Short-form games

Late for Work

A player who left the room must discover, from mimed clues, the three reasons the audience decided they were late.

Short-form games · 4 players · 8–10 minutes

Also known as: Late for Meeting, Bad Excuses, Alibis

How to run it

1. One player leaves earshot entirely.
2. The audience supplies three reasons for their lateness — an unusual mode of transport, an unlikely obstacle, an odd item they acquired.
3. The player returns to a workplace scene and begins apologising.
4. Colleagues mime and hint at the three reasons without naming them.
5. The latecomer gradually articulates each reason. The game ends when all three have been said aloud.

What it teaches

Committed guessing, and generous clue-giving under pressure.

Coaching notes

Make sure the player who left genuinely cannot hear. The give-away of a spoiled round is a latecomer who arrives already knowing, which drains every stake from the game.

Related reading: short form, character and point of view.

See it played

We do not link individual videos we have not watched end to end, so this is a search rather than a recommendation: Late for Work on YouTube. Quality varies enormously — prefer recordings from working theatres over tutorial channels.