Part escape room, part immersive theatre, COLAB Theatre's The End sees them venture into new territory as teams work to save the world from destruction in just 60 minutes. Photo: COLAB Theatre Following an early version of the show previewing at the COLAB Invitational Theatre Festival last September, COLAB Theatre's post-apocalyptic theatrical escape room experience, The End, has now launched at the company's London Bridge home, currently set to run until 1st August 2026. Located within one of COLAB Tower's three tunnel spaces, the hour-long experience sees groups of up to six people race against the clock to navigate through multiple layers of security inside a military bunker and attempt to save the world from 'The Darkness', a mysterious and deadly entity responsible for wiping out a huge portion of the world's population. While The End features escape room staples like keypads and locks, it distinguishes itself from many other escape experiences by incorporating a significant amount of interaction with a solo performer and a complex story that unfolds as players progress through each of the experience's three main rooms. 

Before entering the tunnel itself, guests are handed headphones and an audio player, which lays the groundwork for the show's story and sets the (admittedly pretty high) stakes. After being blindfolded and guided into the tunnels by Sergeant Major Problem - the first of several roles played by Lawrence Howard during our visit - the experience wastes no time throwing teams straight into the deep end, initially tasking them with finding a way inside the bunker in near darkness. Photo: COLAB Theatre Once groups make it into the Decontamination Room, which players enter after unlocking the bunker doors, loud noises rattle the walls of the space at regular intervals. It proves to be an effective distraction from the space's main puzzle, which places a heavy emphasis on clear communication and teamwork. Alongside the numerous padlocked switches that first need to be unlocked and activated in order to restore power to the room, there’s a frantic Among Us-style challenge spread across three touchscreen terminals, which forces players to quickly delegate tasks to each other against the clock. As casual escape room players, we found The End's puzzles to be pretty well-balanced, providing just enough of a challenge to be rewarding when solved but never so obvious that we flew through any of the experience's three main spaces. Given the variety of different challenges packed into the experience, there's likely to be at least one puzzle that plays to everyone's individual strengths, even if it's just being able to work well under pressure or keep your cool when the scares ramp up. Photo: COLAB Theatre The Science Lab, which sits at the far end of the tunnel, introduces additional puzzles while placing a much stronger focus on concluding the show's narrative. Several exposition-heavy scenes see Howard's scientist character, Elias, hurriedly scribbling down names, connections, and a timeline onto a whiteboard in an attempt to make sense of what caused the outside world to collapse, leading into a pyrotechnic-heavy finale that requires groups to put on protective gear. While it’s clear that COLAB has committed to creating a fully fleshed-out story that ties all of the show's characters together and explains how 'The Darkness' came to be, it's quite a lot for teams to keep up with, and at times, the storyline becomes overly complex for a format where audiences are concentrating on puzzles, keys, and codes. Despite that, Lawrence Howard’s performance helps maintain the momentum during The End's later rooms and allows for some genuinely exciting interactions midway through, which feel ripped straight out of a sci-fi film and also introduce some intriguing mechanics for interacting with their character. With group sizes capped to six people, the experience benefits from having a great actor-to-guest ratio that affords everyone the opportunity to participate during interactions and spend a meaningful amount of time with Howard's various characters. While the storytelling occasionally struggles beneath the weight of its own mythology, The End still succeeds in creating a cohesive world where the puzzles, performances and setting feel connected and grounded. The result is an effective hybrid of immersive theatre and escape room design which stands apart from many of London’s more straightforward puzzle-led experiences and serves as another worthy addition to COLAB Theatre's already impressive body of work. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] COLAB Theatre's The End runs at COLAB Tower near London Bridge until 1st August 2026. Tickets are priced from £27.50 per person. For more information and to book tickets, visit theendishere.co.uk For more reviews of immersive and interactive work, check out our recent Reviews.

A rare combination of deep audience agency, intricately woven mystery, and communal bonding makes the second chapter of this eldritch experience a must-see. Photo: Lemon Difficult Tucked away in the rolling hills of the Welsh countryside lies a seemingly sleepy manor house. The grazing sheep, blooming gardens, and wooden panels still clinging to a hint of smoke from one of the house’s many fireplaces create a sense of warm hospitality. At a glance, Treowen Manor is the stuff of a romance novelist’s wildest fantasy - but something sinister lurks in its shadows. With The Key of Dreams: Shadows Lengthen, Lemon Difficult has transformed this idyllic hideaway into a twisting narrative of eldritch gods, sacrifice, and betrayal, and the result is one of the most unique and enrapturing immersive productions available today. It’s difficult to summarise what The Key of Dreams is in a few words. Part immersive performance, part escape room, part hotel and cuisine experience, and part social deduction game, there's a lot happening all at once. But fortunately for newcomers, there is plenty of time to find your footing over the 24 hours of the experience. Beginning at noon on the first day, audiences are given free rein of the manor’s four floors and impressive grounds (barring any personal areas such as guests' rooms, the kitchen, and staff quarters). Through various puzzles, arcane rituals, meals, and improvised scenes, the action reaches a climax at 11pm, at which point the audience and cast retire to the bar and turn in for the night to ruminate on the house’s mysteries. Then, audiences are met with a final challenge over breakfast the following morning and are given until noon to resolve any lingering narrative threads. Photo: Lemon Difficult Shadows Lengthen is the second chapter of The Key of Dreams and continues on from the previous hauntings at Treowen Manor last year. Audiences have been invited to join an expedition funded by the Friends of Miskatonic University, sent to clean up the mess left behind by the previous expedition. The manor’s residents - Wyn (Rik Sowden), the owner of Treowen Manor; Dee (Emily Carding), the current expedition leader; Randolph (Dan Osbaldeston), the previous expedition leader who has defected to a rival organisation; Lavinia (Heather Rose-Andrews), Dee’s former wife and mentor who was recently revived from the dead; and Sophie (Millie Bennison), the housekeeper caught in the crossfire - have all been trapped in Treowen Manor, held captive by an unexplainable supernatural force. You and your fellow investigators have been charged to uncover