Search Results

London's top immersive experience returns with another flawless season of mysteries and innovation in Canada Water. We head over the ridge to review Phantom Peak's Festival of Innovation. Immersive Rumours received complimentary tickets to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before  our review. They have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. For London-based immersive theatre fans, it's often easy to take for granted just how good we have it. With an ever-growing list of immersive experiences on our doorstep, there's no better place in the world to experience the most innovative and groundbreaking immersive work. Nothing exemplifies this fact more than Phantom Peak - a mainstay of London's immersive scene since it first opened in 2022, that continues to be the most original and singular immersive experience in town. Photo: Alistair Veryard At this point, we're a broken record when it comes to Phantom Peak - since it first opened we've been screaming from the rooftops about how good it is with a string of five-star reviews. Their latest season - Festival of Innovation - continues to deliver everything guests have come to expect from Phantom Peak. With some of their strongest storylines yet and a host of new additions to the show's 30,000 sq foot site, it's an experience that continues to innovate and best itself, even after 18 months of constant updates. This season sees JONACO, the powerful organisation that has its fingerprints all over nearly every element of the town, introduce the Festival of Innovation - a World's Fair-style showcase of the latest and greatest inventions from Phantom Peak's townsfolks and tourists. Most of this season's new storylines involve these inventions in one way or another. For instance, the trail ’Nothing But The Truth’ revolves around ProstleBot - a robotic priest with boundless enthusiasm for spreading the gospel of the Cosmic Platypus, who has just found itself accused of murder - something you've asked to get to the bottom of by the towns resident priest, Pius. Photo: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in Phantom Peak, there are storylines involving everything from pets that have escaped into other dimensions, sentient AI assistants, prehistoric creatures on the loose, creepy clowns, and a certain monster-based trading card game that's taken heavy influence from Pokemon. Often these storylines take inspiration from real-world pop culture. Previous season's trails have referenced everything from Scooby-Doo to Tomb Raider and Five Nights At Freddy's. We're now fast approaching 100 unique trails having been on offer since Phantom Peak first opened in 2022. While they've varied massively in subject matter over the last 18 months, the common thread that has been present throughout is their unpredictable nature. Rarely will you ever be able to accurately predict where any of the trails will lead you, and their constant twists and turns can soon turn a storyline about something as pedestrian as I.T. Support into a battle between humankind and demonic spirits. Photo: Alistair Veryard By design, Phantom Peak lets you take things entirely at your own pace - there are no big set-piece moments you can miss by being in the wrong part of the venue at the wrong time (something that is often the case with free-roaming immersive experiences like Secret Cinema or Punchdrunk's large scale shows), and the storylines are only moved forward by your actions as you interact with Phantom Peak's many townsfolk. If you want to take a break for half an hour to have some food and drink, the trail you'll have been doing is ready for you to pick up again whenever you are. For 2024, Phantom Peak's cocktail experience has been overhauled in the form of The Broken Chalise - a new actor-led experience at a set time during each performance. As part of the experience, guests need to complete a series of group tasks to the satisfaction of Leadbelly, the town's Health and Safety Officer, against the clock. With a mix of physical and mental tasks to complete, it's a fun activity for all group sizes, as well as those keen to dive a bit deeper into the ever-expanding lore of Phantom Peak. Photo: Alistair Veryard Considering the cocktails at Phantom Peak will run you anywhere from £9.50 to £11 each, and with an exclusive cocktail menu available only to those who participate in the experience, it's good value if you want to indulge in one of them anyway. For the avid Phantom Peak card collectors, there's also an exclusive trail card for those who take part in The Broken Chalice on top of the 10 regular trail cards handed out through the main storylines. Photo: Alistair Veryard The show's overarching story, which continues to develop season on season, sees some new developments also. The long-rumoured return of Phantom Peak's former Mayor Furbish is inching ever closer as they work behind the scenes to gain influence and control of the town against JONACO, while Jonas' long-term plans for the town see one of the townsfolk soon venturing into space as part of a classified, top-secret Operation. Photo: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's ability to continually deliver 10+ hours of new storylines every few months is nothing short of miraculous, and it's made all the more impressive by the fact that every season's trails somehow improve on the last. There isn't another immersive experience operating at the level that Phantom Peak is right now, and it's without a doubt the best experience on offer in a city that's already home to the best immersive work in the world. ★★★★★ Photos: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's Festival of Innovation currently runs until 12th May 2024, though a closing date for this season has yet to be confirmed. You can book via phantompeak.com

The globally acclaimed immersive theatre producer debuts a new, intimate production in their Woolwich home that has no performers, no white masks, and an audience with no shoes. Our review of Viola's Room... Immersive Rumours received a complimentary ticket to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before  our review of Viola's Room. All thoughts are our own. Photo: Julian Abrams It's only been nine months since audiences were last invited inside One Cartridge Place in Woolwich to experience a Punchdrunk show. Set across two sprawling buildings at their new London home, The Burnt City dwarfed every other immersive production in the country in both scope and scale. It was a welcome return of the company's flagship white mask shows, with guests free to follow whichever of the twenty-five-plus characters they desired over three hours. In nearly every way possible, their latest show, Viola's Room, rejects the format fans had waited so long for before their return to London. Thematically, it's a show that touches on absence and loss, and it's chosen to make everything the company is best known for - white masks, large casts, looping structures - absent too. Photo: Julian Abrams Based on a gothic short story entitled The Moon Slave by Barry Pain, Viola's Room follows the story of Princess Viola, a teenage girl who finds herself drawn to the centre of a maze one evening and compulsively dances for hours on end after surrendering her free will to the Moon. Adapted by Booker Prize-shortlisted Daisy Johnson, Punchdrunk's version reframes the original story by first welcoming us into the teenage bedroom of a different Viola growing up in the early 1990s. With Massive Attack CDs on her bedside table and posters of The Smashing Pumpkins on her walls, her empty bedroom is revisited several times throughout the show, first falling into disarray and later being packed up entirely. In typical Punchdrunk fashion, there's no clear answer for why she's disappeared from her childhood home, but the clues we do get imply a fate not dissimilar to the Princesses'. Our introduction to Princess Viola is framed as part of a bedtime story. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and delivered via headphones, we hear of the Princess's first interactions with Hugo, the boy she later becomes engaged to, and how she pushed him into the mud while playing. We hear of the day her parents passed away, and the house was covered in black drapes to mourn their loss. We hear of how she would while away the days dancing in the hallways of the mansion. Above us, a swirl of cloud-shaped lights appears before a play tent in the corner of the room is illuminated. Photo: Julian Abrams During the pre-show briefing it's made clear that we need to always 'follow the light'—while it's an instruction for us, it was a compulsion for Viola. Crawling through the play tent, we enter Princess Viola's world. In Viola's Room, audiences are required to traverse the set without shoes or socks. Walking barefoot for the duration of the hour-long show, the feeling of ever-changing surfaces underfoot is wonderfully tactile - shag carpets soon make way for hard concrete, uneven wooden floorboards, and ankle-deep sand. Having our exposed feet be in contact with all these surfaces throughout the show not only physically connects us to the world, but evokes a feeling of vulnerability in the audience. Photo: Julian Abrams The first half of Viola's Room contains several wonderfully crafted miniatures. Lights in her mansion's windows flicker on and off, charting her movements through the building, and streetlights on the garden path leading down to the hedge maze illuminate her running to heed the Moon's call. As we progress through the story, the tiny objects and spaces we first saw in these early moments as observers become our reality, writ large before us. The most striking, an oak tree at the centre of the maze, seen first in miniature grows to the height of a house by the show's conclusion. It's little surprise that with no performers, the sound and lighting instead play a huge part in creating the foreboding atmosphere that permeates the show. While scenes in 90s Viola's bedroom are soundtracked by eery songs from the likes of Soundgarden, Tori Amos and Massive Attack, the standout musical moment is in the show's second half as a crucifix of Jesus emerges from the darkness to O Fortuna. Helena Bonham Carter's narration is the one constant throughout Viola's Room. While it's well delivered, there's always a sense of detachment between us as listeners and the story we're being told. The absence of anyone besides the groups of six that experience the show together furthers this detachment as if we're ghosts walking through a memory. Photo: Julian Abrams While the looping narrative of Punchdrunk's show is absent from Viola's Room, there is one element that seems to repeat over and over again. In a similar way to the black hallways of The Burnt City that sat between Troy and Mycenae - totally devoid of theming - Viola's Room has numerous white corridors with little more than pieces of fabric draped at eye level. When so much of the set has been crafted with painstaking attention to detail, these corridors seem to do nothing but move audiences to another area without doing anything to build out the world further. Viola's Room isn't the first time Punchdrunk have tackled The Moon Slave. In 2000, when the company was still in its infancy, it staged a version for an audience of four people over four nights. Just like Viola's Room, the show had a reliance on darkness and selective lighting, a pre-recorded soundscape delivered via headphones and next to no cast. The success of that show left a lasting impression on Punchdrunk's Creative Director, Felix Barrett, who described it as "the most pure, distilled version of a Punchdrunk show". It's little wonder that 24 years later, they've decided to revisit the idea for a much wider audience to experience for the first time. While it likely won't develop the same devoted following that its large-scale shows have, Punchdrunk has delivered a show that lives up to its usual high standard. While we'd recommend familiarising yourself with the source material first to get the most out of it, Viola's Room is an experience people should dive into (bare) feet first. ★★★★ Viola's Room will run until 23rd December at One Cartridge Place in Woolwich. Tickets are on sale via punchdrunk.com ,  priced from £28.50 per person. To keep up to date on the latest immersive experiences in London, follow us on Instagram .

