Year In Review: The Best Loved Immersive Work of The Year (2025)
- Immersive Rumours
- Dec 30, 2025
- 11 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
As part of our Year In Review series, we spoke to creators, writers and performers from across the immersive industry, including UNCLE BARRY, Phantom Peak, Voidspace, Sleepwalk, and Bridge Command to find out their favourite immersive and interactive work from the last twelve months.
Undersigned
July to August 2025 at COLAB Tower and Edinburgh Fringe
Photo: Lyra Levin
A deeply personal, revelatory and moving experience, delivered with a tremendous amount of care and skill. It's unusual to find a practitioner who can bring us out to the bleeding edge of theatricality while holding us with safety and trust. Yannick managed this and created something authentic, surprising and intensely meaningful as a result.
Katy Naylor, Voidspace
Handle with Care
November 2025 at Battersea Arts Centre
Photo: Ans Brys
It starts with a box and an audience and ends with us setting fire to the box's contents. In between, there is mayhem and reflection and a burgeoning sense of connection with those around you and everyone who has attended this show. There are no actors, just a list of instructions which lead us from scene to scene with the ever-playful Ontroerend Goed forcing us from our seats and into the thick of the action (should we wish). It's anti-theatre at its best, an interactive masterpiece that evokes surprise and emotional responses at every twist and turn.
Franco Milazzo, Critic at Broadway World
The Shop for Mortals and All Fools
February to October 2025 at Stanley Arts and COLAB Tower
Photo: James Lawson
My greatest surprise of 2025 came from a show I had become almost embarrassingly attached to, The Shop for Mortals and All Fools. It was a fully scripted piece with a clear narrative that invited the audience to witness a tragic moment in the life of a woman adrift inside her own memories, caught in a liminal space between past and present, somewhere between gods and mortals. I truly believed I understood it from every angle. After all, I had written and directed it, and surely that meant I knew exactly what London was about to experience. I had convinced myself that once I create an immersive work, it remains in place, fixed, stable, obedient, perfectly behaved. Fool of me. I could not have been more wrong. One month into the run, I watched the show. Kate Webster and Lily Ockwell had taken it gently but confidently by the hand and transformed it into something entirely their own. What I witnessed was not simply interpretation. It was a shift in the very fabric of the event. Delicate and dangerous. The piece had developed its own pulse and no longer belonged to me. Watching the actors and audience meet inside that suspended world reminded me of Antonin Artaud and his belief that theatre becomes most alive when it generates a charge that passes between performers and spectators. He argued that this charge can loosen the boundaries of ordinary perception and create a fragile reality where instinct and presence matter more than text. That was exactly what unfolded before my eyes. The room trembled with that shared tension, that delicate sense that everyone was stepping into a reality held together by breath and attention. At that moment, the words no longer felt like mine. My presence no longer felt required. And truly, in the spirit of Artaud, that is the best place a director can ever hope to be, standing back and witnessing a living event that thrives because it escapes control.
Uncle Barry's Birthday Party
By UNCLE BARRY
February to October 2025 at Theatre Deli and COLAB Tower
Photo: UNCLE BARRY
This year was a big one for the Voidspace's ability to support new work, and I was thrilled to welcome Uncle Barry to this year's Voidspace Live, after their debut at February's Side/Step festival. A deceptively simple exercise in collaborative world-building, that left us all with a collective grin and many fond memories of everybody's favourite Uncle. Side/Step and Voidspace were together a bit of a generative powerhouse in our platforming of new interactive theatre this year: I'm looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings 🖤
Katy Naylor, Voidspace
Creature
September to November 2025 at COLAB Tower
Photo: Peter Broughton/Creature
There is truly nothing like watching a performance made for one audience member, and Creature is no exception. The immersive experience is like nothing I've ever seen before, with the sole audience member relinquishing all control and sitting in a wheelchair that is moved by members of the cast throughout the production. Broughton has made a beautiful adaptation of Frankenstein with a seamless cast and an incredible puppet!
Kat Mokrynski, Critic at Broadway World and Little Lark of London
Sleep No More
July 2025 to January 2026 at The McKithan Hotel, Seoul
Photo: Punchdrunk/Ms. Jackson
I was lucky enough to travel in Korea this year where I managed to see Punchdrunk/Ms.Jackson’s Sleep No More. The new staging expands on what previous editions of the show have built. With a bigger building and expanded set, it would’ve been easy to lose the heart and soul of the show, however I found that the magic of Sleep No More was definitely not lost. Fans of the show will love this new location and with an undeniably talented cast; the McKithan will not disappoint.
