🚗 The Hitchhiker

Who plays who

• A — The Driver: you are going one way tonight and you have never seen this person before.
• B — The Hitchhiker: a stranger with a thumb out and no particular destination.
• A leads Acts 1–2 behind the wheel; B takes over the moment they are in the car.

What you need

• A sofa, bench or two chairs arranged like the front seats of a car
• A water bottle and a jacket or blanket, the way a real road trip would have
• The keys to your own front door, so everyone can genuinely leave
• A playlist for the drive, or one that runs slower and slower

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

You are sitting on your own sofa like a driver at the wheel, and someone is standing at the imaginary roadside with a thumb out. In character, you decide whether to slow down. You do, and they get in.

Beats

• Play the pickup properly: the window down, the size-up, the first question.
• The hitchhiker gives no real name, no real address and no real reason.
• The driver keeps both hands where they belong and the doors "locked" by agreement.

Lines to say

• "Where are you headed? And don't say 'anywhere'."
• "I don't usually stop. Get in before I change my mind."
• "Keep your hands where I can see them."

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

The miles go by on your own living room carpet, and the questions get less careful. The hitchhiker says just enough to be interesting, and the driver keeps one hand on a wheel that is not there. Neither of you mentions where this ends.

Beats

• Trade one true thing each, alternating — nothing that identifies either of you.
• The passenger drifts a little closer with every answer.
• The driver turns the music down rather than up, so the silence does the work.

Lines to say

• "You can put your bag down. Nobody's picking you up after me."
• "Last time I did this I didn't stop at the destination."
• "Tell me something you've never told a driver."

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

The car stops, by agreement, in the middle of the imaginary nowhere. The hitchhiker is the one who decides what happens next, and the driver, for once, waits to be told. The doors stay unlocked the whole time.

Beats

• The passenger takes the wheel: they set the pace, the rules and the order of the night.
• The driver may keep one hand on the wheel and nothing else without permission.
• Both of you agree, in character, that the "car" does not move again until dawn.

Lines to say

• "Pull over. I didn't say we were done."
• "You picked me up. So you can wait."
• "Say what you want, out loud, like you meant to say it hours ago."

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

The imaginary road is dark and empty and no one is driving. Two strangers who should never have met use the space they have, and stay in those skins to the end. Nobody leaves the car.

Beats

• No talk of the real world, no real names, no narration of what is happening.
• Use what Act 3 built: the orders, the borrowed jacket, the passenger's lead.
• Let it end the way it ends; the road is not going anywhere.

Lines to say

• "Look at me. Don't look at the road."
• "That's it. Stay right there."
• "Answer me like you're still a stranger."

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

The engine is off and the road is your own hallway again. You are two people who know each other very well, sitting on your own sofa.

Beats

• Come back to your real names out loud — the strangers are gone.
• Water, a blanket, and turning the lights back up to normal.
• Name one stretch of the ride you would take again and one you would skip.

Lines to say

• "That was a good ride. Thank you for picking me up."
• "Next time I want the wheel."

Aftercare

Lights back up, keys back on the hook, and a real drink in your own kitchen. Say one thing you liked and one you want next time, out loud, before either of you gets up. The hitchhiker should be told clearly, in plain words, that they were wanted — and that they were never actually in a stranger's car.

Ground rules and consent

• This happens in our own living room. The car is the sofa, the road is imaginary, and nobody is in traffic or in a stranger's vehicle.
• "Roadtrip" stops everything in one second, from either seat, no explanation owed.
• The ride ends when either of us says it does; until then we stay in character, and afterwards we say it out loud.
• It is fine to end the ride early. Catching a lift is never an obligation.

Before you play it, Blindfold play covers the parts that are hard to improvise.

Frequently asked