Deadweight Theatre debuts an immersive show that defies categorisation. Performed for an audience of just one, The Manikins: a work in progress is an extraordinary experience for those lucky enough to attend. Immersive Rumours received a complimentary ticket to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before our review. The producers have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. Jack Aldisert in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Rebecca J. Windsor. Scene 1. We receive an email with nothing written inside. Attached is a script describing us opening the email. "They open the attachment and begin reading. It is the first page of a play in which they are the protagonist. The stage directions describe the moment they are currently experiencing. They don't know how to feel about this." Scene 2. Weeks later, we are sat in the garden of St. Peter's Church in Bethnal Green. A man in a black turtleneck enters the courtyard and introduces himself. We follow him inside the church and descend into the basement. Two chairs are positioned in the middle of the space, facing each other. We take a seat opposite the man in the black turtleneck and ███ ████ ███████. --- Usually when reviewing an immersive show, we're very conscious of how much to reveal about the experience. Often you need to mention certain elements of what happens in order to discuss and dissect it properly. It's a delicate balance between revealing enough to get people's interest, but not so much that there are no surprises left. With The Manikins: a work in progress, which has just started its sold-out six-week run at Crypt in Bethnal Green, explaining anything that happens in the show would ruin it. Even if we were to describe it, it'd make very little sense anyway - you need to experience it first-hand for it to hold any meaning. It's a singular experience that defies categorisation and is unlike any other show we've ever attended. Serena Lehman in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Marc Tsang Each performance of The Manikins: a work in progress is for a single audience member, who also serves as its protagonist. There's no hiding for those who attend the show - they're front and centre for the duration - and end up being as much a performer and collaborator in creating the experience as the two cast members (Jack Aldisert and Serena Lehman) alongside them. Knowing that you're the sole focus of the show when you're in it is a daunting prospect. The closest comparison most immersive theatregoers will have to the opportunity The Manikins: a work in progress offers are the 1:1 scenes in Punchdrunk's large-scale shows. While on the surface it's an apt comparison to make, this show is an entirely different beast. For much of its duration, it's unclear where the show ends and the real world begins - existing in the liminal space between dreams and reality. There are contradictions, improbabilities, and moments that are so confounding, your understanding of what is and isn't real anymore is destroyed. It’s a disorientating experience that has you questioning everything around you, including the words coming out of your own mouth. The choices thrust upon you hold so much weight that they're almost crippling, and it's hard to remember if the decisions you made were chosen by you or a different version of yourself. After a certain point, you're so far down the rabbit hole that it's impossible to see the light at the surface. Serena Lehman and Jack Aldisert in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Marc Tsang In the days since we attended, the show has burrowed itself into our subconscious to a degree we didn't know a piece of theatre could. We'll likely still be processing it for weeks to come, and it's not something that will ever be forgotten. In the simplest possible terms, this is the best immersive show of 2024, and it may take many more years for anything else to come close to it. ★★★★★ The Manikins: a work in progress runs at Parabolic Theatre's Crypt in Bethnal Green from 3rd June to 13th July 2024. Tickets are currently sold out, but you can visit themanikins.com to find out more about the show.

Following our recent hands-on preview of Bridge Command, we sat down with Owen Kingston and Tom Black of Parabolic Theatre to find out more about their immersive starship simulator experience. Photo: Alex Brenner Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. We'd like to start by asking about the initial version of Bridge Command that ran at COLAB Factory in 2019/2020. Can you tell us about the experience of creating that version and what you learnt from it? Owen Kingston: I first had the idea back in 2010, and even at that point I was like "This could be colossal. We just need the resources to do it." I hadn't even started Parabolic at that point, I was experimenting with some immersive-style work, but I started Parabolic Theatre in 2016 so it was several years after that before I ever had an immersive theatre company. A couple of years into having that [Parabolic] we started to think we had the resources to maybe do a very cheap trial of the show. Bertie, who ran COLAB Factory, had space in the basement. Another show had pulled out unexpectedly, and he said "Do you just want to come and make something? Use it for R&D. If you make something and it's cool, sell some tickets for it in the autumn." Initially, we were just going to set up the computers as a tech test, then we thought "We should maybe put some walls around it..", so we put the walls around and then it was "We should make it feel a bit more like a spaceship..." and we just got carried away. That was the initial moment where I put it all together and thought "This is really cool. If only we had the money to do it bigger". We didn't know anybody at that time who might be willing to invest in something that was completely untested. Initially, we were just going to test it for a week. We put some tickets on sale for quite cheap and just sent it out to our mailing list. It was our fastest-selling show - within 72 hours, everything had gone. So then we thought, "Okay, we'll put another week on." And that sold really well. So we did those two weeks of testing, and it went so well - people really enjoyed themselves, even in a very janky piecemeal type set. We thought, "Let's just run it for as long as we can run it and test out our idea of episodic narrative when we do different shows in this world." Photo: Alex Brenner We took a couple of weeks break to fix a few things and make the set a bit more robust and add a few things that we wanted to try, and then we put a month's tickets on sale. Then we just kept adding another month, another month, another month, another month. What we found was that there was a fall-off - probably about 50% of people who came once didn't come back - either because they didn't like it or because they did like it, but the production values were pretty poor. But for the 50% or so who did come back, nearly all of them came back for every single episode that we made. We did nine episodes in the end, and basically everyone would come back for all of them. That's when we realised, "Oh, there's a business model here which works in theory. If only we can make a set that's incredible" So how did you come about securing the funding for this new version of the show? Owen: It was November 2019 - this group booked in, just people who had heard about us from friends of friends. They came along, played the show, and the next day I had an email that said "I played your show yesterday - the set is awful, but we loved the idea. We're an investment company, we would love to talk to you about investing in this and making a really high production value version." I was a little sceptical, but I emailed back and said, "Well, that sounds great, let's have a meeting." I went to their very posh offices in the City, and that's when I was like, "Oh, okay, maybe this is real." I sat down with their head guy, Sonny, for a couple of hours, and hammered out a deal. I was bowled over by their enthusiasm and readiness to be involved, not just by putting money into it, but also wanting to learn how we make this kind of work and then help shape the world of the show and all that sort of thing. We signed that deal in January 2020 - while we were still running the cheap version of the show. We ran it right the way through to the start of the pandemic, and when the pandemic happened, I thought, "Oh, that's it. This deal's going to fall apart." Sonny phoned me up one morning right after the pandemic started, and he said, "Look, don't worry about anything. Keep working on it. Keep doing everything you're doing. Eventually, this pandemic's going to be over, and people are going to want this stuff more than ever". Photo: Alex Brenner One of the common threads that runs through a lot of Parabolic's previous work is the idea that the audience has real agency to control and shape the world they are in through meaningful decisions, with the world responding to them. How do you go about integrating that into a show of this scale? Owen: It has to be built in from the ground up, and that was something that was a real challenge in the beginning - working with incredible theatre professionals who were used to working on linear narrative. So, the lighting