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Secret Cinema's latest staging of Grease is an all-singing, all-dancing spectacle, and a radical departure from the usual Secret Cinema format. Photo: Luke Dyson After a nearly three-year-long absence, Secret Cinema returns to London with a new large-scale production, recreating Rydell High for an all-singing, all-dancing version of the 70's classic, Grease. The film is well-trodden ground for Secret Cinema, who have adapted it twice before, but this 2025 production, which takes over Evolution in Battersea Park for a 6-week run, is a radical departure from the company's previous stagings, and a very different kind of experience from what the company are best-known for. It's been a quiet couple of years for Secret Cinema. Following their original, family-focused festive show Wishmas, which was staged at The Vaults in Waterloo in late 2023, Secret Cinema appeared to be lying low. There was radio silence on their social media, no new productions, and the only news to come from the company focused on Studio Secret Cinema, a new arm of the business which produces brand activations. According to Secret Cinema's Matt Costain , who serves as Creative Director for Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, this silence was for good reason. Throughout 2024 and early 2025, the company spent a considerable amount of time trying to determine what its place within London's rapidly changing immersive scene is, and looking at how to continue producing the kind of large-scale shows they’re known for, but more sustainably. The result of that soul-searching is the debut of a new format for the company, described internally as the 'one-world model'. The dozens of individual rooms and secret spaces most people have come to expect in Secret Cinema shows have been replaced with a large, open venue that is entirely accessible to every visitor. Alongside this, the structure of the experience has also been reworked from the ground up... Photo: Luke Dyson Long-time Secret Cinema fans will be familiar with the formula used in past productions. Audience were free to explore elaborate sets, interact with a large cast and witness recreations of key moments from the show's source material for several hours, before a grand finale and a seated screening of the film that the cast would perform alongside. For Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, these two distinct halves have been combined, with cast interactions happening alongside the screening, which is now the focus on the experience. The experience begins with the audience gathering in the outdoor fairground. Alongside carnival games, bars, food vendors and a Ferris wheel, there's a full-size funhouse. Towering over the space is a huge screen that plays a series of archival movie clips and in-world announcements. With doors opening 90 minutes before the screening begins, there's plenty of time afforded to guests to eat, drink and explore, but beyond a handful of roaming characters welcoming the audience to their first day at Rydell High, there's no meaningful interaction with the cast on offer and no recognisable faces from the film. Photo: Luke Dyson After the opening scene of Grease plays on the outdoor screen, the audience is ushered inside, where the scope of the show's new format is revealed. On two sides of the space, there's VIP seating split between a tiered drive-in, complete with dozens of vintage car bonnets, and a recreation of Frosty's Palace. In the centre sits a huge raised stage, where much of the action takes place, alongside a recreation of the Rydell Autoshop, the National Bandstand stage, cafeteria tables and sports bleachers. Regardless of where the audience is within the cavernous space, there are good sightlines to all of the action, but guests are encouraged to roam and follow the cast as they perform in all four corners of the venue. As the film plays out on a number of screens hanging from the ceiling, there's a black and white live feed of the on-stage action also shown, allowing audiences to see the smaller details in the cast's performances, especially during the musical numbers, which are all performed with live vocals. All of the big moments from Grease are faithfully recreated, including a showstopping performance of 'Greased Lightnin' on the centre stage that sees a red Ford De Luxe descend from the ceiling, and Danny (Liam Morris) suspended above the stage, flexing his muscles to huge cheers. The show's rendition of 'Summer Nights' sees the Pink Ladies and T-Birds in opposing corners, duetting back and forth from the bleachers and cafeteria table, and 'Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee' sees a huge four-poster bed move around the venue as Rizzo (Lucy Penrose) pokes fun at Sandy (Stephanie Costi). Jennifer Weber's choreography builds upon the film's original dance routines, adding a modern touch to these iconic scenes, and all of the show's numbers are wonderfully staged. It's a notable step up from the staging in the Birmingham adaptation of Grease back in 2023, and it far exceeded our expectations going in. Photo: Danny Kaan In terms of interaction, there are plenty of opportunities for the audience to get involved if they want to. Multiple scenes see members of the audience being pulled up on stage, including the National Dance Off and the Pink Ladies' sleepover, where guests can watch the scene on stage alongside the cast, surrounded by pillows and blankets. A Rydell High choir is quickly formed to sing on stage, and select audience members are picked out of the crowd to become silver-roller-wearing angels during 'Beauty School Dropout'. Alongside this, there are passing interactions with the cast as they move around the venue, including, in our case, a brief chat about Danny and Sandy's relationship with Principal McGee (Colleen Daley). Most of these opportunities are open to all, regardless of ticket type, but those with 'VIP Immersive' tickets are also treated to a pre-show experience where they're taught some of the show's dance routines alongside the cast, giving them added confidence for their moments in the spotlight. Photo: Danny Kaan As a first outing for this new format, there are a couple of things that could be tightened up, but on the whole, it's a massively successful change in direction for both the company and their future productions. With Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, Secret Cinema have delivered an engaging and confident communal experience for audiences that also happens to be one of London's best nights out this summer, and firmly re-established itself as one of the city's best immersive producers. It's good to have them back. ★★★★ ½ Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical runs in Battersea Park until 7th September 2025. Tickets are priced from £49.00 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Secret Cinema's Grease, check out our recent Reviews .

With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across the month of August, planning a visit to the Scottish capital is a daunting task. Here's our guide to some of the interactive and immersive shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025 that we think are worth your time. Images: Katie Edwards/Gameshow Spectacular/Lyra Levin/Uncle Barry/KISS WITNESS Spreadsheets at the ready! The line-up for 2025's Edinburgh Fringe is here. With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across hundreds of venues in the Scottish capital, the month-long arts festival is a daunting event to tackle, even for those who have been multiple times. To help out, we've put together a list of our recommendations for interactive and immersive shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a solid jumping-off point for anyone looking to see what interactive and immersive work is being performed at the Fringe this summer. Expect more shows to be added as we get closer to August. Undersigned by Yannick Trapman-O'Brien Photo: Lyra Levin Yannick Trapman-O'Brien's interactive psychological thriller Undersigned has become a cult hit in the United States over the last few years, with numerous sold-out engagements and a long waiting list. Making its international debut this summer with appointments in London, Amsterdam, and at the Edinburgh Fringe, Undersigned is a deeply personal experience for one blindfolded audience member and is shaped entirely by the participant's input. Topics of discussion on the table in Undersigned may include money, power, sex, pleasure, violence, blood, horror and the occult, with a commitment that everything discussed in the show will never be repeated once it concludes. Every participant is only ever allowed to experience Undersigned once. Our friends at NoProscenium have previously described Undersigned as "thrilling in every sense of the word", and six months on from their appointment, Todd Martens from the Los Angeles Times commented, "..there are moments I’ll catch myself thinking about the show and the choice I was presented with". Fans of last year's The Manikins: a work in progress by Deadweight Theatre, which shared a bill with Undersigned on the immersive programme at the 2025 Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, will know how impactful an extended one-on-one experience can be, and how important it is to go into some experiences blind, so the less you know going into Undersigned, the better. An invocation, a blindfold and a pointed discussion. This deeply personal, psychological thriller for one offers infinite possibilities and sharp choices. Repeat visitors are forbidden, and nothing said here ever leaves. As such, in place of summary, Management offers you a deal: after your appointment, you can reclaim a portion of your ticket price – or add what the experience was worth to you. Management bets we will exceed your estimation. After three years of sold-out runs and critical acclaim (LA Times, No Proscenium), we make our international debut with limited engagement festival appointments. Opportunity waits; come take it. 