The Murder Trial Live Reviews 1,088

After receiving several emails during the week from the company reiterating information on parking / food etc. regarding the events to be held in York this weekend and another email on Thursday confirming, that despite delays leaving Oxford due to weather conditions, all York events would go ahead as scheduled, my friend & I headed to the venue for the matinee performance on Saturday. What we found was an empty sportsground and deserted rugby pitch!! No staff / no information - only an advertising banner and what looked like an abandoned container lorry. A couple sititng in the glorious sunshine informed us that they had been informed at 11.00 (approx.) that the event had been cancelled due to weather conditions!! To date I have not received any communication from the organisers. I had been increasingly anxious in the weeks leading up to the event because of the many negative reviews - seems I was right to be concerned. Now the struggle for a refund begins.

I attended The Murder Trial Live in Oxford for the Sunday matinee on 22nd September, and unfortunately, it was not the experience I had hoped for. Advertised as running from 12-4, the event didn’t begin until 1:15 pm and ended at 4:15 pm, leaving us waiting around unnecessarily. To make matters worse, there was no cover provided for the queue, forcing us to stand in the rain before entering.

The venue was a blow-up arena in the middle of a field, which didn’t feel particularly inviting or well thought out. The portaloos were understocked and appeared inaccessible to disabled attendees, which is something that should have been better addressed. Inside the arena, it was cramped, dark, and lacking comfort. Before entering, we were instructed to discard any drinks we had—some people around us had to throw away perfectly good coffee and water.

The entire setup felt like what would happen if Fyre Festival and the Wonka Experience had a baby—chaotic, overpriced, and baffling.

We had pre-paid for parking, yet when we arrived, we were asked to pay again despite there being ample space in the open field. Fortunately, we arrived early enough to sit where we had booked, but not everyone was so lucky as seating appeared to be first-come, first-served for some guests.

We opted for the afternoon tea, and while I was lucky enough to have a table, many others had to eat from their laps. My friend had the gluten-free option, which was quite a quirky selection for £25, but not in a good way. As for drinks, the prices were extortionate—£3 for a cup of coffee where you had to make it yourself with a sachet of Nescafé! A bottle of water, a Peroni Zero, and a small pack of chocolate buttons set me back £14, which was absurd.

Adding insult to injury, the tables had notices asking us to report other guests who brought their own snacks—an unnecessary touch that dampened the mood even further.

Despite the poor facilities and organization, the acting was solid. There were some microphone issues, but the cast handled it well. The interactive element of voting as jurors was fun, and it did help redeem the experience somewhat. Unfortunately, the rest of the event failed to live up to expectations.

Overall, I would give The Murder Trial Live 2 stars. The concept is great, and the actors delivered, but the execution of the event left a lot to be desired.

The Leeds event was cancelled due to weather - can’t be helped but I have now been waiting for a month for the refund. Have chased twice and still not received my refund - this is unacceptable when the event was cancelled by the organiser

I attended the show at Oxford and it was exactly as I expected it to be. We did have to queue outside but it wa busy and I had worn appropriate clothes. It did puzzle me as to why it took a while to get in, when we were close to the front every other person was trying to get in using blue light cards which they didn't have. There was a lady stood with a group of in front of us who was trying to tell the steward man that they had all mysteriously forgotten their cards. They had bags of food and drink which they tell you in advance that you can't take it. Im OK with that, if I'm inside somebody else's venue enjoying their hospitality then I fully understand that I am expected to buy something from the bar (maybe this is just me) the poor lad was stood with people arguing as to why they had to leave the food and why they had to pay extra when they had no blue light card. I would never book a cheaper ticket than I am entitled to in the first place, try to blag a discount and then kick off when I'm caught out, thats really dishonest and It shocked me the number of people at it! I felt safer having my bags looked in when I got there. OK the parking was expensive but I got my tickets on a special offer and I can see that the arena tent thing was pretty big and impressive. I entered my reg as asked and didn't get a ticket, the two chaps on the door were very proactive in making sure this didn't happen. Events are treats and its rare we do this kind of thing so I enjoyed the fact it was different.

The show was great, the experience of sitting with other people and hearing what they thought about the trial was excellent, the defence barrister was good fun to listen too. I won't spoil the verdict but I would 100% recommend you go. Like all these things, read what the event entails, make sure you follow the very simple tasks to do before hand and don't try and cheat the system and you will have a great time.

Shout out to Mr Malloy -legend! From another fellow decent Unit!!!

The play is okay but the venue was simply terrible. There was no water at the porta-loos and they actually looked like they have been there for days. The food was served but no instructions on how to actually get the tea. The room was uncomfortably warm, so much so that even the judge asked for the "court electrician to turn on the AC". The noise coming form the fans to keep the tent inflated made hard to listen to the case. Some of the tables had really poor view of the stage.

I became wary due to the reviews I was seeing online but still decided to attend the oxford show, I was pleasantly surprised, the show itself was amazing and the actors did a brilliant job, it was pricy at the bar but nothing out of the ordinary, you definitely get your moneys worth especially if you win the £50 bar tab which my husband did. Will definitely be attending next years show, our show went not guilty, I look forward to finding out if we were right or wrong!