designers, the sound designers, all the tech teams, were used to building a show that people progress through linearly, and that isn't as flexible as this. Getting that thinking into everybody's head at the beginning was a challenge because it really is a seismic shift in how you think about planning and how to make something. But if you build it in from the ground up, then actually it becomes very natural, and it becomes the natural endpoint. It's all about shifting that thinking from, "We are going to tell you a story, which is going to be fixed and will always happen the same way every time." It's changing from that to being, "We are going to tell a story together, and we're going to take what your decisions are and we're going to make them meaningful by bending the world of the show around it." How do you manage and keep track of all the decisions guests are making throughout the show? Owen: Really the main tool for that is the back-end database - which is built in Notion - that we use to track everything that the audience decides to do. So long as you can track it, and so long as you can feed back to the audience what the consequences of their decisions are, then it works. The important thing is that you have a way of managing the data and feeding back to the audience the consequences of that data. It's all very well making a decision, but if you never see the impact of it, you might as well have not made it. So we can track all that stuff at the back-end - we can make it meaningful - but unless they know that what they've done - X has produced Y - the whole exercise is pointless. So the feedback mechanism and then the method of data handling, Tom has been the pioneer for that... Tom Black: We did a show a few years ago called Crisis? What Crisis?, which was a politics simulator. That was powered by a spreadsheet that did all of that. It had the cause and effect, and it crucially gave us a way of feeding back into the room "So here's what's happened because of this." With this show, we've commissioned the building in something in Notion, which is much more impressive - it's cloud-based and it's going to have thousands of people in it. It saves not only what your crew did, but what you did. Let's say you come back with none of the same people, all the things you did on that previous mission are saved not just to the crew, but also to you. If you get mixed and matched with some people that did some other things, the Gamesmaster running the show can be like, "Okay, right, it's interesting, we've got a mixed crew - this person went off and did this before and made some enemies in this sector, and these guys have an alliance with these other guys. Let's make a little scenario where they have to maybe be in conflict with each other in an interesting way". But as Owen says, it's knocking over the domino and telling people that's why this happened. Photo: Alex Brenner And it's that level of responsiveness that really makes the entire thing fluid right? Owen: Yeah. It's the thing computer games can't do on their own. Computer games have got to have a decision tree. The developers are not going to be sitting next to somebody, editing the game on the fly for them to accommodate what they want to do, you've got your pre-baked choices. That's what I think is unique about interactive immersive theatre - the live actor, present in the room, who's got a brain. That's why it bothers me that so many immersive shows just make an actor follow a script. Why are you wasting your unique thing that nobody else has? Why not empower that actor to be able to make meaningful decisions about the world of the show? Having done a bunch of other shows before, we've been able to test these things in the small scale. That's enabled us to scale it up really. Tom runs his show, Jury Games, and some of those principles are really evident in that. We've made shows like Crisis? What Crisis? and For King and Country - we've had thousands of hours of being able to test that, being able to pivot the story around audience decisions, so we've got good at it. But I think that makes it difficult to imitate this well because there are so many pitfalls, and it's only really through doing it that you learn how to avoid those. Photo: Alex Brenner You've developed quite a detailed backstory for the shows world. Can you tell us a bit more about the world visitors to Bridge Command will enter into? Owen: What we're trying to do is deliver on the promise of shows like Star Trek, where it's not just about flying around and 'pew-pew, we're going to blow up a load of bad guys'. You are a representative of an Earth government, and you're there to try and be responsible. Initially, the show is centred around an asteroid belt 22 light-years away from Earth called the Adamas Belt. In the backstory of the world, humanity fled to a planet close to that asteroid belt when Earth's environment completely collapsed and they went to that planet to hopefully start again. They then discovered that the planet wasn't as habitable as hoped, and was stuck in this asteroid belt for a number of years, trying to figure out what to do next. Eventually, they crack a new power generation technology that allows everybody to return home to Earth and fix the environment. The current version of the show is set when Earth is being prepared, the environment has been sorted out, and humanity has taken to the stars again, and has returned to the Adamas Belt to recover some of the stuff that it left behind, only to find that a whole human civilisation has sprung up there in the preceding 40 years. So you've got a united government of the entire solar system, Earth and Mars, called the UCTCN. They've arrived in an area of space where nobody knows who they are, and nobody cares. They feel a responsibility towards humanity as a whole, so they're trying to bring these people into the fold, but a lot of them don't want to go into the fold. They're quite happy doing their own thing. There's a lot of political wrangling. We've got five or six different factions in the Adamas Bely, including a whole bunch of people who live on an old ark ship with forests and fields built into the ship so that they can grow food. There's a whole bunch of space criminals who run a gambling operation out of an old space station. There's a whole bunch of pirates who just go out and steal people's shit. There's a variety of independent miners and different factions who all know each other. The UCTCN becomes a kind of police... trying to make everybody work together for the good of humanity. By design, every visit a guest has will be different right? You won't end up repeating the same story beats if you visit for a third or fourth time. Owen: Either on the Military or the Exploration team, we can run a lot of unique missions. You could even repeat the same mission parameters in some cases, but make the actual mission feel completely different. You might be ordered to go on a routine patrol around some mining asteroids - that could be the mission, but what happens then is completely up for grabs. You might get attacked, you might encounter somebody who's got a distress call, and then you've got to get them onboard the ship and see what's wrong with them. You might find a weird anomaly in space that you then have to study. Maybe it destroys the shield generator or something. There are all kinds of different potential scenarios you can run so that the mission objectives can then be taken in all kinds of different directions. What do you hope the average audience member that comes to this would take away from it afterwards? What do you want them to leave having felt? Owen: I really like the idea of giving people the experience of genuinely feeling like the best version of themselves. You come aboard the ship and you get to be your idealised self - you get to be the hero. You get to do the heroic thing. You have scenarios thrust in front of you that give you the opportunity to step up. If you'd always imagined, "What would I do if my ship was under attack and I was Captain Picard?" You get the opportunity to test that and hopefully come away feeling ten feet tall because you've nailed it. If people have grown up watching sci-fi TV shows, we want to try and deliver on the opportunity to do the cool things that you've always wanted to do., like set jets to warp core, trigger the self-destruct, or sit in the Captain's chair and go 'Engage'. Tom: I really like the teamwork side of it, especially when people who don't know each other play. I've been to immersive shows where by the end I've hugged people, and I then realise after I've hugged them that I didn't know them until two hours before. I'd love for that to start happening. Because of how much you have to work together if you're going to thrive, it really bonds you together. Owen: The first version of the show, we had people who made friends, they'd come and they'd booked separately - they didn't know each other - they played a game together and then they were like, "I was really fun, should we book the next one together?" And they came back and now they're mates, which is lovely. That kind of thing would be really great. Photo: Alex Brenner Bridge Command begins previews on 27th March in Vauxhall. Tickets can be booked via bridgecommand.space with prices starting at £40.00.