📍 Cowgate at Underbelly (Venue 61) 💰 From £22.00 🕒 31st July - 12th August 2025, Various times, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Uncle Barry's Birthday Party Image: UNCLE BARRY A recent highlight of both Side/Step Festival  and Voidspace Live 2025 , Uncle Barry's Birthday Party is an immersive show set at, you guessed it, a birthday party. With a spread of snacks and drinks, a killer playlist and heaps of party decorations, everything is in place to make this a great party, even if the man of the hour is running late.. As guests mingle and chat, everyone swaps stories of how they came to know Uncle Barry. Whether he's helped them as an AA sponsor, been a shoulder to cry on during hard times, or in our case when we attended, offered up a kidney in a time of need, everyone has the chance to improvise and make up as ridiculous a story as they wish about the man, the myth, the legend. It's a collective exercise in going 'Yes, and...' to every new story you hear, which quickly helps Uncle Barry reach mythical status amongst those in attendance, and acts as a world-class ice breaker when speaking to other guests. Sprinkle in some tension between a couple of guests (played wonderfully by the show's cast), a heartfelt speech that needs to be delivered once Uncle Barry arrives, and a conga line that snakes around the length of the venue, and you've got a wonderfully put-together hour-long immersive show that's as fun as Barry is loved. What makes for a fun party? People (you’re invited), gossip (someone has to spill the beans), booze (obviously), dancing (optional), flirting (encouraged), cake (yes), a good playlist (please)... and Uncle Barry! You're invited to share an evening with us celebrating Uncle Barry's Birthday, we know he'd love to have you. Image: UNCLE BARRY 📍 Muse at Braw Venues at Hill Street (Venue 41) 💰 From £14.00 🕒 9th - 17th August 2025, 20:45-21:45, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com ARCADE by DARKFIELD Photo: Katie Edwards Fringe mainstay DARKFIELD return to Edinburgh this August with a collection of audio-based immersive experiences. While they're best known for creating linear 360-degree sound experiences delivered through headphones such as FLIGHT, COMA and SÉANCE - which all use binaural audio and complete darkness to immerse guests - the company's latest show, ARCADE, offers up a more interactive experience with its choose-your-own adventure design. Each audience member stands in front of an arcade machine in total darkness and takes control of Milk, an amnesic avatar dropped into the middle of an ongoing war between the North Block and South Block. By answering 'Yes' or 'No' when prompted, the branching narrative that makes up ARCADE all but guarantees everyone will have a different experience, and with Milk trying to navigate a war-torn world where violence is commonplace, there's some surprisingly dark subject matter to explore. Earlier this year, we reviewed ARCADE as part of DARKFIELD's Shoreditch Town Hall residency, and described it as a "unique and unsettling half-hour in a dystopian nightmare". DARKFIELD presents ARCADE: an interactive narrative that uses the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980's video games to explore the evolving relationship between players and avatars. Over 30 minutes in a completely dark shipping container, this choose-your-own-path experience will fully immerse the players using 360-degree binaural sound, sensory effects and a bespoke DARKFIELD ARCADE machine for each player. Players will be asked existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win and some may lose... 📍 Potterrow Plaza - Container 1 at Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) 💰 From £15.00 🕒 1st - 25th August 2025, Various times, 30 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Gameshow Spectacular - An Immersive Gameshow Experience Photo: Gameshow Spectacular Following a successful string of shows across London and, more recently, a sold-out run at the Brighton Fringe, Gameshow Spectacular is the perfect interactive, late-night Fringe show. Over 60 chaotic minutes, charismatic American showman Dom Blarke, fresh off losing their Las Vegas residency, invites contestants to compete on stage in a series of over-the-top, ridiculous challenges for the chance to spin the prize wheel and win as many Blarke Bucks as possible for their team. Whether you find yourself on stage trying to catch as many balls as possible in your oversized trousers, doing a perfectly timed shot of tequila while blindfolded, or proving you're the drunkest audience member through a breathalyser, there are a lot of laughs to be had as your teammates either cheer you on or commiserate your loss. Part improv, part game show, the experience is frantic, messy, and heaps of fun. Step into a world of comedy and chaos with Gameshow Spectacular! Hosted by the over-the-top American showman Dom Blarke, this high-energy experience is packed with ridiculous mini-games, audience participation and hilarious surprises. Forget boring trivia – teams compete in outrageous challenges, accompanied by dynamic sound effects and a fast-paced atmosphere. Expect absurd antics, unpredictable twists and non-stop laughter as Dom guides you through a night of pure entertainment. Whether you're on stage or cheering from the crowd, you'll be part of the action. Join us for the most fun, interactive and unforgettable night of your Fringe! Photos: Gameshow Spectacular 📍 Just Out Of The Box at Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88) 💰 From £7.50 🕒 31st July - 9th August 2025, 21:20-22:20, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Stampin' in the Graveyard by Kiss Witness Image: KISS WITNESS Exploring the human desire for connection and a sense of belonging, this immersive theatre piece from KISS WITNESS uses silent disco headphones to guide the audience through the end of the world. Set in the graveyard of humanity, Stampin’ in the Graveyard follows AI chatbot Rose as she sifts through the memories of a vanished civilisation, learning about the woman who created her and piecing together the human life that was. The audience shapes the story in real time by interacting with Rose, choosing paths that lead to multiple endings. Rooted in the international creative team’s lived experiences of migration and exile, Stampin' In The Graveyard traces a thread of loss and loneliness - through inherited trauma, displacement, and ecological grief - ultimately investigating how we might move toward joy. Speaking on the show, writer, co-creator and performer Elisabeth Gunawan said: I don't think it's radical to say we live in frightening times - facing the destruction of our planet and the erosion of things we hold dear. I began making this show during the pandemic, when I was far from home and questioning what ‘home’ really meant. As a migrant, neither the place I was born nor the place I resided in offered the safety or belonging that 'home' seems to promise. I hope Stampin’ in the Graveyard can offer audiences a glimmer of hope and belonging in the chaos, even if it is fleeting. Image: Valeriia Poholsha ROSE is an AI chatbot that gives advice for the end of the world, powered by a black box of memories from people whose worlds have already ended. Tonight, ROSE unboxes her training data of human memories (and fabricates some in true AI fashion), to learn about the woman who created her. Stampin' in the Graveyard is an immersive headphone experience fusing physical theatre and live music to draw audiences into an ephemeral, apocalyptic world. Developed by the critically acclaimed and award-winning Elisabeth Gunawan and Kiss Witness 📍 Summerhall - Red Lecture Theatre (Venue 26) 💰 From £17.00 🕒 31st July - 24th August 2025, 12:15-13:15, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Thanks for Being Here by Ontroerend Goed Photo: Kurt Van der Elst Eight-time Fringe First winners Ontroerend Goed return to the Fringe with a show that celebrates the most essential element of theatre: the audience. Blending digital livestream with shifting spatial viewpoints, Thanks for Being Here  unsettles expectations as roles blur and the boundary between performer and spectator dissolves. The audience is filmed on entry, and throughout the performance live footage is layered with pre-recorded voices and merged with the faces of those in the crowd – captured in real time by the performers. Watching becomes part of the performance, not by following instructions, but simply by being present. After the show, audiences are invited to leave suggestions that can subtly shape future performances, meaning Thanks for Being Here  is never quite the same twice. A subtle, hopeful celebration of togetherness in the here and now, among a room full of strangers, it isn’t just a show – it's an homage to those who show up.  Speaking on Thanks for Being Here, Director Alexander Devriendt said: I used to want to shake people awake, but now I just want to reach out and connect. Everyone is awakening, slowly. In times of distrust, being positive can almost feel controversial. That’s why it’s hopeful to see that, even in an age of streaming and games, people still make the effort to go outside and experience something unique in the theatre. Thanks for Being Here is our way of saying thank you for that. Photo: Kurt Van der Elst Step into a world where the boundaries between audience and performers dissolve. Eight-time Fringe First-winning theatre company Ontroerend Goed transforms traditional theatre into an experience that playfully shifts perspectives through video. Despite its interactive nature, you're free to simply observe as the performers navigate the space. This isn't about putting you on the spot – it's about recognising that without you, there is no theatre. Thanks for Being Here isn't just a show – it's a celebration of your presence. 