Now that The Traitors Ireland Season 2 has come to a thrilling conclusion, you might be looking for your next fix – look no further than Banished!
Banished is a live social-deduction show inspired by The Traitors, but there’s a twist. 14 audience members will be brought on stage, with some secretly designated as “Hidden”, the rest being “Seekers”. The rest of the audience have to watch, debate, make accusations and vote throughout the night to try to work out who the “Hidden” are.
The first show at the Firkin Crane on Friday 2nd October is sold out, but there’s still tickets available for the Saturday 3rd October show.
The shows will be hosted by Cork comedian Mike Morgan and it was created by two men from Cork, Brendan Kelleher and Ayo Mumuni.
We caught up with Brendan to find out how the idea came to life, what audiences can expect on the night and why The Traitors fans won’t want to miss it.
Brendan first came across social deduction games while working for the Cork Admirals American Football Club. “Every year, we would have a lot of away games, in Dublin and Belfast, they were always long bus journeys. We used to play these types of games on the bus. People used to look forward to them as much as the football games. They’d last for hours, they’d get rowdy, they’d just be so much fun. Even if people got eliminated, they would stay and watch until the end.”
When Brendan saw The Traitors on TV, it reminded him of the Mafia game that he used to play on the bus with the team. “I loved the series, I have watched a lot of them with my wife. We watched the US one with Maura Higgins recently and my wife said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could watch The Traitors but not know who the traitors were? We could try to figure it out and accuse people.”
This sparked an idea for Brendan, who decided to bring a social deduction game to the stage in the form of a live, participatory event. “I reached out to Ayo, who was a friend from the Admirals who first got us started on these games. Myself and Ayo used to moderate most of them. I told him about the idea and we started putting it together.”
The pair began working on Banished, sourcing a venue, writing scripts, setting up a website and doing marketing.
“It’s a labour of love, we both work full time so we are doing this in our spare time,” Brendan says. “The games are great to be part of. We think people will enjoy it. At the moment, it’s just a pilot, we aren’t looking to make a massive amount of money off it, but we want to see if it will work.”
Brendan and Ayo were pleasantly surprised by the reaction to Banished, and they were shocked that their first show sold out so quickly, prompting them to put on a second.
When people buy their tickets, they can opt in to become one of the cast members. “One in three people who bought tickets volunteered to be cast members, the response is amazing.”
14 cast members are selected randomly from these volunteers, and they will leave the audience and take their place on the stage on the night. Some of these cast members will become the ‘Hidden’, the rest are ‘Seekers’, and the audience are ‘Watchers’, who also get to participate, Brendan explains.
“The game takes place over five rounds, with the first four rounds having both a day and night phase. There’s a few more roles that will provide evidence and conversation starters to move the game along.”
During the day phase of the game, there will be round table discussions about who is Hidden, with accusations made. “You have to eliminate one of the group and you’re always trying to eliminate one of the Hidden. The Hidden are trying to manipulate and lie to protect their identity.
“During the night phase, the Hidden get to choose one person to remove, but the audience don’t see what is happening at night, leaving them in the dark too. All they see is the round table discussions during the day and how the cast react.”
In the middle of each round, the audience will be asked who they are most suspicious of, and the poll results will go up on a big screen behind the stage. “The cast will know what the audience’s suspicions are, so this will help guide them, or maybe distract them.
“During the last round, the audience will be asked to identify the Hidden, and the truth will finally be revealed, so the audience will know if they won or lost.”
The overall aim is for everyone to enjoy themselves, Brendan adds. “It’s a game, it’s light-hearted. Cork comedian Mike Morgan will bring another level to it, he’s great.
“We hope people leave chatting about the game and how much fun they had.”
To buy tickets, visit Banished’s website.
You can follow Banished on Instagram: @banished.cork and TikTok: @banishedcork
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