Opinion: Why are we so obsessed with 'The Traitors'?

As well as second series of The Celebrity Traitors beginning, London theatre is serving up a new stage show and The Traitors: Live Experience.

Summary

• The Traitors is back with a new celebrity series
• We've also got an exciting new stage show coming, The Traitors - Acts of Betrayal
• Budding detectives can also play the game with The Traitors: Live Experience
• All of these highlight The Traitors' inherent drama, gripping sleuthing, and human truths

Find your spookiest cloak, grow out your fringe, and prepare to make sweeping statements at the Round Table: it’s Traitors season, both on stage and on screen. We’ve got a new series of Celebrity Traitors with another incredible cast (including Richard E. Grant, Michael Sheen and Miranda Hart), following the mammoth success of its debut run last year, as well as an exciting new theatre production coming next spring and a fiendish live experience to play.

But just why has The Traitors (which works like the classic parlour games Wink Murder or Werewolf) proven to be so irresistible, and how does its appeal translate to the stage? Let’s dig into the theories before misspelling everyone’s names on our blackboards and making a dramatic reveal.

It’s a chance to test our detective wits

Secretly, we all think we could be a super sleuth if the need arises. We’ve read enough mystery novels and watched enough detective dramas to grow pretty confident in our crime-solving abilities (although it helps that the most famous guest star actor is usually the murderer in a weekly procedural).

The Traitors is the ultimate sleuthing game – with a great twist. We know the trio of evildoers from the beginning, so the question becomes whether we think some (or all) of them will get away with it, and if not, who will catch them. We’re assessing a wide array of suspects, trying to predict their next move, their alliances and backstabbing, their voting patterns and reasoning, and making judgements about who we want to win.

That makes the TV show marvellously addictive: I can’t wait to follow a new crop of hapless celebrities in the castle. But it’s also a brilliant formula for stage, quite literally putting the spotlight on a fascinating group of individuals live in front of us, which should bring a different charge to the upcoming West End show The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal. Even better, John Finnemore has written a cycle of plays: the production will take a different path each evening, from Monday to Friday, depending on who gets given a cloak, with audiences choosing the Traitors on Saturday. It will definitely reward repeated visits.

Or if you think you’d fare better than the contestants, you can put that to the test with The Traitors: Live Experience. This brilliant immersive adventure lets you play the game, along with friends, colleagues, family, or people you meet on the day. Now you’re the one trying to plot as a Traitor, or, as Faithful, banish them before they get you.

It is pure drama

I’m not sure any scripted TV matched the jaw-dropping climax of last year’s Celebrity Traitors, in which (spoiler alert!) Nick Mohammed turned on his ally Joe Marler at the last minute, gifting the prize pot to secret Traitor Alan Carr. As a final twist, it was absolutely masterful – and, as Carr burst into tears, surprisingly cathartic.

The civilian version has given us similarly incredible moments – from flamboyant parentage reveals to another Traitor, Harry, triumphing in heartbreaking fashion – and I’m sure Acts of Betrayal will dish up plenty more extraordinary twists. The Traitors is inherently dramatic (and, in its heightened style, sometimes knowingly camp), which will definitely translate well to stage. Plus we’ve got former celebrity contestant Nick Mohammed stepping into Claudia Winkleman’s stylish shoes as host for the stage production.

It’s also enormous fun to be part of creating that drama through the live experience, getting to experience first-hand how it feels to suss out a Traitor, or wrongly accuse a Faithful, or be devastatingly betrayed – or to sensationally murder a fellow contestant. Whether you want to be the star of the show or a dark horse, lurking in the shadows, this is a thrilling journey.

It tells us something about ourselves

Beyond the enormous fun of The Traitors – the extravagant setting, the atmospheric missions, the host’s wardrobe choices – there is also a deeper truth about humanity here. Seeing how people judge one another, what they decide is a suspicious “tell” that marks someone out as suspicious, or, conversely, the qualities they find trustworthy, is hugely revealing. The TV series also shows herd mentality in action: once one or two people have started making accusations about someone, the pack follows.

The celebrities are definitely not immune from that phenomenon, though we get interesting added factors like the external star power or reputation of a contestant playing a part (such as with last series’ “big dogs”, Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry). The stage play can likewise explore the biases of both the contestants within the story and those of the audience: we’ll be making those judgements live, in real time, as we see the show play out.

But are we any savvier than the contestants we scoff at on TV? The live experience is the ultimate test of that. It’s a slightly different dynamic if you’re playing with established friends or colleagues, as it asks the question: how well do we really know the people close to us? And how well do they know us?

That insight into psychology and human behaviour is surely the key to The Traitors’ ongoing popularity – along with it being an incredible game. Theatre, too, often reveals truths about humankind, making this the ideal combination. Both the live experience and the upcoming stage show have just upped the stakes in London’s theatreland.

Book The Traitors: Live Experience tickets and The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal tickets on London Theatre.

Main photo credit: Nick Mohammed (Photo by Euan Cherry). Inset: The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal, Alan Carr on The Celebrity Traitors, The Traitors: Live Experience (Photos courtesy of the productions and BBC)