the ties that bind the residents to the manor and either free them or condemn them as you see fit. The audience are quickly recruited by one of three rival organisations, each with their own hidden agendas and motives for investigating the manor. While both the organisations and the residents seem supportive enough at first, their true darker intentions unfold slowly the deeper you dig. Regardless of allegiance, everyone in the manor works together to explore four separate stories, each tied to the manor’s own morose history. And it’s through these narratives that The Key of Dreams truly comes to life. Photo: Lemon Difficult Upon arrival, audiences are highly encouraged to collaborate with one another. This instruction is nothing new to a seasoned immersive experience fan, but this show means it. There is an unfathomable amount of content in the show - so much so that it’s only possible to complete one of the four stories in your time at Treowen Manor. It’s easy to get sidetracked and overwhelmed by the sheer depth of leads to chase and mysteries to unravel. Fortunately, you’re given a beautifully bound field guide with tips and clues to keep you on track with your selected storyline. But it’s also important to understand at least the baseline of every narrative so you can competently face the dark forces at work. There are certain tools at your disposal to change the course of the stories and even alter the residents’ fate, but you’ll need to work closely with every member of the audience to understand how and why. It’s this agency and the reliance on audience collaboration that sets The Key of Dreams apart. Thanks to the durational nature of the experience, you’ll get to know the characters and your fellow expeditioners well. That will be important in the later stages of the performance, as characters and audience members alike have reason to keep secrets and devise alternative plans from the group. Photo: Lemon Difficult The show demands you pay as much attention to your fellow explorers as to the narratives; otherwise, you may find your staunchest ally suddenly possessed, sacrificed, or worse. One such shocking twist of events had our summoning ritual hijacked by a fellow audience member who allowed an evil spirit to possess one of the characters, throwing everyone’s fate into jeopardy. It was a highlight of the evening and a bonding moment that unified the rest of the group against the rogue agent. As evening falls, the house itself slowly shifts to reveal its secrets. In the daylight, Treowen Manor is a bright and charming house filled with mysterious articles, books, and cryptic wooden cuttings. But as the sun sets, whispers begin to murmur from dark corners, hidden rooms appear seemingly from nowhere, and familiar spaces take on sinister new meaning. This slow burn of revealing secrets that have been right underneath your nose the whole show makes the house feel alive and, at times, even hostile. By leaning on the tools naturally available in the venue, Lemon Difficult has built a living, breathing world more memorable than even the most expensive sets and productions in recent memory. Photo: Lemon Difficult If this all sounds like a lot to take in - it is. But that shouldn’t put you off. There are many ways to engage with the show that don’t involve chanting in tongues or trading barbs with an actor. Instead, you could go on a guided tour to learn the history of the house, hunt for cuttings (small riddles scattered around the house), solve puzzle boxes, tackle uniquely shaped jigsaws, tune in to the production’s bespoke radio channels, or explore the mysteries of your own guest room. That’s not a euphemism; several rooms have hidden content meant only for their lodgers. Each of these alternative approaches to Treowen’s mysteries ties directly into the stories and is just as important as any content pursued by more extroverted investigators. However, there is a steep learning curve to the experience. Returning explorers will have a clear advantage, as knowledge of the previous chapter can give them a head start when engaging with the new storyline. There are materials sent to every audience member in advance to catch you up to speed, but they are necessarily brief. Photo: Lemon Difficult Returning players also have the advantage of understanding the characters, the layout of the house, and the external organisations. There is a risk of veteran audience members running away with the plot before newcomers get the chance to dip their toes in, but this is the brilliance of the show’s approach to audience collaboration. It doesn’t matter who gets the information or evidence first; every member of the audience will have a role to play. And like all immersive productions, you will get as much out of the show as you put into it. This production is well worth the work because what you receive in return is not only true agency, mystical powers, and the haunting sense that there’s more to our universe than we’ll ever be able to understand, but also a strong sense of community. As stated earlier, you will get to know both the characters and your fellow explorers very well by the end of your 24 hours. Photo: Lemon Difficult By the end of our experience, every member of the group knew each audience member by name, shared in-jokes and references, and had a deeply personal encounter with at least one character. This organic sense of belonging and familiarity is something you’d be hard-pressed to find in any other experience, which is not something you’d expect from a show about ghosts, witches, and eldritch horrors. It’s all thanks to the clever planning of the creatives and the expert facilitation of the cast that the audience banded together to form a genuine community. We could easily go on for another thousand words and still only scratch the surface of everything The Key of Dreams has to offer. There’s so much to be said about the food (5 courses of cuisine as complex and delicious as the rest of the experience), the acting (impressively deep while remaining accessible; their facilitation was excellent), the lovingly crafted props (a gorgeous array of bespoke laser-cut puzzles and devices), and the overall hospitality, but these are best experienced firsthand. Photo: Lemon Difficult While the overall price may seem steep (£450 for a ticket inclusive of meals plus £350 to £600 for a two-person room on-site), consider that you are receiving four times the amount of content as any other immersive show on the market. But more than quantity, this production delivers quality in spades. The Key of Dreams delivers a rich, robust, exquisite experience that is guaranteed to be unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. It’s rare that a production can capture an audience’s imagination so deeply and offer such powerful agency over the story, but rarer still is the sense of belonging and companionship audiences feel with complete strangers. The Key of Dreams is a twisted, sinister gem and should not be missed by any immersive fan. ★★★★★ [Discounted tickets provided in exchange for an honest review] Words: Danny Romeo The Key of Dreams: Shadows Lengthen runs at Treowen, just outside of Monmouth, Wales, on selected dates in September, October and November 2026. Tickets are priced from £450.00 per person, excluding accommodation. For more info and to book tickets, visit thekeyofdreams.co.uk For more reviews of immersive experiences like The Key of Dreams: Shadows Lengthen, check out our recent Reviews.

