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We’re a poet and you didn’t know it.

Samantha and George Wilkinson were on their way to an anniversary dinner in downtown Los Angeles when they stumbled into something they had never seen before.

“It was like a movie set,” Samantha recalled. “Burning barrels, tents, trash, and actors dressed like homeless people. It was all very authentic."

They never made it to the restaurant.

“We actually didn’t even make it to dinner,” George said, gesturing down the street to the block where they encountered the performance.

According to the couple, the show began with an apparent homicide staged near an alley, drawing in passersby. Having lived in the city for three months, the couple was experienced enough to notice the tell-tale signs of a production. “Yeah, we just got so caught up in the show after the murder,” Samantha said.

From there, the experience expanded into what the couple described as a fully realized interactive drama, with a temporary police station constructed inside a vacant municipal building.

“They even had a fully furnished police station where they treated us like witnesses, and had us file a police report,” George said.

It took them the entire night. “But what an experience,” Samantha said.

The production, part scavenger hunt, part unsanctioned immersive theater, and part city-scale ARG, is part of a wave of experimental ultra-realistic performance installations that have begun occupying abandoned commercial spaces in downtown Los Angeles.

“Yeah, that guy looked super dead,” George said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how they did it.”

The production even has follow-up performances, as the couple was given an exclusive reservation to attend a “Court Date,” and regularly receive “threatening calls” from the perpetrator.

 “He’s such a good actor,” Samantha said. “I really think he has a future in Hollywood.”