Review: Fireside Tales by Punchdrunk Enrichment

Photo: Nina Photography

Anyone who's engaged with London's immersive theatre scene over the last decade will know that often, shows pop up in unexpected places. From railway arches and church basements to disused fire stations and factories, it's typical to find yourself venturing to corners of the city you had no idea existed in pursuit of new experiences. A stone's throw from Wembley Stadium, in the middle of a nondescript industrial estate, sits one such space - a former car garage - that's home to a theatre company born out of the world's best-known immersive creators, Punchdrunk.

Founded in 2008 by Peter Higgin, Punchdrunk Enrichment was established to bring the practices and methods used by Punchdrunk to families, schools, and communities through public performances and workshops. Past productions from the charity, which now operates as a separate entity from the Woolwich-based immersive juggernaut, include The Lost Lending Library and Enitan's Game, which ran at their Wembley Park venue throughout Summer 2024.

Their latest production, Fireside Tales, written and directed by Steve McCourt (the charity’s incoming Artistic Director), is aimed at children aged 7-11 and inspired by the age-old practice of people getting together to exchange stories as the nights begin to draw in. The hour-long show, which features big-hearted performances, stunning set design and plenty of opportunities for younger guests to get involved, is a love letter to the power of storytelling, our imaginations, and the importance of community. It's also utterly magical for children and parents alike.

Photo: Nina Photography

With the show beginning on the street outside the Punchdrunk Enrichment Store, audiences first meet an apologetic but nonetheless welcoming Ali (Amari Harris), who emerges from the store's front door with a bucket and mop in hand. A recent delivery has flooded the store, and he's only just got the last of the water out moments before a brave, young audience member knocked on the door.

After being ushered inside, guests are introduced to Cosima (Rebecca Ella Clark), the store's second custodian, who works alongside Ali to catalogue and archive every story the store takes delivery of into one of four elemental categories. While air, earth and water stories arrive at regular intervals, accompanied by gusts of wind and the occasional leak, the volatile and generational fire stories are far more elusive.

As Cosima and Ali tell the audience more about some of the stories they've recently received, placing large leather-bound books on the room's central table, younger members of the audience are gently invited to contribute and become part of the story. Cosima and Ali speak to them one-on-one, prompt them to answer a ringing rotary phone (which is unknowingly held up upside down, to the delight of the adults in the room), and, amongst other interactions, encourage a child who was given a blue feather earlier in the show to recount their story about space peacocks for the rest of the group. These interactions all reinforce a key idea laid out early on by Ali - that everyone has a story to tell and a right to be heard.

Soon, word of an unexpected story delivery comes through, and it’s all hands on deck to receive the store’s first fire story. Some excellent lighting design from Sarah Readman depicts its arrival, first igniting a candle overhead before swiftly jumping around the room from light source to light source in quick succession.

Photo: Nina Photography

As anyone familiar with Punchdrunk Enrichment's sister company will expect, the set design (courtesy of designer Mydd Pharo) and attention to detail throughout Punchdrunk Enrichment's Store is exceptional. Floor-to-ceiling shelves are packed to the brim with trinkets and household items, all accompanied by handwritten place cards indicating their date of arrival, place of origin and history. Huge piles of papers, cassettes and newspapers are scattered throughout the space. In the Store’s entrance hallway, there's a map of the area covered in criss-crossing pieces of string, trying to track the movement of Haggins, an adventurous local cat. Fittingly for a space that deals in story-building materials, every item in the space seemingly has a tale to tell.

This detailed design continues as the audience moves through to the show's second space - an overgrown yard behind the store, complete with a makeshift wooden storage hut, first-floor terraced flat windows overlooking the space and an abandoned car surrounded by foliage and discarded tools. It's in this space, with the audience all resting on tree stumps and benches surrounding a central fire pit, that they collectively try to tempt the fire story down from an overhanging lamp.

Of course, the best way to put a nervous story at ease is to share stories of our own. Ali recounts a childhood memory of scoring the winning goal in a high-stakes five-a-side game to the soundtrack of cheers and boos coming from Wembley Stadium. Cosima recalls how, as a child, she hurt herself trying to stoke a fire and later lied about how she injured herself. While it's no doubt a cautionary tale, speaking to the danger of untruthfulness and how lies can quickly spread, it's told with such care and vulnerability that it never feels preachy.

Later in the show, the audience gets a chance to contribute their own stories, being given a piece of paper and charcoal to sketch out what the idea of 'home' means to them and encouraged to share it with those sitting close to them. While it's a small and personal moment of contemplation and connection for the audience, within the wider context of the show, it carries a surprising amount of weight.

Photo: Nina Photography

Adults without children who are keen to try and scratch that Punchdrunk itch without having to hide from guards in a dark corner of the company's Woolwich home as part of LANDER 23 can attend one of several 'grown-ups only' sessions on select dates across December and January. The content of the show remains the same for these performances, but they include a Q&A with some of the show's creative team and a post-show drink as part of the experience.

With a message that'll stay with audiences, beautifully detailed sets and generous performances from its two-strong cast, Fireside Tales is a wonderfully realised piece of immersive theatre that's been created with the utmost care. Atmospheric, reflective and magical, it's also a poignant reminder that giving each other the space to share our stories can turn that spark inside all of us into a flame, if we continue to tend to it.

★★★★

Guide: London's Best Immersive Christmas Experiences (2025)

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Fireside Tales run at Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores in Wembley Park until 4th January 2026. Tickets to all-ages shows are priced from £15, and can be booked via punchdrunkenrichment.org