I had a great time at the show. The show itself was so fun and completely unique, the actors were amazing and I got to meet some nice people that were on my table and made good friends throughout the night. Definitely will be booking again in the future.

I attended the Oxford show and it surpassed all my expectations! The actors were amazing, the atmosphere is great, and I’ve never experienced an immersive trial like this before. It’s definitely worth a visit, it was so much fun!

Attending the Cheltenham show just gone.
Where do I start!
After seeing the negative reviews I was anxious to say the least.
BUT… what an amazing show !
The show itself is great and I have no complaints…
The food and drink prices are what you would typically find at a theater so I don’t understand the uproar about this?
The staff were brilliant and controlled the night perfectly.

Would I go back ? Absolutely… sign me up !

Actual experience was great!!
Disappointed in the state of the toilets, absolutely filthy!!!
Had awful experience validating Wowcher vouchers and ended up buying an extra ticket that was non-refundable!!!!

I was freaking out at the bad reviews- as I didn’t see them before I bought the ticket. And as soon as I bought the ticket there was practically no online presence at all. All the links I used to find out venue and show information had disappeared. Luckily I saved tickets to Apple walllet because I couldn’t find my tickets anywhere in emails- it was really stressful.

Show was good- but paid for front row and was informed the stage moved so wouldn’t get my placement. You couldn’t see much on stage. Acting was ok but reminiscent of gcse drama. Like one point they tried to create drama by the woman ansking a question, the witness annswering annd the defence butting in. But they were all talking at the same time.. which didn’t make sense. The story was good - but could have been better.

Overall the ticket wasn’t worth anywhere near £50 each! If I’d paid £15 it would have been well worth it though. Plus parking charge extortionate.

They were aggressively pushing the concept of ‘go to the bar’ and saying ‘get the shots in’ which was odd as most people had driven there 😂 and were selling baked potatoes for £8.50 😂 - would cost them less than a pound to make them haha. It was a good show though, but it’s just not worth the price tag.

If you haven’t bought tickets I don’t recommend that you do. Whilst it’s good it’s really not worth the price tag.

If you have bought tickets and now freaking out at the fact you’ve wasted your money, don’t, bring a cushion, bring your own snacks and enjoy.

I am here amongst others who have yet to receive a refund for the cancelled Leeds show. I spent nearly 200 on tickets, high tea and parking. Pushed the boat out, more fool me. I was told it would be up to 28 days when I asked for a refund on the phone and we are now past that. I'm going to try to speak to trading standards and my bank to see if they can help. Do not give these people your money. They do not care. I've asked on social media and they're currently ignoring me but I know they have blocked others.

Update 27th Sept: my bank are now helping me claim back £60 of my £193 costs (for food and parking) but struggling with the remaining balance if around £133 as I booked the tickets in may (more than 105 days). Woman said on phone refunds would be issued on Friday but this hasn't happened. I think they're in deep financial trouble and cannot afford to give them. They've cancelled a load of shows in York too this weekend so I'm sure this will spread. They have now blocked me on social media after I left a comment telling those who were due to go to the shows on York not to hold their breath for refunds.

Me and my partner were bought this experience as a birthday present.

The trial took place in an inflatable tent in a field. We arrived on time and had to queue for almost an hour in the rain to be seated. When we got to the front of the queue we were charged £15 for parking in a field. When sitting down we were told that we had two choices for lunch options, both £25pp. The choices were a mix of cheese and sides. We were also told drinks were free, but when we went to the "bar" it was £3.50 for a soft drink.

The table we were sat at had no indication of table number, and the Usher that seated us was using a map drawn on a paper plate. At least two other people on our table had a different table number on their tickets to us. We would have asked the other four people what table number they had, but they left half way through - presumably because of the acting.

It is worth mentioning at this point that the toilet facilities for around 500 people were 5 port-a-loos.

When the event actually started an hour and a half after the time indicated on the tickets, technical difficulties held the show up for another few minutes. When the event started in earnest, time was spent flogging the programmes for the show.

The show started and we noticed that many of the Ushers were actually part of the performance. Pretty much all of the acting was poor. I don't know how courts usually work but a lot of the evidence was introduced at the last minute which feels wrong.

At the end of it all, we past our verdict as a table. After some time waiting, the verdicts were tallied and a final decision was taken. No closure was given as we were not told whether we gave the right or wrong verdict.

Overall, I feel like I was overcharged and underwhelmed by the whole thing, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know.

