitted and could be done up, albeit a little snugly. It was certainly a better fit than the crystal maze bomber jacket was that did not meet across the chest.
Then we were on to the next room to meet inmate Cassidy, who showed us how to smuggle liquor into the Penitentiary. Convicted to spend our sentence at Alcotraz Brighton, we were each given character cards to fill in, detailing our crimes and our prison nicknames.
Settling into our cells, the show began. The Alcotraz story-line was brought to life by the Warden, the Guards and inmate Cassidy. All of these characters were played by actors. As prisoners, we were required to interact with the cast (if spoken to) or to sit back and enjoy the cocktails. As I said, just like a murder mystery dinner show but without the food.
The cast kept the show ticking along nicely and the “serving” mixologists kept up a steady supply of “soup”. No you won’t find a drinks menu as the cocktails are based on the liquor you brought and your groups preferred tastes. We got 4 personalised cocktails during our confinement. At the end of the night all left over alcohol was returned to us.
A fun show where the guards were on our side and our main task was avoiding the Warden.
Click her to book your adventure at Alcotraz Brighton: Cell Block One-Three
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