. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Frankenstein: An Immersive Show runs until Saturday

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 numbers 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. 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 still be trying to find a sweet spot between encouraging audiences to live in the moment, this show permits 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

Our review of Humbug, the immersive Christmas dive bar. The experience, which this time around is at The Vaults just off Leake Street, combines live music, sing-alongs

. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] What We Must ran at COLAB Tower from 30th October

Is everyone having a nice time? Photo: The Garrett Theatre In the opening moments of exit strategy's wonderfully stressful How to Win a Gameshow, the full legal name of an audience member is read aloud by the show's host (Marykate Glenn), and they're invited to the stage. How their name was found and why they were chosen is unknown. They're the first of many audience members selected to take part in a popular game show, which has featured Graham (Rupert Krüger) as its star contestant for either 4 or 327 days. Across 55 minutes, Graham competes in a series of off-kilter games both alongside and against members of the show's audience in an attempt to leave the game. At least, he would leave if he hadn't already been conditioned to do exactly as he was told at all times, responding to clicks of a dog training device. How to Win A Gameshow looks to interrogate our relationship with surveillance, our complicity with the systems that track us, and our willingness to surrender what little privacy we have left. The audience is repeatedly placed in situations where they're never quite sure what information they're giving away or what might happen to it, creating an experience that's built around uncertainty, paranoia and the understanding that the audience aren't allowed to remain passive observers. Photo: The Garrett Theatre That uncertainty is established early on, when an early victory is secured by Graham and the audience member. After the game finishes, both stand with their hands interlocked and arms in the air, celebrating their victory as a camera operator (Jane Skapek) films the pair and takes close-up photos of the audience member's face. We don't know what will happen with those photos, but as a reward, they're given a piece of candy and sent back to their seat. The process repeats several times, with everyone happily having their likeness captured from up close, clueless as to what those photos could be used for. As the show progresses, audience members also find themselves revealing personal information about themselves with little hesitation, handing over everything from their postcode and several digits of their mobile number to their mother's maiden name (a common internet banking question) simply because they were asked for it. In much the same way Graham has been conditioned to do as told, the audience undergoes the same process, one step at a time. After a while, it becomes hard to tell if at any given moment, we're all being collectively tested, watched or manipulated, yet continue to play along anyway, doing exactly as we're asked. Overall, exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow is an impressively crafted piece of immersive theatre that makes surveillance feel immediate and personal. Rather than telling the audience that they're being observed, it makes them ponder who could be watching on, what those in control have to gain from it, and how much of ourselves we've willingly handed over along the way. ★★★★ exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow runs at Lower Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) until 15th August, and Venue 45 at theSpace @ Venue 45 between 17th and 22nd August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Soleil Kohl's interactive choose-your-own-adventure tasks the audience with keeping its titular character alive as they venture home from a week-long bender at a festival. Photo: Sarah Shtern As anyone who's ever experienced the drive back from Glastonbury on a Monday lunchtime can tell you, the worst part of going to a festival is the journey home. For Daisy, the protagonist of Soleil Kohl's interactive choose-your-own-adventure Don't Kill Daisy, this fact is taken to an extreme, as they find themselves in a time loop, doomed to repeat their trek home from Burning Man over and over again while being relentlessly pursued by a fedora-wearing Bad Guy. The experience begins with Kohl standing centre stage, wrapped in a bin bag and sporting wrap-around sunglasses. In these opening moments, they're the Game Keeper, who advises each audience member to select a couple of items from an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac. These items will serve as the weapons, tools and armour used by Daisy once her journey is underway, though at first glance, it seems that many will be more of a hindrance than a help. After a brief pause (think of it as a loading screen), Daisy emerges on stage ready to begin her voyage home. Except she dies within seconds from lockjaw, respawning moments later with the memory of her previous demise. Over the next hour, little by little, Daisy begins to level up as the random items selected by the audience come into play. The audience's goal is simple: keep Daisy alive. Photo: Mikey Prine Throughout, the show wears its retro video game influences on its sleeve, with every level-up and death soundtracked by an 8-bit-style sound effect. On top of this, audiences have the option to return to the 'main menu' at any point, where they're able to customise their character (aka force Kohl to change outfits mid-show), watch the opening titles or ask the Game Keeper for hints. While every performance of Don't Kill Daisy plays out differently thanks to the ever-changing line-up of items chosen by the audience, the one constant throughout every performance is Kohl's