The Cellar at Hilldrop
Dr Crippen · London · 1910
“She went to America. She has not written. Nobody has her address.”
- Players
- 6 to 12 adults, plus the host
- At its best
- 6 to 9 guests
- Runs
- 2 to 3 hours with dinner
- Setting
- Hilldrop Crescent, London, 1910
- History
- Real case: The Crippen case
- Suits
- Clever, note-taking tables. Classic whodunnit
- Best for
- Dinner parties
- Difficulty
- Easy to moderate
- Acting
- None needed. Short lines to read where the story needs them
- You need
- A TV or laptop, and a phone each
- Delivery
- Instant access. Printable pack included
- The host
- Plays the victim, then runs the inquiry
- Price
- A$39, one payment
- Content
- Real people are portrayed. Involves the disappearance and death of a wife, with remains found in a cellar in the real case, and a ruined career. The killer is invented; every real person is innocent.
Hilldrop Crescent keeps respectable hours. The step is swept, the curtains hang straight, and the man of the house is unfailingly pleasant to his neighbours. The lady of the house, who used to sing, has gone to America and is not expected back for some time. The dinner goes ahead without her. Her friends keep asking when she last wrote, and the answers keep getting shorter, and the house is a great deal quieter than a house that size ought to be.
That is as much as the file will give you. The rest lands on the night, act by act, and no guest at your table will hold every piece of it at once.
What you get
Fully scripted evening
Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.
Clues arrive in stages
Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.
You play the victim
Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.
6 to 12 players
A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.
App-hosted
The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.
Cora Crippen, a singer known on the halls as Belle Elmore, disappeared from the family home in Hilldrop Crescent, north London, at the start of 1910. Her husband, Hawley Harvey Crippen, was convicted at the Old Bailey later that year and executed. The case has been argued over ever since, and later forensic claims have kept the argument going.
The game reopens the case and reaches a solution of its own. Knowing the history will not spoil your night, and history does not decide the verdict at your table. Your guests do.
These were real people and real deaths. The file is written with that in mind: we reopen the questions, not the graves.
Take it to trial.
This case can end at the reveal, or it can go to trial: the person your table accused stands in the dock, your guests become the jury, and nobody learns who really did it until the verdict is in. The trial is invented: an alternative ending, clearly labelled as one, and not the historical record.
The trial for The Cellar at Hilldrop is coming soon. Trials are released case by case, starting with The Masque at Carfax Hall. When it arrives, the trial can also be played on its own, as a jury case.
Reopen The Cellar at Hilldrop.
Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.