Punchdrunk have today announced their latest production, which is set to open at their Woolwich headquarters in May 2024. Titled 'Viola's Room' - this new show is described as “an intimate, sensory, labyrinthine journey guided by light and sound”. With no white masks, and no live cast, audience members of up to six people at a time will be guided barefoot through a maze-like set while wearing headphones, guided by an unseen narrator. It's based on The Moon-Slave, a short gothic mystery first written in 1901 by Barry Pain. The Moon-Slave follows a discontented Princess who sells her soul to the moon in exchange for music while at the centre of an overgrown maze in the middle of the night. Punchdrunk have previously adapted The Moon-Slave, but it was staged for an audience of just four people back in November 2000. Punchdrunk's The Burnt City - which ran in Woolwich, London. This latest version of the show has been written by Booker Prize shortlisted author Daisy Johnson (Everything Under) along Punchdrunk's artistic director Felix Barrett - who conceived, directed and designed the show, with co-direction from associate director Hector Harkness (One Night, Long Ago; The Third Day). Lighting design comes from Simon Wilkinson (Bedknobs and Broomsticks), and sound design Gareth Fry (The Encounter). Felix Barrett had this to say about the new show... When The Burnt City closed, our laboratory opened, and Woolwich became Punchdrunk’s home to experiment, play and develop – allowing us to prototype long held dreams and new ideas. Our ambition over the coming years is to open our doors as never before, offering audiences a chance to experience the evolution of these ideas from limited runs to larger-scale works. It’s with great excitement that we prepare to welcome audiences to the first project in a new era of Punchdrunk shows, Viola’s Room – an uncharted landscape – a moonlit fever dream. Viola's Room will begin previews on 14th May, and will run until 18th August in Woolwich Works. Tickets are on sale from 20th March via punchdrunk.com, priced at £28.50 per person.

With A Most Mechanical Murder returning for one night only this June at Phantom Peak, we interrogate Moonstone Murder Mysteries Creative Director Sam Emmerson on how to craft the perfect immersive murder mystery event. Immersive Rumours: Hi Sam. Thanks for sitting down with us today. Do you mind letting us know how long Moonstone Murder Mysteries has been running and how many shows you've launched since it first started? Sam Emmerson: It was Halloween 2017 when we first launched in London and the Southeast, but there's a Moonstone Theatre company in the South West of England that's been going for 15 years now. I was with them for a couple of years before starting it up here. Moonstone Theatre Company very much comes from a dining experience background, and it's in the last few years that we've moved more into the immersive experience game. I actually lost track of it at one point, but we've launched around 30 shows to date. IR: How do you go about devising and scripting that many shows? Sam: Generally, either a strong coffee or a large glass of wine tends to help. One of the things that's quite interesting about how we work - although we do the big immersive experiences like we've got coming up with A Most Mechanical Murder, and when we previously did Cyanide In The Speakeasy last year, we mainly do things for private parties and a lot of it is bespoke stuff. For about 1/3 of our shows, the clients will say 'Look, we want to do a show for our venue' or 'It's our 60th birthday' or 'We're getting married. We'd love to do a murder mystery in this sort of world, or this sort of theme' so you get a bit of a jumping-off point there. Alternatively, for the two new dining experiences that we've got for this year, we were just spitballing ideas and going, "What areas have we not touched yet that we think would be popular?" That's why we've got a show set around horse racing and the other one set like in a Renaissance Fair LARPing festival. So do you typically start at a concept or setting and work backwards? Sam: That's the way of creating shows that I find works best because ultimately - for a murder mystery in particular - although there are so many different avenues you can go down, in terms of creating motives there are only really 10 different categories that it can fall into. The order I always go in is to figure out the world that you're in, and then who would then fit into that world. Once you've got that established, then you find the link. That's why the more unique the setting, the more fun you can have. The hardest ones to write, to be honest, are the really generic ones. If it's set in an office, we've got nothing to build off. We did a live lockdown series on Zoom for 12 weeks where we played a new show every week and some of them were 'What are the strangest settings we can think of?'. One was set on the sound stage of a children's TV studio where a clown had been suffocated with a custard pie. Because of the bizarreity of it, you can be so playful with the options there. Moonstone Murder Mysteries Zoom Shows. Photos: Moonstone Murder Mysteries At the end of June you're running A Most Mechanical Murder at Phantom Peak in Canada Water. Can you give us a brief overview of the storyline for the show? Sam: The premise of A Most Mechanical Murder is that the town of Phantom Peak has gathered for the funeral of a murdered robot. However, as the last rights and the user warranty are being read, they realise someone's not there and the Health and Safety Officer of the town has also been found murdered. Fortunately, Inspector Rutherford just happened to be in town at the time, and goes 'Whilst I'm here, I've called on my detectives across the land to come into Phantom Peak to solve the case'. So the audience then set about solving both a human murder and a robot murder at the same time. With A Most Mechanical Murder, the show is set within the universe of Phantom Peak. What kind of things did you have to consider when taking over another shows space for one of your shows? Sam: Firstly, the venue is amazing. Because Phantom Peak is such a unique and big world, it gives us so many different ideas about where we could go. The challenge is making sure that anyone who'd been to Phantom Peak before believed that this had some link to that world without getting too bogged down in the huge amount of lore and information that it already has within it, while also having it so people who'd never been to Phantom Peak before weren't isolated. When we ran it previously, about 1/3 of the guests came because of Phantom Peak, 1/3 came because of us, and 1/3 had just booked because they liked the look of the show but hadn't been to one of our events or Phantom Peak before. It's a little bit of a balancing act with those sorts of shows. Our story is outside of the Phantom Peak canon, and the way we explained that was the dumbest way we could think of. When anyone who had been to Phantom Peak before asked us where the town's usual townsfolk were, we told them they'd gone off to compete as part of the Rhythmic Gymnastics team for the Jonalympics. Photo: Alistair Veryard When you take over a space, how do you make sure it's clear what is part of your world, and what's just part of the venues you've taken over? Sam: Well, the last time we did the show was a little bit like herding cats at one point because Phantom Peak's got things like Videomatic codes written everywhere - we made it explicitly clear that if we tell you it's a clue, it's a clue. If you find it randomly spray-painted in a corner of a dark room, it's not a clue. People would still do it, but I love it despite the confusion it caused because it meant people were really into the game that they were playing. When we did Cyanide In The Speakeasy at the COLAB Tavern in 2023, we had the space for three nights a week. COLAB Tavern had a lot of nooks and crannies from previous shows at the venue, and we had a whole thing where you snuck through the back door to get into the speakeasy. On the first night we did the show, someone found a cabinet filled with fake guns that we didn't know existed, and we also had people coming up to me with random little bottles of poison and I was going "Where did you find this?!" and they'd say "Oh, it was behind that locked door." Cyanide In The Speakeasy at COLAB Tavern. Photos: Moonstone Murder Mysteries This is the second time that you're mounting A Most Mechanical Murder. What were the big takeaways from when it ran previously? Sam: Fortunately, as a whole, it worked very well! There's a couple more interactive elements that we're currently looking to develop so there's always something to do. We only used the indoor space last time, this time we're opening it up to use indoor and outdoor so there's a nicer audience flow. When it's a murder mystery, everyone is 'Okay, go, go, go.' So we're trying to make it clearer to take it at your own pace. You don't have to be running around constantly the whole time because you knacker yourself out by the start of the second half! Sam Emmerson as Inspector Rutherford. Photo: Moonstone Murder Mysteries Your cast is made up of comedic improvisers. How much freedom do they have to go off-script when interacting with guests? I imagine there's a balancing act of improvising and still having to hit specific story beats. Sam: We give our team probably a much longer leash than most companies do. With A Most Mechanical Murder, the actual script is three times the size of a standard Moonstone Murders script. There are scenes that are scripted and will play out - basically the top, the middle and the end of the show where everyone's together. When they're on their own, they have certain points to hit, but they never know what's going to be asked. If an audience member wants to go down a completely random rabbit hole, our actors will go with them. If they want to go and just drill them on facts of the case, they'll also go with it, because it's their night, and it's how they want to play. It's a game within a show, but it's a show at the end of the day. If people get it wrong, that's entirely on them at the end of the night, but if that's the way you people to enjoy our show, we're more than happy to go with them on it. My ethos with our shows is 'Did you get it? Great. Did you get it wrong? Oh well. Did you have fun?'. Moonstone Murder Mysteries run events all over the country. Have you noticed a different between how regional audiences approach the shows compared to London audiences, who might attend immersive experiences more regularly? Sam: Our audience is on the whole quite a broad church and you never quite know what you're going to get. I find London audiences - and I mean this in a good way - they make you work a bit harder sometimes. Whereas sometimes when you go to a place that doesn't have as much available, it's got a different atmosphere to it. I think the great thing with London audiences, especially when you're surrounded with immersive theater fans, is that they will stress test what you've got in every which way. You get a different satisfaction from knowing that things truly do work under that stress test. Murder mysteries seem to have an enduring popularity through all kinds of media. What about them do you think has allowed them to remain so popular and for Moonstone Murder Mysteries to do so well? Sam: One is the curiosity for the morbid in all of us, I think. Because something like murder is so abhorrent, none of us could ever imagine doing it. It becomes almost fantasy, in a sense. That's why our shows are lighthearted - you'd never set a murder mystery experience in a modern-day setting where someone's been in a gang fight or someone's been stabbed. But if you set it on a train in the 1930s and everyone's wearing outfits and doing silly accents and having it off at the back of the train, then that's all kosher - that's good to go. On a lighter level, I think especially the British, we're just very nosy people. So when someone goes 'This has happened, I'm not going to tell you the answer to it.' It's that curiosity of 'I've got to know now', and an actual murder mystery most of the time is just fun. When someone admits to a murder in real life, everyone is appalled. It's a very sombre moment. When someone admits to a murder at the end of a murder mystery event, generally someone will shout 'Hang him!'. You get what I mean? There's a very big difference between reality and fiction. A Most Mechanical Murder runs at Phantom Peak in Canada Water on Thursday 27th June 2024. Tickets start at £36.50 and can be purchased here. Thanks to Sam Emmerson for taking the time to speak with us.