A journey into the Underworld for 20 guests per performance, COLAB Theatre's modern-day retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice opens in their brand new venue on the Southbank. Image: COLAB Theatre Following a year-long silence from COLAB Theatre, the immersive theatre producer returns with a brand-new show, The Descent, which sees guests join Orpheus on a journey into the Underworld to try and save their wife, Eurydice. Situated in their brand-new venue near London Bridge, the show takes place across multiple floors of their new creative hub - which is also available for fellow creatives to use for everything from office space to rehearsals and workshops. Based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the show's opening sees guests invited into a boardroom to hear a pitch from Orpheus. He's inviting us to invest in Look Back Industries, a somewhat shady-sounding company that is working to both delay death and bring those who have passed back to life. This pitch is soon interrupted by an urgent phone call - we learn that company co-founder Eurydice has passed away after being bitten. Orpheus asks us to assist in bringing back his wife from the Underworld in exchange for a share in the company. With that, our descent into the Underworld begins... Photo: Alex Walton Taking place across the basement floor of their new venue, guided only by Orpheus' torchlight, we sheepishly creep through dark corridors and rooms. The tension builds as we venture deeper into the bowels of the building, with a number of jump scares culminating in our group being cornered in a walk-in freezer as demons patrol outside. It's an effective sequence that saw a good amount of screaming from members of our group, especially when several were singled out to either hold closed the doors that stood between us and the demons or check previously unexplored rooms. Shortly after, crowded around a small computer screen, we're told we must find four specimens from previous experiments that are locked away within the facility. Combining all of them will serve as an offering to Hades, King of the Underworld, and ensure Eurydice's safe passage home. Image: COLAB Theatre The impact of the show's scares, alongside your ability to be part of the story in a meaningful way, is sadly hampered by the group size. With each performance holding 20 people, it's too large of a group for everyone to have agency. Our group of 20 is at one point tasked with locating the breakers to restore power to the building - a task that requires 4 people at best. Later we're encouraged to split into four sub-groups - each focused on finding one of the previously mentioned specimens. While this alleviates some of the group size issues, most of the show's scariest moments were behind us by then, so you were more likely to just hear people's reactions on either side of you than witness the scares first-hand. Besides the various Underworld inhabitants we briefly encounter throughout the show, Orpheus (Alex Walton) is the only constant in the show. By acting as the sole narrative driver, as well as being tasked with keeping on top of what 20 people are doing at one time, they've got their work cut out for them. While it's not the scariest experience we've had this Halloween season, The Descent does more than enough to be an engaging and fun piece of immersive theatre. We walked away having made friends with several other attendees, and the collective experience of walking through the largely deserted basement of the building with little more than a barely working torch did leave us somewhat rattled at times. We know COLAB Theatre have further shows planned for the near future, and as a showcase of their new space, The Descent does a good job of laying the foundations for it being their new home for immersive work, even if this show doesn't quite reach the full potential of its premise. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] The Descent runs until 18th November near London Bridge. Tickets are priced at £28 and can be booked here.