📍 Main House at ZOO Southside  (Venue 82) 💰 From £20.00 🕒 12th - 24th August 2025, 13:45-15:00, 75 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com The Ode Islands by Ornagh Image: Ornagh Blending live performance with responsive virtual reality, this one-woman show unfolds in a fully digital environment that shifts in real time with the performer’s movement and emotional state. At its centre is a woman, Ornagh, caught in a storm and cast adrift across a chain of surreal islands—each representing a different facet of her identity, from domestic roles to sexuality, gender, and body image. As she journeys through these shifting landscapes, she confronts the societal expectations that have shaped her, seeking to shed them and rediscover who she truly is. With a supporting cast of digital characters also performed by Ornagh, the narrative is carried entirely through the artist’s body, voice, and the digital worlds that surround her. Motion capture brings to life a series of fantastical characters she meets along the way, AI manipulation shapes their voices, and satellite data forms the virtual terrain. The result is a fragmented yet visceral exploration of memory, myth, and the boundaries of self.  Speaking on the show, creator and performer Ornagh said: The Ode Islands is a retrospective of my existing works, where each virtual reality environment I’ve created serves as a backdrop for this new theatrical experience. As a contemporary artist and a woman, I confront themes of gender, sexuality, and body image through layered, immersive storytelling. By harnessing the power of digital tools and AI, I invite the audience to join me on a journey of reimagining what freedom can look like in this digital age. Image: Ornagh A genre-blurring experience, fusing live performance with virtual reality environments shifting and reshaping in response to the protagonist's inner world. Swept into a storm while escaping a stagnant life, a woman is cast across surreal islands. Each strange landscape becomes a mirror, challenging her to let go of who she was and step into who she might become – a striking exploration of transformation and self-discovery. Visually arresting and emotionally charged, The Ode Islands invites audiences into a fluid world where physical and digital realities merge. A bold, boundary-defying performance pushing the edges of contemporary storytelling. 📍 Lammermuir Theatre at Pleasance at EICC (Venue 150b) 💰 From £12.50 🕒 31st July - 16th August 2025, 16:00-17:00, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Channel by Dutch Kills Theater Company and Wet Hands Photo: Alley Scott Inspired by the sonic meditations of American composer Pauline Oliveros, Channel has been created by Jack McGuire as an introduction to communal and attentive listening. Wet Hands (Jack McGuire) provides a welcoming space, creating a live soundscape through an experimental approach to layering sound. Audience members are invited to take part in this collective listening experience and encouraged to contribute to and become a part of the ambient soundscape. Channel comprises a physical and audio environment designed to be a peaceful escape, while also fostering a sense of connection and community. Jack McGuire has previously collaborated with Dutch Kills Theater Company at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Solitary (2019) and critically acclaimed Temping (2022 - 2024). Speaking on the show, Jack McGuire said: I think this can be a truly impactful piece and something the community at the Fringe really needs—a space to gather, rest, and recharge. Before diving back into the excitement of the festival, Channel offers a moment to pause, to recentre, and to reconnect in the midst of an intense and energizing experience. Photo: Alley Scott An immersive sound bath and communal listening space guided by live ambient electronic music. Designed to care for and reinvigorate the audience, the space invites you to sit, stand or lie down. The audience is invited to offer their own sounds to help create the sonic meditation, with the intention of promoting connection, attention and radical listening. This is a moment for attentive listening in a landscape that often overloads us with information. It calls us to action to turn our attention towards each other and the world around us, finding connection through the collective effort of listening. 📍 Assembly Roxy Snug  (Venue 139) 💰 From £10.50 🕒 30th July - 24th August 2025, 14:40-15:40, 50-60 minutes 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com For news, reviews and previews of upcoming immersive experiences, follow Immersive Rumours on Instagram or BlueSky .

Image: FAME*FACTORY   We all see mega-celebrities living their best lives, flashing on our screens and socials every day, and let’s face it… we all dream of what living that sort of life would be like. Well, people don’t have to dream anymore because now they can live life as an A-Lister at FAME*FACTORY . FAME*FACTORY, which launches this October 2025 at Immerse LDN, is a brand new immersive theatre show that offers guests the ultimate taste of superstardom. Fly on your own private jet, perform in front of your adoring fans, star in a photo shoot and a movie, walk the red carpet and maybe even give a winner’s speech. How will you play it? Are you staying humble or serving diva? Produced by Done + Dusted , the creative producers behind some of the world’s most iconic live moments including The Oscars, MTV’s Video Music Awards and The BRIT Awards, FAME*FACTORY is a bold, high-octane journey through the highs and headlines of the A-list life, complete with stylists, paparazzi, green rooms, gossip, and tabloid-worthy twists.  This is no solo ride either - every A-lister needs their entourage. A full cast of actors, from agents and bodyguards to photographers and publicists, guides guests through a show designed to blur the lines between reality and celebrity fantasy. Video: FAME*FACTORY Hamish Hamilton, creator of FAME*FACTORY, double BAFTA-winning Director and  Co-Founder of Done + Dusted, says:  I've been around fame and celebrity my entire professional life. Directing events like The Oscars, The BRITs, and MTV’s VMAs has given me a red-carpet view of the crazy world around the famous. So, one day, I decided to create a show that allowed everyone to experience the celebrity lifestyle. With cinematic production, playful satire and unforgettable photo-ready moments, FAME*FACTORY explores both the fantasy and frenzy of fame and what it really means to be in the limelight.  FAME*FACTORY opens at Immerse LDN near Customs House on 2nd October 2025. Tickets are priced from £28.50. To sign up for the waitlist, visit fame-factory.com

Deep in the Sussex countryside for three weekends a year, the Kingdom of Loxwood appears, ready to welcome guests into its hugely engaging immersive world. Photo: The Loxwood Joust The Loxwood Joust is an immersive medieval festival that runs in Loxwood Meadow, West Sussex, across several weekends each August. Founded in 2012 by Danny and Maurice Bacon, Loxwood Joust features live jousting tournaments, closer-quarters combat, living history exhibits and an ongoing storyline that spans multiple years, all of which form an experience that invites guests to immerse themselves in a world full of 'adventure, magic and captivating stories'. In recent years, Loxwood Joust has seen an increased focus placed on adding more immersive elements, including more developed character interactions and the introduction and evolution of story quests under the artistic direction of Paul Flannery, who has also worked on Phantom Peak and LaplandUK. The experience's overarching story has centred in recent years on Queen Helena, whose accession to the throne has been hard-won. In 2023, after losing an election to the aptly named Lord Villain, she was banished to the woods and left to plot her revenge. The following year, after returning to Loxwood and beating the then-ruler in competition, her coronation ushered in a new era for the Kingdom. Now, in the latest chapter of the story, an ancient law threatens her claim to the throne, requiring her to marry a suitable suitor before the final joust of the summer. Spread across several meadows and woodland areas, The Loxwood Joust is a full-day experience, running from 10am to 6pm, but it includes far more activities and shows than one could complete in a single day. During our visit, we only scratched the surface of everything on offer at Loxwood and could have easily spent an entire weekend exploring the Kingdom and interacting with its population, which is now possible thanks to the addition of on-site camping. Photo: The Loxwood Joust The southern half of the site, which is made up of meadowland, largely revolves around the arena. While it hosts two jousts each day, it is also the setting for the falconry display, the infamous Meat Grinder contest, and this year, the highly anticipated Royal Wedding. Across both scheduled jousts, the Loxwood Boars battle it out against the Guildford Guillemots and the Horsham Hornets in a tournament that draws in most of the site's visitors as spectators. There are factions of supporters for each team scattered around the edges of the arena, which stoke the flames of competition, but it's a hugely enjoyable spectacle even without allegiances. Lances shatter into splinters upon impact, riders fall from their horses, and a healthy dose of goading from the Guillemots and Hornets casts the Boars' opponents in the role of pantomime villains, eliciting boos from the crowd at regular intervals. Come mid-afternoon, many of the other activities happening around the site pause when the headline event, The Queen's Tournament, begins. Once the second jousting competition, which features the same level of shattered lances and booing, concludes, the focus shifts to the Meat Grinder, a 22-person free-for-all armoured fight with weapons and shields, where the last man standing wins. The finale of The Queen's Tournament is the Royal Wedding, which delivers the conclusion to this year's storyline. Photo: Martin Bamford For those seeking more combat beyond the jousts, The Fighting Pit, which runs for most of the day, offers a steady stream of competitors ready to battle in brutal, full-contact medieval combat. Armed with weapons and shields, these close-quarters skirmishes are short but intense, and the risk of injury for those involved makes it all the more thrilling to watch. It's easy to get invested in these fights, not least because those competing give it their all – grappling, charging, and in some cases, roundhouse kicking each other until one emerges victorious. Alongside all of this