Punchdrunk have today announced Helena Bonham Carter as the narrator for the world premiere of their new production, Viola’s Room. The show opens at the company’s home in Woolwich this May for a limited run. The narration is pre-recorded and audiences will be guided by Helena’s voice, scripted by Daisy Johnson, through headphones. In Viola’s Room, barefoot, and wearing headphones, small groups of up to six at a time will feel their way through a maze-like installation as an unseen narrator guides them on a sensory journey to reveal a story of innocence lost and obsession unleashed. Written by Booker Prize-shortlisted Daisy Johnson, Viola’s Room reimagines Barry Pain’s classic gothic mystery The Moon-Slave for a new audience. Image: Punchdrunk ​ On being part of Viola's Room, Helena Bonham Carter said: Having long been a fan of Punchdrunk, when Felix (Barrett) shared the concept of Viola’s Room with me, I was captivated. How could I resist a gothic fairytale interpreted through Daisy Johnson’s febrile pen, layered with Punchdrunk’s incomparable sensory craft and magic?  It’s an honour to be narrating this truly unique experience.’ Punchdrunk Artistic Director Felix Barrett also said: It was a pinch me moment hearing Helena bring Daisy’s words to life. What an icon - and what a truly mesmerising enchantment she brings to Viola’s Room. I’m beyond thrilled to offer our audiences the chance to have Helena Bonham Carter whisper in their ear and delicately, deviously steward them through our dreamworld.’ The production is conceived, directed and designed by Artistic Director Felix Barrett, with co-direction by Associate Director Hector Harkness (One Night, Long Ago; The Third Day) and design by Casey Jay Andrews, who was part of the design team on The Burnt City. Working with Punchdrunk for the first time are Lighting Designer Simon Wilkinson (Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Vanishing Point’s Metamorphosis), and Sound Designer Gareth Fry (Complicité’s The Encounter; V&A’s David Bowie Is, Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser and Diva exhibitions). ​ Viola’s Room will take place at Punchdrunk’s home at One Cartridge Place, Woolwich. Viola's Room will begin previews on 14th May, and will run until 18th August in Woolwich. Tickets are on sale via punchdrunk.com, priced from £28.50 per person.

Prior to its opening later this month, Immersive Rumours get a hands-on demonstration of Bridge Command - the ambitious new immersive experience from Parabolic Theatre that will allow guests to command a spaceship and venture into the expanses of space. Photo: Alex Brenner Bridge Command, an immersive starship simulator experience, is set to take off later this month in Vauxhall. Earlier this week, Immersive Rumours were invited to attend a sneak preview of the experience led by Owen Kingston, Artistic Director of Parabolic Theatre, at the show's venue on Albert Embankment. Bridge Command's history dates back to 2019 when Parabolic launched a previous version of the show at COLAB Factory in Borough. Despite the small scale and limited budget, that initial iteration caught the attention of investors who saw potential in its concept and wanted to enable the creation of this reworked, supersized version of the experience. And what an upgrade it is - with two different starships on-site nestled beneath railway arches a stone's throw from Vauxhall station, the size of these sets far exceeds expectations. There's futuristic bunk beds, a sick bay, captain's quarters, fully functional toilets that have a view looking out into the expanse of space, as well as smaller ancillary ships that can just about squeeze in all the crew members (which will range from four to fourteen per session) in case of emergency. As part of our visit we had a hands-on demo with the command bridge of the USC Havock. There's multiple touchscreen consoles for each crew member, whether they're working on Navigation, Damage Control, Power Management or any other of the nine Officer roles available. Every mission requires a healthy dose of team co-ordination, with a constant relaying of information from one role to another needed in order to keep both the ship and the galaxy under control. Despite some initial chaos as everyone got their bearings, people settled into their individual roles quickly thanks to assistance from the cast who were on hand to explain the different interfaces and how they interact. Photo: Alex Brenner Elsewhere on the ship, things weren't going quite so smoothly. Our fuel cells had nearly depleted, and a sudden loss of power ship-wide meant that new ones needed to be dispatched from a neighbouring allied ship via the Comms Officer, who had to quickly broker a deal that would keep us operational. With freshly charged fuel cells now in hand, we found ourselves running down the hallways of the USC Havock as fast as we could to restore the ships functions. We were told about several other scenarios in which crew members would need to leave their posts in order to keep the ship working as required - adding more pressure to what is already an intense experience. In the event that a group find themselves in an unbeatable situation, or the ship falls into complete disrepair, there is of course one last resort - the self-destruct. Never ones to turn down an opportunity, our group were more than happy to see all our previous hard work go up in flames at the mere mention of being able to detonate a bomb on-board the ship. Once armed, we had just 60 seconds to evacuate the ship and ensure our safety in the escape pod. Photo: Alex Brenner One of the unique selling points of Bridge Command is the agency that audience members have over what unfolds. Their decisions - both good and bad - have lasting impacts on the narrative, with the show designed to respond and bend around players' decisions however left-field they may be (as long as they’re in keeping with the world Parabolic have created). It's all about shifting that thinking from, "We are going to tell you a story, which is going to be fixed and will always happen the same way every time." It's changing from that to being, "We are going to tell a story together, and we're going to take what your decisions are. We're going to make them meaningful by bending the world of the show around it." Owen Kingston on designing Bridge Command to give audiences agency This is an idea that they've explored and pioneered in the past as a company, most notably with Crisis? What Crisis? and For King and Country. If this isn't impressive enough on its own, Bridge Command also allows these decisions to carry over to repeat visits, meaning your past choices will impact your experience if you visit again. The behind-the-scenes infrastructure that facilitates this has also been upgraded this time. What used to just be a huge spreadsheet is now a cloud-based system built in Notion that according to Tom Black, Artistic Associate at Parabolic Theatre, will "save all the things that you did on that mission, not just to the crew, but also to you". It works to such a degree that if two guests have visited before as part of separate missions, their individual decisions will merge and impact their crews storyline when they play together. The hope is that this level of individual personalisation will ensure people come back again and again, picking up right where they left off. The 2019 version of the show deployed a rudimentary version of this, which worked to great effect according to Owen Kingston. Around 50% of first time visitors would return again, with "nearly all of them who did come back, came for every single episode that we made. That's when we realised, "Oh, there's a business model here which works in theory"" Photo: Alex Brenner We've had thousands of hours of being able to test being able to pivot the story around audience decisions, so we've gotten good at it. But I think that makes it difficult to imitate this as well because there are so many pitfalls, and it's only really through doing it that you learn how to avoid those. Owen Kingston on Parabolic Theatres experience at adapting to audience decisions on the fly All this narrative flexibility is all well and good, but what exactly can we expect from the story of Bridge Command? According to Kingston, they're "trying to deliver on the