Photo: NEON/World Heritage Exhibitions This half term, Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold at NEON at Battersea Power Station is flipping the script on how young audiences experience history, with the launch of new 'Ancient Egypt: Exposed' tours designed specifically for ages 9-16. Built for curious, content-savvy teens, the new tours dive into the strange, surprising, and seriously shareable side of Ancient Egypt. What’s more, the exhibition is reducing ticket prices for under-16s to encourage attendance during the school holidays. Taking place on 26th and 27th May at 5pm, the new teen tours are scripted in collaboration with Egyptologist Dr Edward Scrivens from the Egypt Exploration Society, brought to life by actors, and designed to spotlight the side of Ancient Egypt you don’t get in textbooks. Photo: NEON/World Heritage Exhibitions Visitors will also dive into an immersive virtual reality journey before trying their hand at a tile painting workshop inspired by the symbols, patterns and stories found throughout the exhibition. Teen visitors will discover… Ancient curses were actually a thing - Forget the myth of Tutankhamun's curse, some tombs carried very real warnings, threatening intruders with brutal fates - including being eaten by crocodiles Makeup was basically ancient tech - Eyeliner wasn’t just for looks; it helped reduce sun glare Cats were treated like royalty - Cats were so revered they could be mummified and buried like royalty, and were often linked to the goddess Bastet and other protective deities. Ancient Egyptians had their own version of group chat drama - Surviving letters are full of gossip, complaints, and friendship breakups. Photo: NEON/World Heritage Exhibitions These stories will be brought to life through the exhibition’s 180 extraordinary artefacts, all over 3,000 years old and on loan from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, many of which have never before left Egypt. Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold has quickly become the highest-rated exhibition live on Fever, and at a moment when teens are increasingly immersed in digital content, the new programme provides a place to hang out and experience history beyond the screen. Dr Edward Scrivens said: Many of us at the Egypt Exploration Society first became fascinated with ancient Egypt as children and teenagers, so we know the potential and importance of younger generations finding a real connection to the past. Ancient Egypt isn’t just about kings and monuments - it’s about people, their lives, their humour, and their stories. By exploring the more unexpected and relatable aspects of history, we can spark curiosity and show that this world, although thousands of years old, isn’t so distant after all. Joseph Hocking, Sales and Marketing Director at NEON, said: We want to challenge the idea that history is just something you read about in textbooks. This is about showing teenagers that culture can be social and relevant to them. We’re creating an experience that feels different - one that invites younger audiences to engage, explore and see that this isn’t just a traditional museum visit. Located at Battersea Power Station, the exhibition also forms part of a wider day out for teens, with over 170 places to shop, eat and hang out across the riverside destination. Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold is located at NEON Battersea Power Station. Tickets are priced from £32.00 for adults and £27.00 for children. The 'Ancient Egypt: Exposed' ticket includes entry to a teen tour, the VR experience and tile painting workshop for £30 per person. For more information and to book tickets, visit ramsestheexhibition.co.uk/london

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic This July, innovative creators of immersive experiences, DARKFIELD, are taking their most critically acclaimed shipping container-based experience, FLIGHT, to Galway International Arts Festival. Having toured extensively throughout the UK, North America, Asia, and Australia, this marks the company’s premiere in Ireland and Europe. DARKFIELD are world-renowned for their unique combination of cutting-edge 360 degree binaural sound, sensory effects and complete darkness to create immersive experiences, situating participants at the centre of intense, evolving narratives. One of DARKFIELD’s most popular and acclaimed immersive experiences, FLIGHT, will premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival from 13th to 26th July at the heart of the festival in Festival Garden, Eyre Square. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic In a shipping container with an interior that resembles an Airbus 320 economy cabin, FLIGHT 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. Since premiering in Edinburgh in 2018, FLIGHT has toured extensively, both across the UK and internationally, including extensive recent residencies at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Manchester’s Aviva Studios, and will return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. DARKFIELD Artistic Directors, David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, commented: We’ve wanted to bring one of our containers to Ireland for a long time so we’re absolutely thrilled to be coming to Galway International Arts Festival with FLIGHT. Having presented our work across the world, we know how much audiences enjoy the worlds we create, so we’re very excited to welcome Irish audiences to experience FLIGHT. DARKFIELD produces innovative immersive 360-degree audio experiences at the forefront of technology and theatre. Working in complete darkness, DARKFIELD utilises striking sets, binaural sound and sensory effects to place each participant at the centre of intense, evolving narratives. The design of the shows is striking, rich, innovative and detailed: strange worlds that unfold and steal you away from reality. DARKFIELD is known for touring theatrical shows within custom-built shipping containers, and also for creating in-venue productions, installations and digital works that tour theatres, festivals and cultural spaces worldwide. FLIGHT runs at Galway's Eyre Square from 13th to 23rd July 2026. Tickets are priced from €15.00 per person. For more information and to book tickets, visit giaf.ie

Peter Broughton's adaptation of Frankenstein, which plays out for an audience of one each performance, is one of this year's most exciting new immersive productions. Image: Creature/Peter Broughton This review contains descriptions of some events within Creature. Written and directed by Peter Broughton (best known for playing Dionysus in the original Crypt and Hoxton Hall runs of Sleepwalk's Bacchanalia), Creature is an intimate, immersive production for a single audience member. It blends puppetry, binaural audio and immersive performance to create an experience that feels equal parts immersive show and theme park dark ride. Inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, this 20-minute-long show places its sole audience member into the role of Victor Frankenstein, kidnapped on his wedding night by the vengeful creature he abandoned. Each performance's single audience member sits in a wheelchair and is pushed and pulled through the space by a masked Igor (Jessica Southwood) while wearing headphones, through which the majority of the show's dialogue and atmospheric soundtrack (created by Hanna Gardner) is delivered. Alongside the pre-recorded audio is a series of striking