large-scale entertainment, there's an Archery Enclave and Knight School, where guests can get hands-on experience with medieval weapons without the pressures of the Fighting Pit; the chance to seek an audience with Queen Helena (Catherine Davies) and her right hand, Lord Cunningham (Mack Newton), in the Royal Quarter; as well as a mead bar, a bazaar full of items for sale, and several food vendors. Within the Enchanted Woodlands, live performances from medieval folk band Trobar de Morte  provide an otherworldly soundtrack to the area, which is steeped in supernatural goings-on and divination. In one corner of the woodlands, a coven of witches, including Tallow The Bog Witch (Anna Fraser) and Chlorine (Tasia Rhodes), gather around bubbling cauldrons, ready to invoke spirits. Elsewhere, the Guard Hut, which should be home to those sworn to protect the Kingdom, has been infiltrated by a troublesome spectre that has unfinished business to attend to. There are messages left from those beyond the veil, mysterious wooden symbols that have appeared amongst the trees, and a crumbling wall named Baulderon comes to life and speaks to guests throughout the day, seeking riddles, jokes and gossip from the Kingdom's adventurers. Photo: Martin Bamford One of the elements Loxwood has expanded upon for 2025 is their story quests, which are an additional £3 per quest. For this year's event, there are nine quests available, divided into three categories – Nobles, Heroes and Woodland Folk. Within each of these categories, there are bronze, silver and gold quests, denoting the complexity and amount of site-wide exploration required. Families with young adventurers will find any of the bronze quests a good fit, while those looking for a challenge that demands some leaps of logic and plenty of traversal across the Kingdom should focus on the gold quests. While the opportunity to become part of the story within Loxwood is likely a big enough draw for many attendees, each quest also includes a bespoke medal upon completion to sweeten the deal. During our visit, we worked through all three gold quests, which, according to some of Loxwood's population, is quite a challenge to fit into a single-day visit but is achievable and hugely satisfying for those looking to push themselves. In 'Grave Consequences', we tracked down the spirit responsible for a Kingdom-wide crime spree and helped them get their affairs in order before laying them to rest. 'The Perplexor' had us following a criminal mastermind's breadcrumb trail across the site, and 'All The World's A Plague' required us to decode a list of ingredients needed to soothe the ailments afflicting one of Lord Cunningham's 'friends'. Across all three of these quests, there's real humour and lightheartedness woven in every step. Much of this comes from Loxwood's talented cast, who will banter with adventurers, improvise based on their comments, and make a clear effort to involve everyone in the experience. There's also plenty of fun to be found in all of the written material scattered across noticeboards throughout the site and in The Kingdom of Loxwood Explorer's Guide, a theme-park-style map that is a huge help to first-time visitors and provides various clues and pieces of information needed to complete the quests in and amongst in-world advertisements for everything from Joust Eat to Hedgehog Grease. Photo: Martin Bamford While dressing up isn't required to enjoy Loxwood Joust, many attendees go above and beyond, arriving in elaborate outfits that match the experience's medieval setting. You can expect to see dozens of elf ears and flower crowns, visitors dressed in chainmail, and more axes, bows, and capes than you can count, as well as plenty of people proudly displaying their questing medals around their necks. More so at Loxwood Joust than any other immersive event we've attended in recent memory, the attendees were all incredibly open and friendly. We regularly overheard conversations beginning with compliments on others' costumes, and in our case, several chats with other guests started with questions about which quests we had completed. With so many of the attendees being dressed up, the sense of immersion was significantly enhanced, and the whole experience felt like stepping into a living, breathing medieval settlement. Photo: Martin Bamford One of Loxwood Joust's biggest strengths is how well it balances the large-scale, collective moments of spectacle, like the jousting tournaments and full-contact fights, with the smaller, more personal interactions with the Kingdom's cast of characters. When these two elements come together, they create an experience that's not only thoroughly entertaining for all attendees but also massively rewarding for those who want to engage with the world on a deeper level. With the organisers' commitment to continuously refining and expanding the show's immersive elements each year, an annual trip to the Kingdom of Loxwood feels like a very inviting, if not essential, appointment. We'll be back next summer, ready for more adventure. For Loxwood! ★★★★½ The Loxwood Joust runs at Loxwood Meadow in West Sussex on 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 10th, 16th & 17th August 2025. Tickets are priced from £35.00 per adult (children 14 and under are free entry) and can be purchased via loxwoodjoust.co.uk For more reviews of immersive experiences like The Loxwood Joust, check out our recent Reviews

We sit down with Secret Cinema's Senior Creative Director, Matt Costain, to discuss their much-anticipated return to London with Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical. Image: Secret Cinema It's been nearly three years since a large-scale Secret Cinema show opened in London. This summer, the company, which are known for creating immersive adaptations of popular films such as Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy and Back to the Future, makes its return to the capital with Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, which will see the debut of a new format for the company. With a cast of 30, a live band, and recreations of many of the film's locations, including Frosty's Palace, The Autoshop, and Rydell High, this version of Grease is a radical departure from previous Secret Cinema productions of the film, with the action taking place alongside the film's screening. Ahead of the show's launch, we were invited down to Battersea for a sneak peek at what to expect from Secret Cinema's return and spoke to the show's Creative Director, Matt Costain. In our frank conversation, Matt discusses what Secret Cinema has been working on since their latest production, how their previous business model presented some unique challenges, and how the company is adapting to fit into the rapidly evolving immersive landscape. Immersive Rumours: Hi Matt, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your role within Secret Cinema? Matt Costain:  I'm Matt Costain. I'm the Senior Creator Director for Secret Cinema, and I've been with the company on and off since the very, very early days when Fabien Riggall first started it. He was about two or three shows in and asked me to come and work with the actors and the creation of the performance. Back in the day, when we were doing one-nighters, we didn't really ask anyone's permission for anything. We ran in, did a thing, and by the time anyone was worried about it, we'd gone. I stayed with Secret Cinema through the first couple phases of it growing up, and we did a lot of growing up in public back then. I ended up doing about ten shows up until The Empire Strikes Back, which was, I suppose, the pinnacle of the sort of thing we did in found spaces. After that, I needed a rest and a change. Secret Cinema grew a lot over the next few years while I wasn't around, but I then came back, refreshed and excited for Stranger Things, and have been with the company full-time ever since. Image: Dale Croft IR: Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical is the first large-scale Secret Cinema in London since 2022, and it’s been two years since the previous iteration of Grease at the NEC in Birmingham. What has the last couple of years looked like for the business? From the outside, it’s looked pretty quiet, but I'm sure there's been a lot going on behind the scenes. Matt: We’ve been extremely busy trying to make the next thing happen. This is the smallest violin in the world playing for the producers, but it turns out that putting on immersive shows is hard.  IR: Who knew!? Matt:  Who knew! All immersive companies will tell you the same thing. At Secret Cinema, we’re at the mercy of the studios, and sometimes we'll be quite a long way down developing a project, then, for some reason outside of our control, it stops. Also, the world has changed. The nature of immersive has changed. The word immersive has changed. Immersive means so many things now to so many people. We’ve been trying to work out what our place in that space is and create a sustainable business. So that's been happening behind the scenes -  a bit of existential soul searching, along with some business modelling. With the best love in the world, the early Secret Cinemas were unsustainable. We've always wanted it to be accessible to people; it can't just be a playground and a hobby for rich kids. It needs to be able to support the industry on which it depends, and the audience on which it also depends. We’ve been trying to find a new way of delivering the stories, but also, post-COVID, people were booking tickets in a different way. IR: How so? Matt: When we were looking at it, people were only really booking one big thing a year, far in advance. They would book Glastonbury, or Wimbledon, or get World Cup tickets, or insert favourite theatre show/ event here, and then book other things, like Secret Cinema, later. They wanted to see how their bank balances looked, or they would want to make sure it wasn't going to get cancelled, and that's a precarious model. Bearing all that in mind, and the expectation of these huge shows, means that if you're not careful, you get to the stage, which we nearly did, where the only thing you can consider doing is giant blockbusters. Everything else crumbles under the weight of the expected ticket sales and the costs. We had a lot of conversations with studios about how we could deliver films in a way that wouldn't be to their existing expectations, which was, to quote another company, creating Sleep No More for everything. It took a while for them to come around to that idea, but now we’re at a point where there are 5 or 6 projects stacked, waiting for the right combination of things to fall into place. If they do fall into place, we’ve got material for 3-4 years, and a number of shows a year, but it has taken two years of apparent inertia for that to happen. I know it’s frustrating looking in from the outside, going ‘When are you ever going to do something again?’ or if you read through the comments, it’s ‘When are you going to do a brand news show?’, with the next comment being ‘When are you going to bring back Star Wars?!’. Everyone has an opinion on how to be doing Secret Cinema, but we’ve been working hard, and it’s hard to communicate that. We thought it was best to keep quiet until we can put our money where our mouth is and come out with the three-year deal at Evolution, and Grease as the first step on this idea to a new way of producing work, with hopefully many more to come. Image: Dale Croft IR: The new format you’re adopting for Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, is this going to largely be what Secret Cinema shows look like going forward? Are we done with the days of tight corridors and secret rooms that you've got to earn entry into? Matt:  There will always be secrets. IR: It’s in the name, isn’t it… Matt: It's on the tin. There will always be things to find. Back in the day, we didn't even tell you what you were going to go and see. Our secrets - the way that we do things, and the way you can find something - have changed, but haven't stopped. One thing we are looking at is being flexible to the different titles that deserve different formats. There are some titles that you think, ‘Yeah, I get that. I'm on a mission. There’s a time pressure. It's important. I can do that.’ Other ones feel like you want to sit in the world. Grease represents the beginning of an idea for how to look at those titles. The film is unfolding around you, but the exploration takes place in and around the film showing. IR: As opposed to being two distinct halves.. Matt: Yeah. We've sort of been calling it the ‘one world model’. We have to be quite disciplined with ourselves because, as you said, we started with going, ‘Let's show this film in a place that's appropriate, so let's find a hospital that has 50 rooms'. The problem there was always, where do you find the big room to do the screening, or the finale, or what we call the hero moment? The next idea was to get a warehouse with a big space for the screening and the finale, but we're going to have to build those 50 rooms. Anybody who's involved in theatre or construction will tell you that building 50 rooms is an unsustainable business model. We then said to ourselves, ‘Okay, what if you're not building so many rooms but you're looking at one large space?'. We've all done the show where we've been in one large space and we've pretended there are separate rooms, which is just a lot of shouting. It's not satisfying, so then we started saying, ‘Okay, if we're going to be in one big room largely, we'll own up to it’. Let's help direct the main body of attention in the audience, so it follows a more theatrical path. Around that, we offer pauses, gaps and areas where you can go off and explore. That's where you have to be careful, because if you're not careful, you'll go, ‘Oh, just put a one-on-one there. Oh, just put a little room there', and before you know it, you've gone back to building 50 rooms.  Image: Dale Croft IR: For Grease, you've got some new ticket types, including the VIP Immersive ticket, which allows guests to arrive 75 minutes before, learn a routine and be on stage at points as well. Is that a reflection of the understanding that different audience members are looking for different levels of engagement?  Matt:  Absolutely. We've always allowed that to happen organically. We've always had super fans, people like PPSC ( Positive People of Secret Cinema ), who are wonderful and want to find every secret, get involved, do all that homework, and learn all the songs. We want to facilitate that type of stuff. There are also people who are fans of this particular title, whatever it may be, who want to see the iconic thing for that title, and then there are, broadly, people who go, ‘I don't know why I'm here. My partner has bought me a ticket. I saw that it looked fun. I saw a poster and heard it's cool.’ For those people, we offer spectacle and gradual invitations to join.  While we've tried to keep it accessible to people in lots of different ways, not everybody wants to do those things. We've found that some of that is a barrier to entry. Not everybody wants to dress up, and some people will find it off-putting. However, it's helpful for the world if it feels like the right world, so we encourage you to, and we offer people a light touch these days on how you might gently join in, rather than being as we were in the beginning, which was, ‘You must! You have to! There is no excuse for not dressing in one of nine elaborate costume types and entering carrying a cabbage!'. We're trying to be lighter, but we know that people want to do these things, so there will always be the opportunity for anybody who’s got a general admission ticket to join in anyhow. I would hate for Secret Cinema to become exclusive to the extent where it’s ‘Sorry you can't do that.’ It should always be the case that you can. For those people who know they really want to, it offers an inside, backstage track. You can get a VIP ticket, which means coming down early, learning some things so that you can join in, so that you can be in the front row and maybe be a choreography ambassador almost, where you can be passing on what you do, and being like team leaders, if that interests you. At the other end of the scale, there are some people who just want to sit and watch, so we've got this Roam and Return seated ticket. You've got your table, you've got your seat, you can go back to it - it's yours - but you can get up at any time and wander off and join a bit that you feel like.  Image: Dale Croft IR: Finally, what advice would you give for someone who has never been to a Secret Cinema show before, maybe has never done any immersive stuff, but is looking to come to Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical this summer? Matt: You know what? The first thing I'd say is relax. You get out what you put in, but that doesn't mean that you have to go crazy. If you want a relaxed time, you can relax. We're not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. We're not going to embarrass or humiliate you. If you want to dress up, however gently, you will probably feel more at home when you are there, rather than going 'Oh, I wish I had’. Be a little bit brave, take a little bit of a risk. There's something really, really pleasing and really rewarding about getting on the tube wherever it is that you live, as the only person in a black leather jacket and sunglasses. Gradually, as you get nearer the venue, you’ll get other high school students and teachers and people in other outfits getting on. You think, ‘Oh, you're going where I'm going’, and by the time you get to the destination station, there are throngs of people walking up the drive to Evolution in outfits. That's a really powerful feeling that sets you up really well. Image: Dale Croft Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical will run from 1st August to 7th September 2025 at Evolution London in Battersea Park. For more info and to get tickets, visit greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com

Image: Secret Cinema With rehearsals now underway, further casting has been confirmed for Secret Cinema's Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, which opens on 1st August at Evolution London in Battersea Park. Returning to London after an extended absence, this latest Secret Cinema production is the debut of a brand-new format for the company and promises to bring the beloved movie musical from Paramount Pictures to life like never before. The newly announced cast joins previously announced Pink Ladies and T Bird, Stephanie Costi  as Sandy, Liam Buckland  as Kenickie   and Lucy Penrose  as   Rizzo. Liam Morris  leads the T Birds as Danny, alongside Andilé Mabhena as   Putsie, Darragh Rochford  as   Doody   and  Myles Thomas as Sonny. Donning Pink Ladies jackets alongside Sandy and Lucy are Toni Pais as   Marty,  Brooke Ramsay as Jan   and  Gerardine Sacdalan as   Frenchie,   who all appear alongside schoolmates Imogen Kingsley-Smith  as Patty Simcox and Jacob Stebbings  as Eugene Felsnic. Photo: Liam Morris as Danny/Stephanie Costi as Sandy/Lucy Penrose as Rizzo/Liam Buckland as Kenickie At a launch event for Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical last month, Immersive Rumours caught up with the previously announced cast members ahead of them starting rehearsals for the show. Stephanie Costi, who's playing Sandy, reflected on the significance of the role: "Sandy is such an iconic role to step into and has always been a dream role of mine. She goes on such a huge journey in the show, and it’ll be incredible to recreate that. " Liam Buckland, who is playing Kenickie, shared the same enthusiasm for their role in the experience: "Kenickie has been a dream role for me ever since I was a kid. I think it’ll be really nice to explore different sides of him and see what our takes on these characters will be." For Lucy Penrose, who played Rizzo in Secret Cinema's 2023 production of Grease in Birmingham, it's a return to a role that she loved playing previously. "It was one of my favourite jobs I've ever worked on. I think the Secret Cinema fans are the best. They are so engaged, and they give so much, so I’m very excited to see everybody in the world again." The cast of Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical in rehearsals Photos: Secret Cinema Also confirmed for Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, Colleen Daley as Principal McGee, Julie Cloke as her secretary, Blanche and Rhys Owen as Coach Calhoun. David Fearn will appear as Teen Angel/Choir Master, and Waylon Jacobs will play television teen-dance show host, Vince Fontaine. The company is completed by the ensemble cast, which is made up of Morgan Baulch, Dylan Blake-Colbet, Ziki Buswell, Erin Corfield, Leah Dane, Bella Donald, CJ Driver, David Heal, Reece Kerridge, Sunny Lee, Kelly Mbarga, Rose Mary O’Reilly and Aaron Shales. Each performance of Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical will be a two-and-a-half-hour spectacular which blurs the line between screen and reality, and for the very first time, the entire film is brought to life all around the audience with actors and immersive elements seamlessly blending with the on-screen action. Render of Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical Image: Dale Croft With a 30-strong cast and live band bring to life all of the songs from the film’s hit soundtrack including ‘You’re The One That I Want’, ‘Beauty School Dropout’, ‘Greased Lightnin’, ‘Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee’, ‘Summer Nights’, and ‘We Go Together,’ Secret Cinema's production fuses the film and its iconic moments with a modern live action experience. Secret Cinema's return to London with Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical sees the introduction of a new ticketing structure. General Admission (Free Roam) tickets start at £49, offering general access. VIP Seated (Roam and Return) tickets will, for the first time, allow attendees to join the world of Rydell High with the option to return to designated seating throughout the event and start at £79. Premium Immersive (Join the Cast) tickets begin at £149 and offer a new level of interaction, with ticket holders learning choreographed routines in advance of the performance, before joining the company during the experience. This 2025 production marks the first of three consecutive summer events from Secret Cinema, at Evolution London, their most central London venue to date. Future productions based on other iconic titles for 2026 & 2027 will be announced later in the year. Renders of Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical Images: Dale Croft Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical will run from 1st August to 7th September 2025 at Evolution London in Battersea Park. For more info and to get tickets, visit greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com

Photo: Luke Dyson It’s been a bit of a quiet year for Secret Cinema. Following the acquisition of the company in September 2022 by TodayTix, they’ve not mounted a show in the capital since Guardians of the Galaxy opened in late August 2022. Being one of three shows they opened last year (alongside Bridgerton and the long-awaited Dirty Dancing), many fans assumed that with the backing of their new owners, and now firmly in a post-COVID world, 2023 would be full steam ahead with multiple shows opening throughout the year. Instead, we had relative silence on the company's social media in the first few months of the year. After a lot of teasing, it was confirmed in April that their next show would be Grease. But this show would have a twist - they were leaving London behind, instead mounting the show in Birmingham. It’d be their first full show outside of the capital in the UK. They continued to depart from tradition as the event drew closer, releasing a map of the site in June (a month before it even opened!), and also confirming that phones wouldn’t be locked away this time. While it remains to be seen if any of these will become the norm going forward, Grease certainly seemed like an opportunity for Secret Cinema to rewrite its rulebook now that they were under new ownership… The show does feel different to their two most recent outdoor events (Dirty Dancing and Romeo + Juliet) in a few key ways. Firstly, it’s much much smaller. With a reduced audience capacity, reduced venue size and even a reduced running time for exploration, it’s a more intimate and focused affair than has been the norm. Clocking in at a bit over 90 minutes from doors opening to the film starting, Secret Cinema Presents Grease packs a lot into its exploration time. Relative to Dirty Dancing or Romeo + Juliet, it has roughly the same amount of buildings and areas to explore, but in a much smaller space. This, coupled with the ratio of cast to guests also feeling higher, makes it easier to see more of the site quickly and get involved in what’s going on around you with ease. Photo: Luke Dyson The other notable difference between Grease and the company's other outdoor shows is the newly relaxed rules on mobile phones. While they seem to be still be trying to find a sweet spot between encouraging audiences to live in the moment, but also allow guests to still take photos inside that don’t include the cast, we found the use of phones to be a refreshing change that didn’t break the immersion of the event. You could get photos of your group inside the event without issue, which will surely help boost the awareness of what it’s actually like inside the gates - something that was tougher with guests' phones locked away previously. The cast all do an outstanding job of turning the Rydell High site into a living, breathing place - from the large re-enactments of songs like Summer Nights and Grease Lightnin’, to smaller character moments like Sandy perfecting stubbing out her cigarette with Frenchy, every pocket of the site has activities going on, and the cast are working non-stop to make the audience part of the world. If you're not being pulled into choir practice, or being hit on by Vince Fontaine, you might be taking part in an egg and spoon race for carnival tokens or pulling off the prank of the century against Principal McGee. Even during the film's screening, the cast barely has a moment's rest, with every big song lovingly recreated in front of the screen - the National Bandstand scene is the highlight of this, it’s a chaotic and meticulously timed spectacle that must have been a nightmare to choreograph and perfect in rehearsals. Photo: Luke Dyson Overall, Grease is a great immersive experience that more than does justice to the source material. With a knockout cast and some amazing performances, it's one of the strongest outdoor shows Secret Cinema have put on in recent years. Fingers crossed that future outdoor Secret Cinema shows will follow in the footsteps of Grease and be smaller scale, as it makes for a richer and more engaging experience overall. ★★★★ ½ Find out about future Secret Cinema shows at secretcinema.org

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 c onceived, 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.

Photo: The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Experience This summer, The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Exhibition will open at London’s Dock X, Canada Water, on 25th July 2025, offering a rare, all-encompassing journey into the story of the world’s most iconic ship. Following highly successful openings in Madrid and Munich, Madrid Artes Digitales , the team behind Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, and FKP Scorpio Entertainment bring this groundbreaking exhibition and timeless story to London. With breathtaking projections, interactive installations, and detailed recreations, this 120-minute experience will offer visitors the chance to step back in time to 1912 and experience the building of the ship at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, then journey across the Atlantic whilst exploring the ship’s grand cabins and elegant corridors in a multi-sensory experience that captures the grandeur and enduring legacy of Britain’s most famous ocean liner. Photo: The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Experience Upon arrival at the Dock X venue, visitors will enter  Dockside Boarding,  a state-of-the-art Augmented Reality reconstruction of Southampton Harbour, receive their boarding passes and gather for a virtual greeting from Captain Smith himself (available in 5 languages), who acts as a guide throughout the exhibition. As visitors walk along the pier, the sounds of seagulls and steam engines fill the room, setting the tone as guests prepare to board the iconic ship. This initial Augmented Reality experience offers a deeper dive into the untold stories behind the voyage and selected artefacts, bringing history to life through dynamic and interactive storytelling.  As the exhibition progresses, visitors will walk through the humble third-class corridors before entering the main hall, where information panels provide essential historical social context curated by exhibition experts and historians. From there, guests step into a first-class lounge, which highlights the opulence and extravagance that made first-class travel aboard the Titanic such an unparalleled experience. On display are a fantastic selection of original artefacts (including china, silverware and personal items as well as props from the Titanic movie) alongside replicas of costumes and much more. Following that, visitors enter the iceberg projection mapping room, which brings the towering mass of ice to life and showcases the chilling iceberg that changed history. Next, guests will arrive at one of the exhibition’s standout features: the breathtaking Virtual Reality (VR) Room “ Until the Orchestra fell silent!”,  where visitors will experience a special tribute to Titanic’s famous orchestra. In an emotionally charged sequence, guests will be immersed in a newly composed piece by René Merkelbach, inspired by " Nearer, My God, to Thee ," believed to have been the final song played aboard the ship. Through VR, this intimate moment reimagines the classical pieces once heard aboard the Titanic in a powerful, moving performance. Photo: The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Experience Thereafter, visitors will enter a huge immersive showroom with 360° floor-to-ceiling projections that will submerge them in the depths of the Titanic. Using state-of-the-art technology, the projections and deeply emotional storytelling provide an unprecedented perspective on the ship’s journey, from its construction and voyage to its tragic sinking on the night of 14th-15th April 1912. The 360° projections, featuring stunning visual quality and emotional narration, focus particularly on bringing the story of the Callaghan family to life - a fictional father and daughter who were passengers on board. As guests leave the immersive showroom, they will come across information panels with  meticulously prepared background information about the ship, its passengers, the myths, legends and details on survivors and deceased, all of which are written by the exhibition curators and historians to provide the educational part of the experience. Photo: The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Experience Taking the experience even further, the exhibition introduces an interactive Metaverse journey developed with VR Coaster, which incorporates interactive elements and 5D sensory experiences, such as simulated smells and a realistic reconstruction of the different classes and areas of the ship. Visitors will dive into the depths of the ocean to discover the Titanic in its current state on the ocean floor, until, as if on a journey through time, the ship comes to life and allows the visitor to visit all of its rooms one by one. Every deck, cabin, and lounge is open for exploration, offering guests the chance to interact with life on board across all three classes.  