We got free tickets the day before the event in Oxford. Turned up to a field / campsite to be hit by £15 parking fee (profit!) and staff with clearly visible parking fine notices on their desk to catch any non payers. Was surprised when toilets were free but nowhere to dry hands!….
We had to queue 30 mins to get in and were thankful rain stopped !
When we got in we were in cheap seats at back and near the compressor for power which created a background noise throughout !
Event started around 1.10 after tickets appeared to show 12pm - so this was an opportunity to sell overpriced food and drink.
There were c40 empty seats at back and think organisers struggling so taking every opportunity to monetise- as whole set up etc must be expensive.
Show itself was actually quite good and actors did a good job.
With breaks and 30 minutes for each jury to gather votes , we were out around 4.15pm
In summary as our day cost £15 parking plus a drink it was a reasonable day but it we had paid lots of money would have felt ripped off.

Great actors and amazing concept with great food. What let it down was pre paid parking price where the parking was not manned so why? Also tiny tables are useless for 12 jury members when extra tables are clearly under cloths at the sides. The biggest meh though was the end where the verdict was announced after 30 minutes of us deliberating and weighing up the evidence. This would have been the perfect opportunity to go into what the real verdict was from the case it was based on and whether we got it right or not. Our party had been to other jury events where this had been part of the show and it really brought it home. May not go back if this format doesn’t change which was a shame as it was a great night otherwise.

Was dubious reading other reviews
Had a great eve
Everything was well organised. There was no wait to get in the tent. Parking was easy. The staff were very helpful.
I would recommend to everyone

I was initially put off by some of the negative reviews but I'm glad I decided to go into today's event with an open mind. I will caveat though I was kindly gifted my ticket with tea from a friend.

Yes the chairs aren't the most comfortable but I've been less comfortable in some london theatres. Take a cushion and you'll be fine. Yes the drinks are more expensive then if you bought them from a supermarket, but I didn't find the pricing extortionate. Not dissimilar to what you'd pay at a concert or theatre show. And yes there are portaloos but again, I've used worse facilities!

So now the negatives are out of the way I thought the tea was great, yummy sandwiches and lovely little cakes. The trial itself was engaging, well acted and interesting with a little humour injected in places. I genuinely struggled to reach a verdict and enjoyed hearing the different opinions of the other jurors. I had a great, fun and very different Sunday afternoon and I think some of these other critiques are overly harsh. Oh and I'm back home writing this review so in no way being influenced!!! The show does need a bit of polish but generally was very enjoyable.

The venue was situated in a field but easy to find. Prior warning was given to prepare for the conditions e.g. appropriate footwear and an umbrella which was appreciated. Parking was available next to the arena but we felt it was overpriced at £15 with no convenient alternatives.

The seating was cramped and the seats uncomfortable. Bigger tables and better quality seats would make a big difference. We were advised to bring a cushion but this only offered marginal improvement. The group table experience and meeting other people was enjoyable and very social.

We bought lightening entry but this didn’t seem to offer an advantage. The drinks and snacks are very overpriced. The food we did have was an okay standard.

The show overall was enjoyable and the acting a good standard. We felt that some of the topics were very sensitive and a clear trigger warning would be advisable.

Good experience but a shame that programmes (containing extra evidence) and parking were not included in the price

Attended the Oxford trial yesterday after booking 2 seats and afternoon tea and parking = £180

Stood out in pouring rain for 15 mins waiting for them to process the queue (very slow as the ticket fella had to show everyone to their seats)

Once we got to front the afternoon tea person took ages to find our booking even thought we had a ticket printed with QR code!

We were then taken to 2 seats that were not the ones we chose and booked for the price (not even in same area) and were given 2 seats, one in front of the other (no table). When I asked why we were not sitting together, the bloke was very defensive and dismissive.

We then realised that several days before, the event started offering early entrance for £12 (lightening passes!!!) so you could pick the best seat. So this explains why nobody received the seats they originally booked and paid a high price for. They were reselling them for an extra £12. This is absolutely disgraceful and wonder if this contravenes trading standards

My mum was then given her afternoon tea on a tray which she had to have on her lap as no table space. My food did not turn up although the guy said he would be straight back with it

The jury that we were supposed to be part of were squashed around a table that fitted 6 people at the most and we were expected to perch on the end which was impossible

My food did not arrive for 30 minutes and I eventually got the attention of another staff member who eventually brought it to me.

We then had to scramble through the absolutely overpacked tent to get our tea and coffee and was very difficult to carry back whilst trying not to tread on anyone’s feet. It was at the complete opposite side to where we were seated and no clear gangways due to the over crowdedness of the venue.

Was quite concerned about what would happen in the event of an emergency and we had to evacuate as no emergency exits were visible and no direction was given.

The chairs were ridiculously uncomfortable and at the break we had to fetch cushions from our car (lucky we had them). There were 5 disgusting portaloos outside in the rain which had no toilet paper

We were never sworn in as a jury and due to the amount of people squashed into the venue, it was too loud to hear what our other jurors were discussing

The show itself was amateur and consisted of all the staff that had failed to bring my food or take us to our correct seats! It paid no attention to real laws, showed screaming matches between the barristers and stereotyped the defendant and witnesses which is quite embarrassing

It is very clear that they are choosing quantity over quality where this fake trial is concerned. Shame as the concept is a good one but repeat business is doubtful as plenty of bad reviews particularly on trip advisor.