visual sequences that see the audience, amongst other things, thrown across the space, looking into the past, and engulfed in flames. The show's centrepiece is an arresting life-sized puppet of the creature (played by Peter Broughton), which is hellbent on exacting its revenge on Victor, and narrates the show in between menacing growls and snarls, commanding every moment of the audience's attention. In the best way possible, Creature is a hard show to categorise. While it's unequivocally a piece of immersive theatre, it refuses to fit neatly into any of the typical immersive boxes, offering very little agency, no influence over the show's narrative, and no freedom to move around the space as they wish. However, what the audience gives up in autonomy is made up for tenfold thanks to the show's meticulously timed, cinematic approach to storytelling, which is unlike anything else we've ever experienced in an immersive production. To sit down in the wheelchair is to give yourself over to becoming the focus of a terrifying, gothic-infused fever dream. Photo: Creature/Peter Broughton The show's initial run, which took place in the Boat Tunnel at COLAB Tower (a venue fast emerging as the de facto home for new immersive work in London) as part of COLAB's inaugural Invitational Theatre Festival, sold out almost instantly. While a scarcity of tickets is often the case with buzzy one-audience-member shows like Creature, this first run at COLAB Tower sold out before the show had even been officially publicised on its social media channels - likely off the back of Broughton's name and die-hard immersive fans' familiarity with their previous work on Sleepwalk's Bacchanalia. When we sat down with Peter ahead of the show's opening, they cited the work of Jim Henson as the catalyst for their lifelong love of puppetry. While what they've created in Creature is a far cry from the kinds of puppets Henson produced throughout his career and a departure from the style of puppetry audiences might recall from Bacchanalia, Broughton's passion for the form is evident long before the creature's terrifying design is fully revealed. While we're not going to divulge any specifics about the puppet (which was hand-made by Broughton with additional textile work by Audrey Rodriguez), we can share that when you're sitting in the wheelchair, it towers over you and feels like it could swallow you whole. In the rare moments where its focus isn't on you, and the creature isn't hunched over to meet you at eye level, its head comes perilously close to scraping the ceiling of the show's venue. It's a sight to behold, and when it's looking directly at you, it's incredibly unnerving. One of Creature's most interesting elements (looming, terrifying puppet aside) is how the audience's attention and field of view are managed while they're sitting in the wheelchair. Throughout the show, every movement is choreographed down to the second, with the show's cast working in tandem to manually shine torches, getting into position for upcoming scenes, and triggering smoke machines and video elements, all in time with the show's evocative pre-recorded audio. From slow creeps forward to rapid 360-degree circles around the creature as it writhes on the floor, there are very few moments where you're not being moved through the space, and at all times, your field of vision and focus are dictated by those movements and position in the space. Alongside delivering a cinematic, movie-like experience, in which the audience is always perfectly placed for the unfolding scene, the audience's ever-changing sightlines also allow the show's five-strong team to perform some really impactful sleight of hand within the space, swapping out elements of the set when your back is turned, keeping audiences on the backfoot, constantly questioning what else could be happening around them when they're not looking. Photo: Creature/Peter Broughton Pre-recorded video content, at times, plays out through TV screens and projections, offering some wider context for both the creature's actions and the show's wider world. Those who attended Sleepwalk's Bacchanalia will spot a familiar face in Elizabeth (Maya McQueen), alongside an unmasked Broughton, who makes a short cameo as a newsreader. The rest of the show's video cast is made up of Mei Mei MacLeod as a second newsreader, Charles Stagg as William and Ben Mallett as the pre-recorded version of Victor. In immersive theatre, the one-on-one has always been highly sought after. Whether it be self-contained shows like The Manikins or Undersigned, or fleeting, private moments within larger immersive worlds from the likes of Punchdrunk, their impact on those who experience them is long-lasting. Alongside making that one audience member the focus of the performer's attention and placing them at the centre of the experience, below the surface, there's a recognition that everything being performed, regardless of how complex the show is, is for the benefit of one person. It's a humbling position for an audience member to exist in, and the exchanges within these moments, however big or small, often hold more weight purely because it's just for them. Photo: Creature/Peter Broughton Within Creature, there's an extraordinary amount of effort being exerted for the benefit of that one audience member. None of the show's lighting is pre-programmed - it's all done by torchlight at the hands of the cast. None of the movement and environmental changes are mechanical - they're all done by manually. None of what they experience would exist without the show's cast (made up of Peter Broughton, Jessica Southwood, Alice Elsie Thomas, Elena Sirett and Puck) pulling off every element of the show, in the moment and in unison, just for them. To do all of that, flawlessly, for a single person's applause and appreciation may be somewhat of a thankless task, especially when the team are all masked and it's nigh-on impossible to tell who is doing what in the moment, but the collective impact of that work on the audience's experience can't be understated. As is often the case with experiences for just one audience member, the ticket price for Creature is high, costing anywhere from £90 to £100 per performance. Despite being a short piece (clocking in at a little over 20 minutes from beginning to end), it's clear that the show's price is a necessity, especially given the cast size, which is nearly twice as big as that of shows like Undersigned and The Manikins. Photo: Creature/Peter Broughton Creature is one of the most exciting new immersive productions to have opened in London this year. Much like during Sleepwalk's first run of Bacchanalia at Crypt, Creature's debut outing feels like it has the potential to go on to become a much larger experience if the stars align. While there's no way of knowing what the future holds for Creature, in its current form, it's a perfectly realised, fiercely original experience that's unlike anything else out there. If you can secure a ticket, count yourself lucky, because it's one hell of a ride. ★★★★★ [Ticket gifted in exchange for an honest review] Creature will run at COLAB Tower from 30th October to 1st November 2025. Tickets are currently sold out, but you can stay up to date on future performances via @creature.immersive on Instagram. For more reviews of immersive productions like Creature, check out our recent Immersive Reviews. Stay up to date on the latest immersive theatre news by following Immersive Rumours on Instagram.

