Review: Ritual by Witness (COLAB Tower)

Photo: Callum O'Keefe

Have you ever wanted to spend eight hours in a basement watching a mysterious young man perform increasingly desperate rituals in a fruitless attempt to receive a blessing for a murder he already knows he must commit? I think most people would say no. Even to me, an admittedly slightly obsessive immersive theatre fan, seeing the entire show seemed ridiculous. Eight hours following one actor who never takes a break sounds dangerously close to performance art.

I had planned to catch the first couple of hours of Ritual and then head off; the show was small, after all, only two rooms and a long hallway. I’d have a quick poke around and then leave. But the longer Ritual, written by Michael Bontatibus and directed by Charlotte Murray, went on, the more determined I was to see it through.

What’s the show about? Well, explaining the entire cursed history of the House of Atreus would take a lot more time than I have here, but to cut it down to the essentials: Orestes has been put in an impossible position. His father’s sacrifice of his sister provokes his mother into murdering him. Now Orestes is literally honour-bound to avenge his father by committing his own act of kinslaying, and so the cycle continues.

Photo: Callum O'Keefe

The domestic setting of an unused basement really drives this home. Orestes (Charlie MacRae-Tod) is surrounded by boxes containing old holiday decorations, childhood toys, and beautifully rendered dioramas depicting his family’s bloody history. I do think this show would be difficult to follow if you weren’t already familiar with the myth, but for those prepared to go digging, the set has been lovingly littered with clues.

Tarot cards mark passages in books, pages cover the walls, and a beautifully designed family tree has literally been split in half by the sins of the past. Even the washing machine contains a window into all the past events that are keeping Orestes trapped here.

Trapped as he is, Orestes paces between the two rooms, sometimes like a caged animal and sometimes like a lonely child. He splits his time between restoring Apollo’s temple and writing increasingly desperate letters to anyone he can think of, begging for a sign and begging for the gods to speak to him as they once did.

Photo: Callum O'Keefe

For long portions of the show, he’s silent, and we must piece together what he’s thinking by snatching glances at what he’s writing. Does this ever get slow? Absolutely! I made sure to tell my friends who were seeing the show the next day that any time Orestes picks up a lampshade, they should take that as their signal to head to the loo. But arts-and-crafts breaks aside, the story the cast can tell is impressive and nuanced.

The plot is driven by a series of visitors who drop by to offer comfort, advice, or simply violently attack Orestes. Fans of immersive theatre in London will rejoice to see Jack Aldisert (Deadweight's The Manikins) and Lily Jo Ockwell (The Burnt City), among these. There are enough deep cuts to keep classics fans happy (I particularly enjoyed the chilling message from Tantalus), but there are also a lot of creative additions.

It was wonderful to see Cassandra and Orestes argue over the extent to which they are both victims of Apollo’s schemes. These visitors add to the surreality of the situation and push Orestes towards a gut-wrenching realisation that everything is not as it seems. From there, it’s a spiral downward.

Photo: Callum O'Keefe

Orestes is physically and mentally tormented by Lily Jo Ockwell as a Fury and maybe something more. This plays out in a series of increasingly ambitious dances with lots of partner work. These dances, at their peak, are very effective, if occasionally a little under-rehearsed-looking. It all builds towards a cathartic fourth-wall-smashing climax that had me delighted I made it through and a little concerned for the well-being of MacRae-Tod.

Do I think this show will ever have mass appeal? Absolutely not. It’s an eight-hour test of endurance for the obsessives. But as one of them, I can tell you this: if you’ve been waiting for bold, genuinely different immersive theatre in London, Ritual is a very good sign.

★★★½

Words: Hannah Jagoe

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Witness' Ritual ran at COLAB Tower near London Bridge on 21st and 22nd February 2026. To stay up to date on future productions from Witness, visit witnessimmersive.com