Great experience design in a small German town...
I recently did a gig at the Haunted House in Coburg, Bavaria.
It's a tiny theater location, run by a group of friends for the fun of it. Located in an imposing 1800s house in beautiful Coburg, the team have used their own creativity and passion to create an experience design that just might be one of the best in Germany.
Opening the front door, you step into - not a hallway, but a moonlit "garden". White-sprayed branches brush your face, a pale moon is painted on the wall, and by her cold light you see a black cat bristling in a corner. Through the next door, and into a parlour decorated with cast-off furniture and faux cobwebs. Ah, there's the bar, but where is the exit? Eventually you figure it out, and step through the wardrobe into the next room, where a dark lady lies beneath red velvet in a four poster bed. Her white sister prefers to rest in the cool satin lining of a coffin...
The organisers have begged, borrowed and built furniture, shop dummies and clothing to create a wonderful walk-through ghost train, making a real feature of the small rooms that their visitors must pass through before reaching the "theater" (it's decorated too, with a graveyard and Jack the Ripper mementos). Everything is well done - but with an openly amateur flair, and the visitor starts his evening of spooky theater fun thinking "what wonderful people!"
Truly, an inspired location offering an immediately engaging experience! And all because of the enthusiasm of a handful of amateurs...
Adam
PS it looks like the Haunted House might be closing. (I have a feeling that the permission to use the building was temporary). Here's hoping for a new location and an equally succesful experience design!
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