Image: Eclipso Colosseum: The Legendary Arena is the latest immersive VR production from French producers Eclipso and Small Creative. Running alongside the hugely successful Titanic: Echos from the Past at Eclipso's permanent Camden High Street venue, the 40-minute-long experience allows guests to explore virtual recreations of Ancient Rome and the infamous Colosseum alongside Caius, a teenager who idolises the arena's fighters, and Flamma, a Syrian-born gladiator who was one of the era's most famous warriors. Upon checking in at Eclipso and being called up in small groups, there's a brief explainer on how the VR headsets work and the usual health and safety warnings you'd expect from a free-roaming VR experience (don't run, don't walk into walls, don't try and sit down on a virtual chair as it doesn't exist or you'll make a fool of yourself, etc.). Once you've settled into wearing the headset and waved goodbye to the real world, all that stands between you and Ancient Rome is a short virtual corridor. Opening virtual scenes have guests following Caius, a teenage ball of energy who dreams of one day becoming a fighter in the Colosseum. While he'd love nothing more than to enthusiastically wave his wooden sword around his family home and show off his skills all afternoon, he's soon told to head down to the local market by his mother, ushering him (and us) out the door and onto the streets of Rome after showing us the city's terracotta-washed skyline from their balcony. Within the market, there's the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations between traders and local residents, pick up certain items from the stalls (which you can quickly discard and throw to the floor like a stroppy toddler), and soak in the atmosphere. Shortly after, standing in front of the Colosseum, Caius explains the story behind the Colossus of Nero, a 30-metre-tall bronze statue that sat outside the arena. While it towers over you on the ground, the rising platforms guests are on allow them to take in the finer details as they float higher and higher into the air above the city. Image: Eclipso Once inside the Colosseum, Caius explains the seating hierarchy, with politicians and wealthy Romans seated on the lower levels closer to the action, and the common folk restricted to the upper levels. It's in this scene that the scale of what's been produced for Colosseum becomes clear. With a crowd of 80,000 spectators, it's an awe-inspiring view from the upper levels, with people as far as the eye can see, and it offers the kind of spectacle only possible with VR. As great a view as it is, Caius isn't content with being relegated to such a distant view of his idol and ushers guests down a secret passage, saying he knows a shortcut to a better view. Emerging inside a hypogeum beneath the arena, which is home to imprisoned fighters, guests are soon introduced to Flamma, who's preparing for his upcoming fight. Once on the arena floor alongside Flamma, with crowds cheering him on, it's clear why he turned down freedom four times over his lifetime – the man was built for fighting and was committed to providing a good show for them, regardless of the cost. From here, there are several hugely impressive scenes on the arena floor depicting Flamma fighting opponents, from small one-on-one skirmishes to venationes (in which the fighters are pitted against everything from elephants to leopards) and full-blown naval battle recreations in a flooded arena aboard opposing ships. While guests never have to defend themselves and engage in these battles, for certain scenes, they'll find themselves equipped with swords and shields, inviting them to engage in mock combat with other attendees by waving their hands. Despite the countless litres of blood spilt within the real-life Colosseum, Eclipso's VR experience is family-friendly and wisely doesn't show any of the gory details crowds at the time were hungry for. Vanquished fighters evaporate in a cloud of gold dust as they fall to the floor, and while some of the fighting is highly choreographed, for better or worse, there's nothing within them that would invite you to really contemplate the giant loss of life that took place where you're standing. Rounding off the experience, with the fighting behind us in the training camp, Caius emerges and finally is able to meet his idol, Flamma, face-to-face. While Caius is keen to share that he wants to grow up and be just like Flamma, the Syrian gladiator gives him pause, explaining that being there for those who love him and not risking his life for the bloodthirsty crowd is just as noble a pursuit. Image: Eclipso While there is plenty of really interesting and engaging educational content on display throughout Colosseum, the free-roam setup within each scene does allow guests to step back from that and treat it as a virtual playground if they so wish. At one point, temptation got the better of us, and our inner arsonist came out when a flaming torch spawned into our hand, leading us to (unsuccessfully) try and light our virtual companions on fire, and we spent a fun couple of minutes trying to build up the courage to walk off the edge of numerous high platforms without feeling like we were going to fall to our death. With impressive technology, a huge scale, and some really engaging content, Colosseum: The Legendary Arena is up there with some of the best VR we've ever experienced. Striking a balance between entertainment and education, it's a wonderful experience for families, those interested in Ancient Rome, and those keen to try out VR for the first time and discover what all the fuss is about. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Colosseum: The Legendary Arena runs at Eclipso on Camden High Street daily. Tickets are priced from £23.00 per person and can be booked via feverup.com

Image: DARKFIELD Following their residency at Shoreditch Town Hall earlier this year, DARKFIELD returns to London with a bumper line-up of four shipping container shows - ARCADE, FLIGHT, COMA and EULOGY. Taking over a corner of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park across October and early November, this collection of 360-degree sound experiences delivered through headphones in the pitch black invites guests to embrace the darkness and explore dream-like worlds that examine everything from free will to quantum mechanics. FLIGHT Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Set within a cross-section of a commercial aeroplane cabin, complete with a laminated safety card, working seatbelts, tray tables and overhead luggage compartments, FLIGHT invites audiences to experience two parallel realities at once. Taking inspiration from the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment (in which an animal inside a closed box is both dead and alive until observed), it places the audience into the role of the metaphorical cat, as both their death and survival play out in parallel, unobserved by everyone outside of the plane. Depending on your resolve, the above description is either going to be appealing or a terrifying proposition – and out of all the shows DARKFIELD has on offer during this London residency, FLIGHT is easily the most intense, helped in large part by having the most impactful motion effects. There's a persistent rumble of engines during take-off; moments