Designed for all ages, families can enjoy a child-friendly activity room where kids can draw their own Titanic illustrations at a creative station and play an interactive puzzle quiz based on the events leading to the ship’s fate. Completed drawings are digitally projected onto a large screen, becoming part of the exhibition. Visitors can also use advanced AI and facial recognition technology to transform into 1912-era passengers, virtually dressed in historically accurate attire for a memorable, personal connection to the experience. Photos: The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Experience The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Exhibition will open at Dock X in Canada Water from 25th July 2025. Tickets are priced from £24.00 for adults and £16.00 for children. For more information, and to book tickets, visit feverup.com

This immersive exhibition depicting the sinking of the Titanic docks in Canada Water for a 14-week run. Photo: Madrid Artes Digitales On 10th April 1912, the RMS Titanic set off on its maiden voyage to New York from Southampton’s White Star Dock. At the time, it was the largest passenger ship ever built, holding over 2,200 people. Four days into its journey, it struck an iceberg some 400 miles off the coast of Canada and sank just three hours later, killing over 1,500 of those on board. The disaster would prompt a wave of new maritime safety laws to come into effect, including a mandate that every ship have enough lifeboats to accommodate all passengers and crew, and later inspire James Cameron’s Oscar-winning 1997 film, which remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Now, 113 years on from the disaster, Madrid Artes Digitales , who recently presented their immersive Tutankhamun exhibition  at Immerse LDN, return to London with The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Exhibition at the appropriately named Dock X in Canada Water. While previously staged in Madrid, the London version, which runs until 2nd November 2025, has been expanded and enhanced with additional spaces, exhibits and enhanced VR sections. A mix of 360-degree immersive projections, virtual reality, and phone-based AR, alongside traditional displays of artefacts and movie props, The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Exhibition promises to ‘bring the ship’s story to life like never before’ and provides a respectful and poignant, yet engaging, way to learn more about the iconic ship and its passengers. Photo: Madrid Artes Digitales The opening rooms of The Legend of the Titanic operate like a traditional museum exhibit, with large wall-mounted panels providing context and historical information on the ship and its construction. Glass cabinets house numerous objects, including dining sets from the Titanic’s sister ship, the RMS Olympic, and handwritten letters. A handful of items from the 1997 film are also on display, including a screen-used life jacket signed by Bernard Hill, who played Captain Edward John Smith. Most of the items on display in this portion of the experience come from the personal collection of Juan Cruz Ercoreca, who has spent the last 15 years collecting Titanic-related artefacts and serves as curator for the London edition of The Legend of the Titanic. Later in the experience comes the first of two VR sections - a 7-minute-long orchestral tribute to the musicians who played aboard the Titanic and famously went down with the ship, entitled ‘Until the Orchestra Fell Silent’. Wearing VR headsets, seated guests see each band member play against various digitally rendered backdrops, including the Grand Staircase and the exterior of the ship. With music composed by René Merkelbach, it’s a moving celebration of their selflessness, but it provides little information or insight about them or their decision to keep playing until the bitter end. Photo: Madrid Artes Digitales The exhibition's main space, which offers 360-degree projections, contains a 30-minute-long looping film. It begins with a CGI timelapse of the Titanic being built in Belfast, before shifting to focus on two fictional passengers, Arthur and Elizabeth Callahan. We see the pair boarding the ship in Southampton, their exploration of its numerous interiors after a restless Elizabeth sneaks out of their cabin, and, of course, their escape during the eventual sinking of the ship. The most visually disorienting moments of the film see the interior of the ship begin to tilt as water rapidly fills the bow, and a poignant conclusion shows a shellshocked Elizabeth and Arthur onboard one of the lifeboats as the Titanic disappears into the sea on the horizon. In large part due to the height limitations of the venue, this portion of the experience isn't as visually impressive as the 360-degree projection room Madrid Artes Digitales presented in their recent Tutankhamun exhibition, which filled your entire field of vision, but the addition of a narrative certainly makes it easier for guests to follow along, and it remains an engaging experience all the same. Photo: Madrid Artes Digitales Far and away, the strongest part of The Legend of the Titanic is the VR ‘Metaverse’ experience, in which guests wear a wireless VR headset and walk through a virtual recreation of the ship. Beginning in the present day aboard a glass-lined submarine descending to the wreck, a portal to the past soon opens up and transports guests to the past. There, you can explore the cabins, staircases, engine room, and decks of the Titanic at your own pace. Conversations between passengers and crew members play out, and the detailed environments invite deeper solo exploration. It's a marked step up from the previous Metaverse offering from MAD and is a much grander affair. A scene inside the ship's engine room, in which visitors move along elevated platforms, has the potential to inspire vertigo for those looking over the edge, and there are some awe-inspiring moments, including a recreation of the ship's Grand Staircase and a walk along the deck that showcases the ship's scale. Alongside these moments, there's a photo opportunity that lets people re-enact one of the best-known scenes from Titanic, with Jack and Rose at the bow of the ship, and several interactive displays designed for kids, including a tabletop touchscreen with Titanic-themed games and a drawing station that can digitise drawings and project them onto a digital display of Southampton dock. Photo: Madrid Artes Digitales London's immersive landscape has been populated with numerous projection-led experiences for some time now. Long before Lightroom and Frameless existed, the likes of Shoreditch's Immersive Van Gogh  showed that there was a notable appetite for these kinds of experiences. Showing no sign of dwindling interest, recently there's been a shift towards creating experiences with a more educational focus, with the likes of The Moonwalkers with Tom Hanks and last year's BBC Earth Experience leading the way. While there's constant debate around just how 'immersive' these kinds of experiences really are, they undoubtedly offer a modern way to learn about the world around us that's not always possible within a traditional museum setting. While The Legend of the Titanic doesn't stray far from the format established by Madrid Artes Digitales with Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, it shows that they're adept at creating educational yet engaging experiences. It's a poignant and respectful exploration of the Titanic that focuses just as much on the people who lost their lives as it does on the spectacle of the sinking itself, and is a strong addition to the city's growing catalogue of immersive exhibitions. ★★★½ The Legend of the Titanic: The Immersive Exhibition runs at Dock X in Canada Water until 2nd November 2025. Tickets are priced from £27.00 and can be booked via feverup.com For more reviews of immersive exhibitions and experiences like The Legend of the Titanic, check out our recent Reviews