Sebastian Huang, Sleepwalk
Hollow Knight: Silksong
By Team Cherry
Image: Team Cherry
My favourite immersive experience of the year is Silksong, the follow-up to Hollow Knight by Team Cherry, the Australian indie game developer. It’s genuinely incredible: complex, beautiful, engrossing, frustrating - just like seeking funding for capital projects in a declining Western world, where hope is dead yet I live endless and alone. In terms of live experiences, the immersive attraction I empirically most emotionally engaged with was Phantom Peak. My favourite part of Phantom Peak is “payroll” - a game that comes around every 4 weeks, with a flourish like no other. It’s just like that magic heist film, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t, except I am performing a job upon myself. I guess in this metaphor I am a little bit Isla Fisher with a gentle Jesse Eisenberg peppering, like salt on steak, or powdered sugar also on steak (not recommended). By the way, I have a lot of concerns about that movie: it clearly only makes narrative sense once you realise these are not stage magicians but a coven of witches, possessed with powers beyond the ken of man. I am no medieval peasant, but I for one think that immolation is too good for them and their smug posturing shows a dalliance with sinister powers that echo in the great beyond. Am I advocating for Jesse Eisenberg’s character J. Daniel Atlas to be burnt at the stake, flames lambent, his sequinned heels glittering against the night? No. Will I weep for him when his soul is cleansed by fire? No, coz his soul gets to go to a better place, duhhh. Oh! I also went to You Me Bum Bum Train! Yeah, man, that was really good. 12/10.
Nick Moran, Creative Director, Phantom Peak
ETERNAL
By DARKFIELD
April 2025 at Shoreditch Town Hall
Photo: Katie Edwards
This was a first-time physical mount of a show originally conceived as an at-home audio experience during Lockdown. The gaping maw of a row of bare iron beds in the dark and the growl of a low voice in your ear... the effects stay with you.
Shelley Snyder, Immersive Actor at Bridge Command and The Key of Dreams
Masquerade
By Diane Paulus
July 2025 to March 2026 at 218 West 57th, New York
Photo: Luis Suarez
From the minute audience members step into the show, they are immersed in the world of the Paris Opera House. This isn't just an adaptation of the musical everyone knows and loves - there are references to not only the original novel, but the films too, as well as some new interpretations exclusive to this production. The performers and staff members do a fantastic job of working together to create a seamless experience from beginning to end. The price tag may be high, but it is one of the best immersive experiences one can find right now!
Kat Mokrynski, Critic at Broadway World and Little Lark of London
What We Must
October to November 2025 at COLAB Tower
Photo: Angelina Cage
I am a passionate supporter of smaller scale immersive productions, and I always will be. I strongly believe they are the breeding ground of exciting new ideas for the industry, and challenge the rest of the industry to push their boundaries and offer more intimacy, more agency, and more interactivity. What We Must is a great example of all of these tenets. Aaron James Oliver offers a truly collaborative experience, and brings their own unique storytelling elements to shape out their world - a genuinely different approach that strays from the more tried and true methods of engaging audiences. It's really exciting to see someone try a vastly different approach, and I hope they keep experimenting and bringing their unique style to the industry.
Danny Romeo, Experience Director and Experience Designer at Phantom Peak, Founding Director of Ludens Theatre Company
Alibi: Dead Air
By Dean Rogers and Tom Black
October 2025 at Theatre Deli
Image: Dean Rodgers/Tom Black
Jubensha is a relatively new game format to the UK; solving a murder mystery is far more fun when you're one of the suspects, with piles of evidence to review...or tamper with.
Shelley Snyder, Immersive Actor at Bridge Command and The Key of Dreams
R.O.S.E
July 2025 at Sadler's Wells East
Photo: Johan Persson
This show was both a great night out and a great lesson for me in how atmosphere, sound, and lighting, as opposed to text, can do so much of the immersion in an experience! When I first walked into the space, it was a pitch black, enormous room filled with hundreds of people. I felt like I was swimming in the darkest depths of water. The world was created heavily externally, and overlapped with a personal, familiar favourite setting - a nightclub. We were pulled in and out of being left to usual clubbing behaviour by interspersed dance performances, which always left us wanting more. At the very end of the night, it felt like the wall between the performers, the audience, and the atmosphere of the space was at its thinnest. We were guided by their movements to form a circle around them, and as the music dropped, the evening's built-up tension was released, letting us free to dance as one beating heart. It was beautiful!
Mia Foster, UNCLE BARRY
Sadler’s Wells was turned into a nightclub on a Sunday night at 7pm. The episodic show alternated between near-blackout stretches of dancing to music by Call Super and Sharon Eyal’s dancers cutting through the space with their otherworldly movements and performances. Each time the dancers appeared, the tension ramped up, until it finally exploded into an ecstatic dance battle. By the end, joining in felt totally irresistible.
Ariana Aragon, UNCLE BARRY
The Alchemist
By Sherlocked
December 2022 to September 2026 at Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam
Photo: Sherlocked
The best escape room I've ever done. Exquisite build. In the final moments, I felt like I was actually in a movie. A movie with special effects, but they weren't special effects; it was like it was real, and I was taking part in some sort of Merlin-oriented, magical, super-sci-fi, amazing adventure movie. It was breathtaking.