promise of shows like Star Trek, where it's not just about flying around and 'pew-pew, we're going to blow up a load of bad guys'. You are a representative of an Earth government, and you're there to try and be responsible". Acting on behalf of UCTCN - a new political union combining the governments of both Earth and Mars, tension and in-fighting between different groups plays a big part in the show. "We've got five or six different factions in the Adamas Belt - people who live on an old ark ship with forests and fields built into the ship so they can grow food, there's a bunch of space criminals who run a gambling operation out of an old space station. There's pirates who literally just go out and steal people's shit. There's a variety of different factions who all know each other. The UCTCN becomes a kind of a police, trying to make everybody work together for the good of humanity." Photo: Alex Brenner While there are plans for regular updates to the overarching story of Bridge Command in the future, it appears the teams current focus is on perfecting an experience that both satisfies guests desire to do something unique, and feel connected to those around them while doing so. I've been to immersive shows where by the end I've hugged people, and I then realise after I've hugged them that I didn't know them until two hours before. I'd love for that to start happening because when you were playing, because of how much you have to work together if you're going to thrive, it really bonds you together. Tom Black on the kind of connections they hope to see come out of Bridge Command Photo: Alex Brenner Upon launch, there are two main mission types on offer - Military and Exploration. Both involve starship combat, but the Military Missions focus more on ship-to-ship confrontation whereas the Exploration Missions allow players to delve into the mysteries of space. The custom built set is fully integrated with bridge simulation software, meaning that whatever takes place in the simulation, from an enemy attack to a ship malfunction, will directly impact the physical set causing systems to break and sparks to fly. This is a truly unique project that has been years in the making. It is a remarkable blend of immersive performance, interactive storytelling and gaming technology, and there really is nothing else out there quite like it. We are extremely excited to finally share it with the world. Owen Kingston on Bridge Command Bridge Command begins previews on 27th March in Vauxhall. Tickets can be booked via bridgecommand.space with prices starting at £40.00.

Phantom Peak concludes the 2023 season with an exceptionally fun set of festive trails in this top-tier Christmas offering. Immersive Rumours received complimentary tickets to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before our review. They have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. Photo: Alistair Veryard Returning for its fourth and final season of 2023, Phantom Peak continues to stand head and shoulders above every other immersive experience in London. Simply put, if you've never visited the platypus-loving mining town located in Canada Water, you're missing out on a truly special one-of-a-kind show. Our love for this experience is well documented - our initial Phantom Peak review back in August 2022 was glowing. With 16 interconnected storylines that saw guests exploring every corner of the town over five hours, it delivered an experience that had so much to do it was impossible to complete in one visit. Fifteen months on, Phantom Peak has continued to reinvent itself and grow season after season. There have now been 87 different story trails available across its seven seasons, and the continued evolution of the town has created a loyal fanbase and a huge number of repeat visitors. With whole host of changes around the town with every season, as well as hours' worth of new storylines to experience, Phantom Peak changes at a pace that makes every other immersive show's growth seem glacial. Photo: Alistair Veryard The townsfolk of Phantom Peak are on edge this Wintermas season. Demigod Father Platmas has returned and vowed to take down JONACO - the mysterious organisation that controls much of the town's operation. Last year the purple-suited bringer of festive cheer was imprisoned by JONACO in a make-shift jail and is certainly holding a grudge against their previous captures. Mayor Pocket, fresh off being re-elected during the Lunar Festival, has cordoned off a large part of town around Father Platmas' Grotto and a Defence Centre has been erected to keep him at bay. Elsewhere in town, the usual mix of unexplained goings-on that are part and parcel of Phantom Peak is keeping everyone busy. This season's many storylines include everything from a group of missing teens who were last seen investigating some monstrous sightings (a pitch-perfect parody of Scooby-Doo!), a race against the clock to prevent the town's shopkeeper from spontaneously exploding, and the arrival of an anonymously sent puppet to Mayor Pocket that has minds racing. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those unfamiliar with how it works - upon arrival, groups load up the JonAssist website on their phones. Acting as a handheld guide to the town, visitors are assigned one of ten trails to start. Taking anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes to complete if you're dedicated, a typical trail will see you solving puzzles, interacting with numerous townsfolk and learning information from any of the numerous machines scattered around the town - including RoboDoc (a sarcastic digital doctor), Jonavisions (TVs that need to be tuned to a specific channel), Videomatics (keypad operated video players) and Jonagraphs (telegram machines to contact people out of town). You progress through these stories at your own pace - which allows you to get distracted by any of the numerous other things going on around the town at any one time without losing your place in that storyline. Upon completion of a storyline, you're rewarded with a collectable trail card, which also serves as a memento of your visit. It combines elements of immersive theatre, escape rooms and video games to form an experience that's completely unique and not being done anywhere else. Photo: Alistair Veryard Every trail this season continues to meet the high standard set by past iterations, and the fact that the writers don't appear to be anywhere close to running out of ideas after creating close to 90 individual storylines for Phantom Peak is a testament to how deep and detailed the overall world in which the towns exist is. Alongside the 10 main storylines on offer, there's plenty else to occupy your time - from the trio of carnival games to the Miramaze (a lengthy obstacle course complete with tunnels, a ball pit, dark corridors and several hundred bungee cords to navigate) and the wide range of food and drinks options which includes some excellent festive cocktails and mulled wine. Photo: Alistair Veryard An optional add-on experience for the Wintermas season this year is a meet-and-greet with Father Platmas in their grotto. Entering in small groups, guests first have their auras read and are then deemed to be either Naughty or Nice. To break the ice, there are several rounds of festive charades and each visitor is gifted a Polaroid photo of themselves with Father Platmas, and a unique trail card. While it may not be an essential experience for newer visitors to Phantom Peak, having some one-on-one time with arguably the season's most important character will be of particular enjoyment to regular visitors who are clued up on the lore of the town. Photos: Alistair Veryard With the overarching story of Phantom Peak set to continue into 2024, and no end date in sight for its ongoing season updates, it's a show that rewards regular and repeated visits. If you've not yet stepped foot into this immersive open-world, you're missing out. Phantom Peak has delivered the best immersive Christmas experience on offer in London yet again, and we can't recommend it highly enough. ★★★★★ Christmas at the Peak: The Beast of Winter runs at Phantom Peak in Canada Water until 30th December. Tickets start at £39.99 for adults, and can be booked via phantompeak.com. Check out our other reviews from Phantom Peak here.