of turbulence cause the cabin to jolt around, and of course, as the reality in which audiences don't survive plays out, the intensity of these effects ramps up considerably. While the show takes place in complete darkness, fleeting flashes of light through the aeroplane's windows help sell the illusion of flight even further, illuminating both the cabin and its seated passengers. FLIGHT's use of binaural audio is perhaps the strongest of this residency's four shows, as the moments in which the chaos and carnage of the plane's destruction envelop its captive audience are rendered in terrifyingly realistic detail, with the sound of the fuselage ripping apart and the cabin being pummelled by the outside air becoming almost deafening. Even during FLIGHT's calmer moments, there's still plenty to raise the heart rate, including a chorus of crying babies (arguably worse than death), problematic passengers, and some pretty terse flight attendants whispering in your ear - all delivered through the show's excellent binaural soundscape. While the odds of being in a real-life plane crash are incredibly low, FLIGHT is a vivid reminder that every time we fly, we're placing our trust in people and things beyond our control. There's very little we can do to ensure our safety, besides making sure our tray tables are in their upright position and obeying the fasten seatbelt sign. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] COMA Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic COMA, which first premiered in 2019, invites guests to enter a collective dream as part of a collective medical experiment. Lying in a whitewashed bunk bed, barely big enough to stretch out in, each participant is prompted to ingest a white pill laid out by their bed and slip away into a state of unconsciousness. A male voice slowly counts down from 10 and asks us to focus on remembering the details of the space, as the lights fade and total darkness takes over. Easily the most claustrophobic of DARKFIELD's offerings, thanks to the tight sleeping arrangements, COMA takes great delight in toying with its audience, keeping them on edge throughout. Through headphones, the voice of the Doctor - which acts as the driving force throughout the experiences - constantly moves around the space. At first, it appears they're in the far corners of the room before moments later appearing alongside you, seemingly bending down to whisper into your ear. In the background, hushed conversations from the other patients and staff members imply there's movement happening throughout the space, despite everyone being confined to their bunks. Nurses open and close curtains around you, offering little in the way of privacy and protection against whatever forces are at play within the facility. Alongside mention of people's perfumes, or the broken coffee machine, come matching smells, pumped directly into the container, and a small sliding shutter beside your head seemingly opens and closes at regular intervals, as if you're being observed up close. While COMA encourages participants to enter into a meditative state, there's so much going on around you; you're never able to truly relax into your surroundings, and if anything, you're more on edge than when you first entered. By the show's climax, it's hard to tell if what you're experiencing has been curated as part of the show or was a figment of your imagination, as you lie immobilised. ★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] EULOGY Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Sitting upon a single pillow inside individual laundry roll cages, EULOGY has audience members exploring the endless corridors and rooms of a labyrinthine hotel. As always in a DARKFIELD show, they're in total darkness and wearing headphones, but the show's opening moments offer up a mechanic not present in either COMA or FLIGHT - the ability to respond to questions with simple answers, picked up through a microphone on each audience member's headphones. Accompanying each audience member on their audio-based journey is their assigned Companion, who both 'moves' them through the space and offers reassurances and guidance throughout (all delivered through whispers). In typical DARKFIELD fashion, exactly what's going on within the hotel is never made explicitly clear. All of the hotel's companions appear to be racing each other to get to the hotel's deeper levels as quickly as possible, but exactly what's required and involved remains elusive throughout. Try as you might to wrap your head around what's going on, you're always on the back foot, even though you're meant to be in control of your journey. On a technical level, EULOGY does an incredible job of immersing you in the show's imaginary world. As you descend deeper and deeper into the subterranean hotel, your laundry cage gently vibrates, and the sound of lift doors opening is accompanied by a gust of air, signifying your arrival in another part of the hotel. While comments from your companion and other hotel staff about how the air gets thicker the deeper you go, thankfully, aren't recreated, the cumulative effect of the binaural audio and pre-recorded performances certainly makes it feel like it is. The mind's a crazy thing... ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] ARCADE Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic The latest DARKFIELD production, ARCADE, rounds off their London residency. We reviewed ARCADE earlier in the year during their Shoreditch Town Hall takeover. Read an extract below, with our full review linked underneath. "Taking control of Milk, an amnesic avatar dropped into the middle of an ongoing war between the North Block and South Block, guests respond to questions and prompts by pressing the single button on the panel of their individual arcade machine to answer 'Yes', with no response signalling 'No'. In addition, there's a coin slot and return tray to facilitate 'paying' for items such as guns and access to areas that are otherwise off-limits. They're all pretty limited ways of interacting with the story as it develops, but for something so basic, the paths it leads you down are branching and varied. Within ARCADE, these 'Yes' or 'No' decisions can have drastic consequences. A wrong answer can result in your avatar being killed at a moment's notice (something we found out less than a minute into our playthrough), and the trajectory of your story can veer off in a wildly different direction from what other guests are experiencing without you even realising how it happened. Violence is near enough guaranteed within the world of ARCADE, regardless of whether you try to be a pacifist or mercenary, and with every bullet fired comes some practical effects built into the arcade machine that remove the barrier between what you hear and what you feel. There's a tension and anxiety built into the show's sound design that only amplifies as you get deeper into the experience, and every decision begins to carry more weight." ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] DARKFIELD's COMA, FLIGHT, EULOGY and ARCADE are at Mandeville Place in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park until 2nd November 2025. Tickets for each experience are priced from £13.50 per person, with discounts available if booking multiple shows at once. To find out more and book tickets, visit darkfield.org/london2025