James Wallman, CEO, World Experience Organization
We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon
By (LA)HORDE
September 2025 at Southbank Centre
Photo: We Never Should Have Walked On The Moon
What made this three-hour experience work was the freedom to drift around the Southbank. Being able to step in and out of episodes at will reinforced the show’s ideas on fragmented attention and Gen Z internet culture. My own movement, boredom, and curiosity became part of the choreography. I was completely hooked by the performers’ bodies that offered hope amidst the bleak, gritty, and oddly beautiful aesthetic.
Ariana Aragon, UNCLE BARRY
DATA-COSM [n°1]
By Ryoji Ikeda
October 2025 to February 2026 at 180 Studios
Photo: 180 Studios/Alice Lubbock
The best piece of digital immersive art, sound and visual that I've probably ever experienced. At times, you felt like you were floating through space above the planet, and other times, wandering into microscopic areas. It was electric, mesmerising, engrossing, brilliant fun.
James Wallman, CEO, World Experience Organization
Sophie's Surprise Party
November to December 2025 at Underbelly Boulevard Soho
Photo: Roger Robinson
This immersive 90s circus/cabaret party returned to Underbelly as exciting as it was 18 months ago. After one (un)lucky audience member is plucked to play Sophie for the night, there's all the tunes you might expect, party games to get involved with, and plenty of nods to films of the era while an expert crew of circus/cabaret artistes put on an innovative and decidedly adult show.
Franco Milazzo, Critic at Broadway World
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
By Julia Masli
August to October 2025 at Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre
Photo: Austin Ruffer
This show inspired me loads! Through the heartwarming and simple concept of asking audience members their problems and solving them with the room, Julia Masli listens and responds to realities that exist for people beyond the theatre walls. As an audience member, it was wonderful to be a part of the playful journey where these problems are explored, transformed, and solved. I was left with a sense of creative possibility and a feeling of empowerment, having been in a space that is supported for people to be bold in their vulnerability. Throughout the show, there is a feeling of precarity, yet we are kept safe at all times whilst drifting between realities with Julia Masli’s otherworldly calming presence. I laughed a lot. The mechanics are fascinating to witness as a maker, and as an audience member, there is such a joy in the show's spirit that allows space for a whole spectrum of emotions. After an evening of assisting in the orchestration of a new reality in which we help solve the problems of people sitting around us, for me, the show tipped into ‘immersive’ when leaving the venue. As you walk out, your eyes catch with fellow audience members, and more conversation than usual is struck up amongst us. There seemed to be a mist of hope that followed you out after the show, as the possibility of what the world could look like if we listened to and helped one another more often hovered in the air.
Mia Foster, UNCLE BARRY
Mind Control Disco
October 2025 at IEN Summit/Dial Arch, Woolwich
Image: But Why? Theatre
Although I couldn’t see the whole thing, I was able to see experience an extract from But Why?’s Mind Control Disco at the IEN Summit. The show is built upon an incredibly fun concept, taking the form of a club night where each audience member wears headphones and is directed by an ominous voice, connecting people through music and group interactions. I thought the piece did a wonderful job of bringing the audience out of their shells, allowing us to fully embrace the humour and silliness of the show and make genuine connections through music and dance. I would highly recommend Mind Control Disco to anyone looking for a fun, lighthearted night out as well as veterans of the immersive scene.
Sebastian Huang, Sleepwalk
Oscar at the Crown
May to November 2025 at The Crown, Tottenham Court Road
Photo: Luke Dyson
Admittedly, I didn't get to see as many immersive shows as I'd like to this year. I really appreciated Oscar at the Crown's take on an immersive musical. While I think the format needs some rethinking to engage audiences deeper, I don't think anyone has really nailed the balance between proscenium-style musical performances and audience interaction. But Oscar was exciting and high-energy, and did make some good attempts at bringing the audience into the world of the show. The design was colorful and fun, the songs were exciting and high energy, and I think the show made some distinctive steps in the right direction towards a fully immersive musical.
Danny Romeo, Experience Director and Experience Designer at Phantom Peak, Founding Director of Ludens Theatre Company
COLAB Tower
22 Southwark Bridge Road, London
Photo: COLAB Theatre
2025 was a year that swept me away. If anything, it felt a bit like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 then I let it go again. Everything seemed to slip past me before I had time to hold on to it. Yet there were so many intriguing pieces happening out there, and so many compelling ideas about what immersive experiences might become. And honestly, whether they were good or bad or gloriously confusing in between did not matter as much as the sheer exercise of exploring new ways of experiencing performance. And for that, applause is due. Claps to Colab Theatre for making all of this possible right in their backyard, in their saloons of old tiles and slightly questionable gold paint. There are not many organisations in the UK that truly act as catalysts for experimentation and innovation, places where independent artists can settle in and plough their craft. A mother ship of creativity. For me, they were the real show in town this year. And I am already looking forward to what might unfold there in 2026, perhaps something as spectacular as a galactic war.
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