commitment to creating the most outlandishly ridiculous experience possible. On more than one occasion on the night we attended, Kohl broke out into fits of laughter at the absurdity of the situation she'd just created for the show's protagonist, which we can only assume is a regular occurrence given the rapid-fire improvisation required to make the show work. Anyone who's seen Police Cops will know that these fleeting moments of unexpected laughter from those on stage are a joy to watch, and only ender us to Kohl's on-stage persona further. More so than perhaps any other show at the Fringe, Don't Kill Daisy puts the audience in total control of how things unfold, and their decisions have a meaningful impact on what happens, consequences be damned. Riotously funny, hugely interactive and full of heart, it's a wild ride from start to finish and a perfect late-evening choice for those in search of a final show before calling it a night. ★★★★ Don't Kill Daisy runs at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) from 7th to 15th August, and theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall - Haldane Theatre (Venue 53) from 17th to 22nd August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Renowned painter Van Gogh stumbles into an immersive experience of his artwork in this interactive clown show from Donna Oblongata. Photo: Josh Yoder As a website that covers immersive work, we've attended more than our fair share of London's projection-based experiences in recent years. Whether they've depicted the reign of Cleopatra or Tutankhamun, the sinking of the Titanic or the destruction of Pompeii, the current wave of immersive exhibitions can largely be traced back to the numerous immersive Van Gogh experiences that sprang up around the globe in the mid 2010's and opened the door for this kind of experience to become mainstream. Regardless of whether you see them as a positive or negative for the wider immersive industry (there are arguments on both sides), their huge success has undoubtedly led to at least one good thing: inspiring Donna Oblongata to create the wonderfully chaotic interactive clown show, The Van Gogh Shogh, which runs at Assembly @ St Andrew Square until 30th August as part of Edinburgh Fringe. Photo: Josh Yoder The show's tranquil pre-show experience, complete with classical music playing over the speakers and one of Van Gogh's pieces being projected onto the back wall of the venue, is quickly interrupted by the arrival of a dishevelled, blood-and-paint-soaked gig-working Van Gogh, who pulls a bag of food from an Uber Eats delivery bag and searches the space for their customer. While looking around the space, Van Gogh notices their work is being projected onto the wall, and their face lights up, realising that at long last, they're going to get the recognition they deserve. Of course, that smile slips away as they realise that despite now being famous around the world, and having a room full of paying audience members there to see their work, they're not getting a penny from it and are still as broke as they ever were. What Van Gogh lacks in funds, though, is made up for with enthusiasm, as they happily take the audience through a whistle-stop tour of their work. There's a wonderfully deranged monologue about the emotional state of each potato in 'Still Life with Potatoes', a communal exercise in letter-writing, as Van Gogh crowdsources suggestions to send to their wealthy art-dealing brother begging for paint, and a rousing karaoke rendition of Meat Loaf's I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).. Photo: Josh Yoder The show's centrepiece, in which four audience members are invited on-stage to paint their own version of Starry Night under Van Gogh's tutelage, sees the master painter guide participants through the process of creating such an iconic piece of work and allows Van Gogh the opportunity to wax lyrical about the personalities of each colour (yellow obviously has a pet dog, blue's lucky number is three, etc.) while those on-stage frantically paint their magnum opuses. Throughout the show, Oblongata proves to be a commanding presence, bouncing between antagonistic remarks, off-handed commentary on their lot in life and depressing references to Van Gogh's real-life indiscretions with self-deprecating humour. Underlying the whole experience is a central message exploring the ever-increasing commercialisation of art, the financial struggles of being an artist, and how those who create work are often undervalued by society at large. By the show's conclusion, audience members not only come away with a deeper understanding of just how hard it is to make a living in the arts, but, if they're lucky, a new piece of art to hang on their wall too. ★★★★ The Van Gogh Shogh runs until 30th August (excluding 12th, 19th, 26th) at Front Room at Assembly @ St Andrew Square (Venue 172) as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

This shift in the conventions long-established pecking order makes way for the show's final act, which

. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Immersive 1984: A Unique Theatre Experience

. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Alibi: Dead Air runs at Theatre Deli near Aldgate For more information and to book tickets, visit alibi.london For more reviews of immersive experiences like Alibi: Dead Air, check out our recent Reviews.

projected onto the 11-metre-high walls and floor of Lightroom's cavernous venue and offers visitors a peek As Wallace would say, they've done a cracking job. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review

and All Fools is a profoundly affecting piece from Director Vinicius Salles Photo: James Lawson This review village, shopkeeper Agatha (Agave, played by Kate Webster) has invited a small audience of 10 people to preview She speaks of her sister falling pregnant and giving birth to a child that the villagers believed to so more people can hear Agatha's story first-hand. ★★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review