With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across the month of August, planning a visit to the Scottish capital is a daunting task. Here's our guide to five interactive and immersive shows at Edinburgh Fringe that are worth your time. Spreadsheets at the ready! With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across hundreds of venues in the Scottish capital this August, the month-long arts festival is a daunting event to tackle - even for those who have been multiple times. To help out, we've combined our top five recommendations for interactive and immersive shows at Edinburgh Fringe. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a solid jumping-off point for anyone looking to see what the Fringe has to offer this summer. Darkfield - FLight Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Darkfield has been a staple of Edinburgh Fringe for a number of years now. Staged with a 40ft long shipping container made to resemble the interior of an Airbus A320, FLIGHT is an immersive audio experience that takes place in total darkness. Over the course of 30 minutes, visitors will experience two different realities - one in which the plane lands safely, the other in which it doesn't. It's an intense experience that's unlike anything else at the Fringe. Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to direct your attention to the on-board safety demonstration and ask that you give us your full attention. In the unlikely event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure alternative scenarios will be provided. Next of kin will be provided. Additional desserts will be provided. An extra pillow. Trumpets and gongs. Neither Heaven nor Hell is assured. We’re not responsible for your final destination. The many worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics proposes all possible outcomes that could occur are occurring in countless worlds of varying similarity. Maybe there is some comfort in knowing that however ill advised your choices have been - there is a version of you who made better ones and is suffering from less regret and embarrassment. FLIGHT takes place in absolute darkness inside a 40ft shipping container. Its interior exactly resembles an Airbus 320 economy cabin and over 30 minutes explores the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, taking audience members through two worlds, two realities and two possible outcomes to their journey. There are many worlds in which this plane lands safely. 📍 Pleasance Dome, Potterrow Plaza - Container 1 (Venue 23) 💰 From £12.00 🕒 31st July - 26th August 2024, 30 minutes 🎟️ Book via tickets.edfringe.com Temping - Dutch Kill Theatre Company Temping is an interactive solo show performed by the audience with the collaboration of a Windows PC, a corporate phone, a laser printer and Microsoft Office. The pace of the show is dictated by the audience member: how many emails they respond to, how fast they complete the tasks, and how much of the office they decide to explore. Writer Michael Yates Crowley said, “I was interested in the idea that inanimate objects and technology could be performers. That I could write for a phone or fax machine the way you would write for an actor. Or at least that characters could speak through these devices—just as in our lives, particularly during the worst moments of the pandemic, the people that matter to us appear as messages and phone calls and streaming video. The last two Edinburgh Fringes and the Adelaide Fringe gave us such insight into how different cultures react to the piece. Every performance is unique and it is really fascinating to watch diverse audiences react to the piece so differently." Contrasting the anonymity of recording births and deaths in Excel spreadsheet with furtive moments of human intimacy, this interactive show from Dutch Kills Theater and Wolf 359 examines mortality, capitalism and the value of a human life. Sarah Jane Tully, a 53-year-old actuary, has gone on vacation and the audience member steps in to cover for her. As they update her spreadsheets, they realise her job involves calculating the life expectancy of strangers. Meanwhile, an intra-office romance is spilling out of the printer, the phone bleeps with recorded messages, emails land in the inbox, and all the inner life of Sarah is there for anyone who has access to her cubicle and computer. Temping is a show with no performers, just an audience and the ether. 📍 Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) 💰 From £15.50 🕒 3rd-25th August 2024, 50-70 minutes (audience dependent) 🎟️ Book via tickets.edfringe.com Non-Player Character: A Virtual Reality Musical A leader in combining live theatre with virtual reality and gaming, Non-Player Character: A Virtual Reality Musical is the latest in Brendan Bradley’s experimentation with innovative storytelling tools to reach new audiences.  Since 2010, he has been writing, producing and performing a range of online series and from 2017 has been looking at more ways to merge technology into live performance. For this version of the show, Bradley is offering other artists taking part in Edinburgh Festival Fringe the opportunity to be the four ‘Players’ taking part in the musical each night, similar to a Twitch “let’s play” but live, on-stage.  A boundary-pushing fusion of immersive, improvised theatre and video games where no two performances are the same; this virtual reality musical invites the audience to influence the narrative through on-stage and spectator participation. Award-winning actor and creator Brendan Bradley portrays a non-playable character (NPC) of a fictitious video game who is joined on-stage by four ‘Players’ wearing VR headsets, along with seated spectators and audiences watching from home through a live stream who assist in creating the story via a mobile web app. After the hero dies, participants travel through the five levels of the game’s open-world setting that represent the five stages of processing grief, set to a soundtrack of original songs inspired by hit Broadway numbers, pop music, and the chiptune musical style found in video games, along with improvised music reflecting the evolving narrative from an onstage musician. Non-Player Characte r aims to make a deeper connection between the audience and performer.  📍 Imaginex at YOTEL Edinburgh in association with ZOO (Venue 572) 💰 From £15.00 🕒 2nd-26th August 2024, 21:00, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via tickets.edfringe.com Burning Down THe Horse - Fishing 4 Chips After an award-winning run in 2023, Fishing 4 Chips return to Edinburgh this summer with Burning Down the Horse. Bigger and better than ever, this immersive comedy epic tells the “true” story of what happened on the Trojan Horse. The audience become soldiers and are witness to the build-up to one of the most precarious military missions of all time. All goes well until lowly carpenter Epieus gets stuck onboard - unwilling to be wheeled towards certain doom, he starts a revolution and the soldiers that surround him are forced to choose where their loyalties lie. Burning Down the Horse is an immersive comedy play written by two best friends who hate immersive plays. Dotted through the show are pockets of audience interaction alongside a pre-show that starts from outside the venue - a unique brand of gentle immersion that has proven to be a hit with all audiences. Last year, Burning Down the Horse won Best Comedy Performance (Sean Wareing) and Best Director (Maya Shimmin) at the 2023 DarkChat Awards alongside ‘Best Ensemble’ at The Stagey Place Awards . Fishing 4 Chips first performed the show at last year's Edinburgh Fringe after being finalists of the Charlie Hartill Reserve, selling out the entire month-long run and receiving an OFFIE nomination. This show is perfect for the Edinburgh Fringe - silly, funny and interactive but with a genuine heart. 📍 Pleasance Dome - Queen Dome (Venue 23) 💰 From £14.00 🕒 31st July - 25th August 2024 (excluding 14th), 13:00, 60 minutes 🎟️ Book via tickets.edfringe.com Darkfield - Arcade ARCADE is the latest show from Darkfield, and first debuted at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham earlier this year. It's an immersive choose-your-own-path experience that immerses players in alternate environments, allowing you to navigate a conflict in which your choices have consequences... Speaking on the arrival of ARCADE at the Fringe, Darkfield had this to say.... “We're very excited to be returning to our home at Summerhall, with our most ambitious show to date, ARCADE. It's been a long time in the making. We really hope our audience enjoys exploring the world they are immersed in, aware that there are many other paths through it they could have chosen. We're really looking forward to the conversations the audience will be having with each other afterwards, and hopefully seeing them return to discover new paths!” ARCADE is the latest immersive audio experience from Darkfield. Using the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE's interactive narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars. Over 30 minutes in a completely dark shipping container, this choose-your-own-path experience will fully immerse the players using 360 degree binaural sound, sensory effects and a bespoke Darkfield Arcade machine for each player. Players will be asked existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win and some may lose... 📍 Summerhall - The Terrace (Venue 26) 💰 From £13.00 🕒 31st July - 26th August 2024, 30 minutes 🎟️ Book via tickets.edfringe.com For more news on immersive experiences, follow Immersive Rumours on Instagram .

The final performance of The Burnt City - the large-scale immersive production depicting the fall of Troy, has been confirmed to be Sunday 24th September 2023 by Punchdrunk. The show originally opened in March 2022, and has had over 200,000 visitors since opening. It was the first large-scale Punchdrunk show to be staged in London since 2013's The Drowned Man. Felix Barrett, the Creative Director on Punchdrunk said: Creating The Burnt City in the midst of a pandemic was one of the most incredible feats our team has achieved. We couldn’t be prouder of this show and everyone who brought our world of gods and mortals to life. The Burnt City has propelled us forward, and we want to keep that momentum, making the most of our new home in Woolwich. It’s the first time we have had a long-term space to call our own, so these extraordinary buildings are the perfect place to showcase our ideas quickly without needing to wait years for the right venue to come along. We’re fairly sure that The Burnt City will be the last new mask show the company makes, and what comes next will be different and unlike anything we have done before. We cannot wait to unleash these new ideas, and in the meantime, we hope that everyone will make the most of our precious last months of The Burnt City! Tickets are on sale now for all dates, including the final performance, at punchdrunk.com