A new immersive experience is set to launch in London in March 2024. Bridge Command - which will see participants become the crew of a starship battling to save humanity - is the latest production from Parabolic Theatre, who have previously mounted immersive shows including Crisis? What Crisis? and For King and Country. With two different mission styles on offer - Military Mission and Exploration Mission, the experience with allow for an experience that matches the participants' play style. While both will involve combat, the Military Mission will focus more on ship-to-ship confrontation, with the Exploration Mission seeing the ship go where 'no other craft has gone before'. Professional actors from Parabolic Theatre will join the action as various characters that the crew meet on their journeys through space. Each participant will take on a different role within the ship within four main groups, which are... Operations Team, who are responsible for the overall running of the ship with roles including Weapons, Comms and Helm. Science Team, who will focus on the route of the ship and new findings, with roles including Navigation and Radar. Engineering Team, who will look after the maintenance with roles including Power Management and Damage Control. Command Team, who are responsible for leading the crew and making the big decisions, with roles including Captain and First Officer. The custom-built starship set will respond to events within the story - everything from enemy attacks to ship malfunctions will directly impact the physical set causing systems to break and sparks to fly. Additionally, the experience's episodic format means participants have the opportunity to continue their story in subsequent visits, with events and decisions from previous missions being remembered and influencing the content of return visits. Tickets are on sale now via bridgecommand.space. Previews begin at the end of March 2024, with dates up until mid-June currently available for booking. Prices start at £40 per person Stay up to date on this and everything else immersive in London by following us on Instagram or X.

Later this week The Space near Mudchute will become home to Your Christmas Carol Experience. With only 10 audience members enterting at a time, the show will engage with their own stories, connections, and memories as they encounter the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Ahead of the show opening, we spoke to the show's director, Kelsey Yuhara, to discuss the show's conception, how they've adapted the Charles Dickens classic, and what audience members can expect from the show. Photo: Phokal Hi Kelsey. Thanks for chatting to us. Do you mind telling us a bit about yourself? Sure! I am Kelsey Yuhara, a multi-disciplinary artist working in immersive and site-responsive performance, theatre and improvisation. I am performing regularly with Comediasians, CSI (Crime Scene Impro) and BATSU! London at the Underbelly Boulevard Theatre. Later this week Your Christmas Carol opens at The Space. Can you tell us what inspired the creation of the show? I was taking a walk on a crisp autumn day and just talking about ideas. I was walking past a church nearby where I had thought vaguely, years ago before the pandemic, about collaborating on a walk-around Christmas Carol in various locations.  This year, however, I thought about what would happen if the story was mostly about the ghosts - because I love the idea of ghosts. The more I thought about it, the more enticing it was to dive in and imagine an experience where one would be encountering their own past, present and future spirits. A Christmas Carol is a beloved festive tale, how are you planning on putting a unique spin on the story? As a theatremaker, I'm probably the last person who others would think would want to adapt a traditional tale because I love new writing and contemporary projects.  This take on the classic tale though, is truly modern. There's no Scrooge. It's not taking place in Victorian times. None of the human characters you otherwise have come to associate with Christmas Carol feature either. I explained this to someone the other day and they asked "Well, is it even still A Christmas Carol?" And I feel, yes and no. The audience in this version are in the position of Scrooge and you'll encounter your versions of memories and 'ghosts'. I don't assume that everyone is a stereotypical miser, but I do think there is an element of Scrooge or Scrooge logic in all of us - which is why it's such an enduring tale. The themes and intentions of Dickens' original story I believe come through in this take - but you're going to experience them with many of your senses (except taste unless you stay for a mulled wine in the cafe afterwards!) - and also magic and your imagination!  Essentially, even though it is based on an enduring classic, it is a thoroughly modern take, and it is Your Christmas Carol Experience (emphasis on 'your' and 'experience'). This version, I should note, is also not for the passive watcher. There is, of course, some watching, but you'll be engaging too. Photo: Phokal It's an intimate experience with only 10 audience members entering at a time - can you speak a little about how that allows you to craft a more engaging and immersive experience for guests? I was thinking about why any audience would choose to go to a live performance (as opposed to watching A Christmas Carol on Disney +, which the 2019 miniseries I also, for the record, think is great). Ten is the number in this instance, that we can reasonably fit into some of the spaces we're using. The use of these smaller spaces is also a choice and an opportunity to play with each space as its own atmosphere and world. We want the past, present and future to feel distinct and by moving into different spaces, I feel like audiences will get that sensation of going on a journey.  There is also more close interaction with performers, where dissolving the fourth wall in this case, I hope will make audiences feel more immersed in the experience and a part of it. Can you tell us a bit about the cast for the show? The cast is a wonderful mix of talents all bringing different strengths in dance, puppetry, improvisation & immersive performance, physical theatre, magic & mentalism, clown, music and choir.  It's really, really exciting to have so many skills to draw on and enhance the experiences in each space.  They're all vibrant and proactive creators in their own right and it's an honour to be working with them on this show. We have the following cast performing for you in Your Christmas Carol Experience: Time Keeper – Romer Spirits of the Past – Yuxuan Liu, Noah Silverstone and Ashlee McIntosh Lantern Bearer – Emma-May Uden Spirit of the Present – Andrew Phoenix Present Aide – Hannah Hawkins Spirit of the Future – Mahalakshmi Spirit of Now – Sofia Zaragoza What are you hoping audiences will take away from the show? I hope that, as always, we remember what we are grateful for during challenging and uncertain times; that in the depth of winter, there is a rebirth coming; to find new ones and remember to cherish the connections we hold dearest, and to reconnect with our own power over our destinies. Looking forward to the new year, what projects do you have coming up? Following this run, we would love to grow Your Christmas Carol Experience for the coming years. Lilli and I will continue to be working on Rain Weaver which is a devised production that we started last year. We'll be expanding the casting and hopefully take it to Edinburgh Fringe. There is also some new writing coming up that Lilli is producing and is excited about. At the moment, she is not allowed to disclose when and where but give TO a follow at @toentertainmentltd, and we will keep you posted. Your Christmas Carol Experience runs at The Space near Mudchute on 21st and 22nd December. Find out more about the show here. Stay up to date on this and everything else immersive in London by following us on Instagram or X.

