I’ve always loved the integration of puzzle-solving into immersive theatre, as it’s inherently interactive for the audience. It’s engagement by default. But it can get messy and be a distraction if poorly designed. It has to feel natural and relevant to the story, be properly paced, and present puzzles that aren’t too easy, but also not too hard.
Somehow, the folks at 8 Seasons have managed to do exactly that with Widdershins, the first of six installments unfolding over the year—all within the world of Forcythia's Odyssey, what they call “a Celtic-inspired myth about a queer witch's journey to connect with the land and herself, all while evading the witch hunters chasing her everywhere she goes.”
In this particular book of the ongoing epic, we first meet that witch, Brigid, as she lay on the floor in labor. Myself and the others in my group have been designated as midwives as we step into her world and begin to assist. We were instructed to interact with the set as well as the actors, so some of us tend to the woman, while others start poking around the room.
I was immediately struck by the way that the actors engaged us directly, individually, and in meaningful ways. Brigid was sending people off on tasks like making her tea, while asking others to fluff her pillow or hold her hand, all while rambling on and on about her husband and where he could have gone off to.
“Oh my! Is that a bear you’re wearing?!” Brigid exclaimed loudly at someone in our group who walked by wearing a long, dark brown coat with fur accents. “Won’t they think you’re a witch?!” It was these moments of improv—not part of the script, specific to just our group, and often quite funny—that really elevated this experience for me.
But more than anything, it was the format and design of the puzzle elements that impressed me the most. We were told in advance that we would have 15 minutes in each of the three scenes to solve a puzzle. Unused time from any scene would roll forward into the next one. Thankfully, no timeclock presided over us; we had to trust them on the timing aspect, which was fine, because gamification was never the point; the puzzles were simply (and artfully) woven into the story.
For example, we found and used ciphers to decode messages that witches had left for each other. We found and used Brigid’s pregnancy rope to read the Wheel of the Year and determine when she got pregnant. We danced around a maypole and then revealed a message hidden on it in plain sight.
Any escape room enthusiast will tell you that a group much larger than three or four is too many cooks in the kitchen, but our group of ten was just the right size for everyone to find a way to participate and for the actors to engage with each of us. Those actors were doing impressive triple-duty, unraveling the narrative in real time while gently guiding us to uncover crucial props and connect the dots in that narrative, all while improvising dialog on top of that.
When we correctly reached a puzzle solution, a bell would ring to let us know, signaling the end of the scene. We would then step outside the boundaries of the world to “walk Widdershins” in a counter-clockwise circle to travel back in time to the next scene, which took place before the one we’d just completed. I enjoyed this reverse chronological storytelling format, which enhanced the cryptic vibes of the night.
Widdershins was almost a home run, but it was hard not to notice that the DIY campfire with a white electrical cord running out of it wasn’t lighting up. I loved the handmade, artisanal quality of many of the set pieces—colorful animal masks worn by all the actors; a hearth with a well-hidden cubby hole; the gorgeous tea-dyed, hand-painted Wheel of the Year—many of which were featured in BTS content on the 8 Seasons Instagram page. But this fire played a key role and was very clearly not working properly.
But overall, to borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, this concept has “good bones” and for the most part got everything right: an informative onboarding, engaging audience interaction, and well-paced puzzled design that was inherently in-world. I’m curious to see where 8 Seasons takes us next and looking forward to more journeys with this team!
8 Seasons: Widdershins was performed February 20-22, 2026. Tickets were $40. The next planned event is scheduled for Fall of 2026. A waitlist is available.
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