Experimental theatre design meets escape room in a treasure hunt that will playfully explore the errors of our past! Come discover the future of collaborative storytelling through connective puzzle-solving.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the most well-known of Shehrezad’s stories from One Thousand and One Nights, and Ali Baba’s secret phrase “Open Sesame” has become infamous in the English-speaking world. But untethered from their source and fraught with inaccuracies, interpretations can change as often as the desert sand… now a new treasure trove stands to be unlocked at this year’s Great Exhibition Road Festival!
Can you outwit thieves in a game of poisoned chalice? Stick your hand in a pit of vipers? Crack Ali Baba’s code? We invite you and your friends to try unlocking the treasures of yore and maybe learn something along the way.
Congratulations!
You Participated in Colonialism.
Thank you for playing Open Sesame Redux! What lies in this cave of treasures was the neglect of the human journey in the search for this ending. While the search for wealth, or scholarly insight might appear noble, the insidious underbelly rears its head sooner or later. Neglecting to engage with the human story of the journals was just one small figurative action that speaks to the habitual ignorance that underpins Western Orientalism.
This piece was part of The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2025, which is a free annual celebration of science and the arts each summer in South Kensington. Made by Imperial College London in collaboration with institutions on and around Exhibition Road:
Laura Boutros 