ScreamWorks are back with The Ghost Hunt - their latest horror immersive experience in Bethnal Green. Following the success of their previous show, Bloodbath - which we reviewed earlier in the year, the creative team at ScreamWorks are swapping out serial killers for paranormal investigation for their Halloween offering. We recently spoke to Gary Stocker - the CEO of ScreamWorks, to discuss their new immersive experience, the success of Bloodbath, and their future plans for immersive horror offerings... Would you mind introducing yourself and explaining a little bit about what inspired the creation of ScreamWorks? My name is Gary Stocker and I am the CEO of ScreamWorks, although I would like to add from the outset that I am just one of a team of people all of whom work tirelessly to produce our shows and build the ScreamWorks brand. I have been producing shows for the best part of 17 years. I originally trained as a lawyer, but after a brief stint in the City I decided that the corporate life was not for me. I had previously performed in Covent Garden as a street performer and worked as a professional magician and decided that I would prefer to continue this kind of work, rather than to become a lawyer. I quit my job and shortly afterwards started a travelling circus, called Chaplin's Circus, which I toured for about 6 years. It was a narrative-driven circus in that the shows were always scripted and the cast always comprised both circus performers and professional actors. Our first show was called 'Backstage' and the audience were invited to watch a circus show from behind the curtains, learning about the history of a 1920s circus on the brink of bankruptcy and all the trials and tribulations of circus life. In the end, we rotated the stage and the audience would watch the grand finale, in which I performed as a human cannon ball! We sold the circus to a theme park in 2018, which was lucky timing in light of COVID and all that ensued. During my time as a circus proprietor, I engaged in a number of joint ventures to produce pop-up Halloween events. For example, we were involved in the Screamland launch in Margate and ScareNation's Dr Carnevil and the Circus of Fear was one of my productions - a very successful walk-through scare attraction in Watford (we had about 12,000 customers over a 2-week period). I love horror and Halloween so I always knew that I wanted to produce more immersive horror experiences. In 2022, I worked with Claudio Cecconi and my business partner William Ravara to write my first show, Bloodbath. I was heavily inspired by Punchdrunk; while I wasn't a massive fan of the Burnt City overall (please don't hate me!), I love the scale of Punchdrunk's productions and the detailed set dressing. I was however a little disappointed that some of the set dressing and props proved to be irrelevant to the story. I remember I found a set of headphones and put them on, but nothing played. There was a telephone but it didn't ring. And lots of the books and exhibits, while detailed and 'in theme', had no discernable relevance to the narrative. When I left The Burnt City I said to my friend, "I'm ready to start producing again. When I left The Burnt City I said to my friend, "I'm ready to start producing again." Photo: Punchdrunk's The Burnt City How did your experience of The Burnt City inform how you approached creating Bloodbath? My first production decision was that in my sets, everything will lead back into the narrative; I want to reward the curious. If you find a bottle of wine and have the balls to open it, enjoy! If you find some paintbrushes and want to create something, we will not stop you. For me, one of the main joys of the immersive format is that it gives us an opportunity to play. One of the early highlights of Bloodbath for me was when a customer opened the fridge and started to make themselves a ham and cheese sandwich using the ingredients they found around the house. It was not easy to make that happen. Each day I would position the ingredients in slightly different places, to try and inspire customers to help themselves. I remember telling my control room to communicate with me urgently by radio the moment that they saw a customer making a sandwich. By day 4, it finally happened! When you look at the wider industry, what do you think your shows offer that isn’t being done by other immersive productions? Our mission is to be the market-leading provider of immersive horror experiences. We want to create immersive experiences which are fully end-to-end immersive. Anything which can take you out of the story should be eliminated; with Bloodbath that meant we couldn't have security at the door or staff checking tickets. Instead, we kidnapped our customers from the street and took them to the location; after all, a serial killer would not advertise the location of his home. We even extend the immersion into customer service if necessary. With Bloodbath, if you called the customer service number you would speak either to Jack, our serial killer main character, or Abel, his deranged but weirdly endearing brother. If you sent an email, Jack would be the one to reply. This worked really well. Lots of customers felt like they already knew the characters before they attended the event, even bringing unusual gifts for the characters, which was very sweet. Photos: Scremwork's Bloodbath This pre-show immersion worked well - perhaps too well! On one occasion, an immersive theatre critic, who had come to review Bloodbath, was standing outside the venue refusing to come inside. [Editor's Note: It was not Immersive Rumours] They called the customer service number and got connected directly with Jack. They demanded to speak to our customer services team - they wanted some reassurance that Jack was not a real serial killer and that they would not die if they entered the house. Of course, Jack could only confirm that he is a real serial killer and that there is no customer service team at Bloodbath - Just Jack, Abel and Mother! They wanted some reassurance that Jack was not a real serial killer and that they would not die if they entered the house. While this was very amusing and demonstrated that we had done a great job setting up the immersion of our narrative, in retrospect we probably lost a lot of potential customers by being a bit too scary. However, the customers who were brave enough to step into Jack and Abel's crazy world, loved this aspect of our show, so it is not a decision I regret. We are a few days into The Ghost Hunt being open to the public - how has the process of getting the show to this point been? How did the experience of putting on Bloodbath influence the creation of this show? The set for the Ghost Hunt is by far the most elaborate set we have ever built. We have effectively built an entire 10-room house. We worked so hard to get it finished on time, and I am so proud of myself and my team. We learned a lot from Bloodbath, and so it certainly inspired the logistics of this event, but at the same time, the show itself is entirely different. Poster for The Ghost Hunt You really will get out of this show what you put into it. If you really engage with the set and the characters you will find a fascinating and multi-layered narrative (as well as a few well-crafted jump scares to keep you on your toes) Can you give us a hint of what to expect from The Ghost Hunt? The Ghost Hunt is a Halloween experience which takes place in the former home of the Luff family, all but one of whom lost their lives in a horrific murder-suicide on 31 October 1937. Armed with torches, guests are invited to explore this abandoned house to discover for themselves what happened on that fateful night. Unlike Bloodbath, The Ghost Hunt places responsibility on the guests to discover the story for themselves. There are no voiceovers to spoon-feed narrative and no traffic lights to regulate customer flow. This makes the show logistically far more challenging than Bloodbath, but we have an exceptionally strong cast of actors, playing the ghosts of the Luff family and their mysterious lodger, and these actors are available to guests to deliver narrative and to respond to the guest's questions and decisions. You really will get out of this show what you put into it. If you really engage with the set and the characters you will find a fascinating and multi-layered narrative (as well as a few well-crafted jump scares to keep you on your toes). What inspired the new show and why did you choose to not immediately continue the story of Jack and Abel? Ghost Hunt is inspired by a number of true stories which we have meticulously researched and conflated. Some of the characters and the story are inspired by personal events related to my own childhood. It's not uncommon for me to explore aspects of my own trauma through the work I create. Several aspects of Bloodbath were also inspired by my own childhood. Jack and Abel needed a break for a while; they had a good eight-month run and will be back next year, for sure. It's good to give people some time to miss them. We also want an opportunity to show the world what else we can do as a company and perhaps to appeal to a broader audience; as I said before, some people were too scared to attend Bloodbath because they feared they might actually be murdered!! We remember attending Bloodbath and finding photos of our group from our social media pinned to the walls. Jack also greeted us by name at the climax of that show. It’s a level of intimacy and personalisation that helps draw visitors deeper into the world. Is that something you found audiences responded well to? Audiences loved this aspect of Bloodbath. It was exceptionally expensive and time-consuming to implement, but it was a very powerful mechanism for converting our guests from mere observers to direct participants in the story. The word 'immersive' is used a lot these days, often inappropriately. For me, an event is not really immersive unless you as an individual feel that you are part of the story and have the freedom to exercise autonomy and interact directly and personally with the characters. This is something which we will develop more in future productions, for sure. You’re also running a more family-friendly show called Ghost Detectives throughout October. Can you tell us a bit about that show and why you chose to also do an all-ages show? When I owned Chaplin's Circus, I used to produce immersive experiences for children at Christmas time. One of my previous shows, called Ice Grotto Advent-ure, was entirely sold out across all UK locations. The concept was simple: Rudolph had lost his nose and without it, could not fly. The children stepped inside a full-sized advent calendar to go on an adventure (hence the name 'Advent-ture') to find it. The special effects were awesome. It was such a feel-good event and we really convinced thousands of children that they had single-handedly saved Christmas! They would literally leave the event screaming. "I just saved Christmas!" Poster for Ghost Detectives On the face of it, Ghost Detectives is a very simple but poignant story about a young boy called Isaac who has lost his pet mouse Stripey, and does not want to 'cross over' until he finds him. The Ghost Detective Agency is recruiting young detectives to help solve this case. Unfortunately, the house is owned by a grumpy old man who hates children, so the guests have to find a way to trick the old man into letting them inside the house. The real quest is to discover why the old man is so grumpy and why he hates children; for me, this story is a bit of a tear-jerker, as the guests will discover a sad but beautiful truth which is the key to reuniting Isaac and Stripey (and also the old man, with his wife, the love of his life). What’s the future looking like for ScreamWorks? Are there already plans in motion for shows in 2024? These are tough times for everyone. Immersive theatre is expensive to produce because of the limited capacities and the low ratio between audience and actor numbers. I am pleased to say that we are managing to keep our head above water and we work very hard to keep our prices as low as possible (our RRP is £45.00). We have some exciting plans for 2024, but as always our main focus is on our current show, to ensure we deliver the best possible customer experience we can. We will launch an escape room format later in the year using the same set as Ghost Hunt, but we will release more information about that closer to the time. The Ghost Hunt runs from 5th October to 31st October in Bethnal Green. Tickets are available to book here. Ghost Detectives runs from 21st October to 29th October in Bethnal Green. Tickets are available to book here.