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Sitting upon a single pillow inside individual laundry roll cages, EULOGY has audience members exploring the endless corridors and rooms of a labyrinthine hotel. As always in a DARKFIELD show, they're in total darkness and wearing headphones, but the show's opening moments offer up a mechanic not present in either COMA or FLIGHT - the ability to respond to questions with simple answers, picked up through a microphone on each audience member's headphones. Accompanying each audience member on their audio-based journey is their assigned Companion, who both 'moves' them through the space and offers reassurances and guidance throughout (all delivered through whispers). In typical DARKFIELD fashion, exactly what's going on within the hotel is never made explicitly clear. All of the hotel's companions appear to be racing each other to get to the hotel's deeper levels as quickly as possible, but exactly what's required and involved remains elusive throughout. Try as you might to wrap your head around what's going on, you're always on the back foot, even though you're meant to be in control of your journey. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic On a technical level, EULOGY does an incredible job of immersing you in the show's imaginary world. As you descend deeper and deeper into the subterranean hotel, your laundry cage gently vibrates, and the sound of lift doors opening is accompanied by a gust of air, signifying your arrival in another part of the hotel. While comments from your companion and other hotel staff about how the air gets thicker the deeper you go, thankfully, aren't recreated, the cumulative effect of the binaural audio and pre-recorded performances certainly makes it feel like it is. The mind's a crazy thing... ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] This review of EULOGY is from DARKFIELD's London residency at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in October 2025. For more information on DARKFIELD and their upcoming shows, visit darkfield.org

London's best open-world immersive experience returns with its fourth annual Halloween season, bringing with it another excellent batch of story trails for guests to sink their fangs into. Photo: Alistar Veryard Despite still being September, in the town of Phantom Peak, spooky season is here. Returning for its fourth year, Phantom Peak's annual Halloween celebration brings with it eleven new trails for guests to work through, an updated cocktail trail, and the latest developments in its ongoing story. Billed as more spooky than scary, this latest instalment of the ongoing, family-friendly immersive open-world experience has become a mainstay in London's immersive calendar in recent years, standing tall as a shining example of why London is regarded as the best city in the world for immersive experiences. Regular visitors to the mining town will be familiar with the show's tried-and-tested formula, which has been continually tweaked and refined with each passing season. Four times a year, there's a town-wide retheme, accompanied by a fresh batch of story trails. Throughout these trails, guests explore the 30,000 sq ft town, interact with Phantom Peak's 15+ residents, engage with the numerous pieces of off-kilter tech, and solve puzzles over the show's 4-hour duration. While the focus of each storyline differs wildly from trail to trail, they're all packed full of humour and lead you down a rabbit hole far more bizarre, irreverent and offbeat than the starting point ever suggested. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those keen to collect all of this season's individual trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits. That's without giving yourself time to sink your fangs into the various other distractions on offer around town, which include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, the ever-popular sport of Platyhooks, and, of course, themed food and drink options, which this season include Halloway's Coffin Deluxe burger (complete with charcoal brioche bun!) and cocktails such as Harvest Plasma and Copper Vein. Picking up the ongoing storyline from Phantom Peak's summer season, this year's Hallowed Peak finds the town in lockdown after former Mayor, Dr Joy S. Furbish, who was long presumed dead, was confirmed to be alive and hiding somewhere in the area. True to form, Phantom Peak's creative team subverted Furbish's long-teased return last season by having the sausage-fingered fugitive appear in puppet form, thanks to a process developed by JONACO (the town's all-encompassing corporate presence) called puppetizing, which turns people from flesh to felt. With the town's tourist population all deputised as honorary JIA agents during the Opening Ceremony, this season of Phantom Peak sees Furbish topping the JIA's Most Wanted List, alongside the festive demigod Father Platmas, Philip from JONACO Marketing and, inexplicably, the real-life founder of Phantom Peak's fan Discord server (the specifics of their crimes are unknown, but no doubt severe). Photo: Alistair Veryard With each season of Phantom Peak delivering 10+ hours of new content (the 11 main trails on offer each take close to an hour to complete), this review is only scratching the surface of everything on offer, but from the half a dozen trails we've finished so far, it's fair to say that they're as varied as ever, and the high benchmark set by previous seasons' offerings has once again been cleared. As ever, Phantom Peak's storylines continue to engage with and lampoon popular culture. Whether they're taking shots at MrBeast's ever-growing empire or crypto pyramid schemes, these send-ups offer an extra layer of enjoyment to the character-driven storylines that fuel the Phantom Peak experience. Long-time visitors to Phantom Peak will also find numerous references to previous seasons throughout, which only deepen the show's rich lore further. Year-round, many of Phantom Peak's trails have spooky, supernatural elements, and the townsfolk are no strangers to battling with demons and ghosts. For Hallowed Peak, it's dialled up to an extreme, with mummies, ghouls, wolfmen, and Dracula all featuring to various degrees. Photo: Alistair Veryard 'The Axiomatic Zone', which wonderfully parodies The Twilight Zone, is one of this season's standout trails. In it, fictional actor Beardy Ham finds themself helpless against a Rod Serling-esque host (played pitch-perfectly by Luke Booys, via pre-recorded Jonavision videos), who's previously abducted dozens of melodramatic, jobbing actors and has now set their sights on one of the town's most theatrical residents. Trails like this, which fully embrace spoofing pre-existing properties, have proven to be some of the show's most popular in past seasons, and Phantom Peak's writing team (made up of Nick Moran, Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer) have never shied away from leaning into the elements that have previously resonated the most with audiences, taking their feedback on board. Woven into the DNA of Phantom Peak is a real commitment to ensuring the guest experience is as good as it can possibly be, and they're in the unique position of being able to deploy tweaks and larger changes at a far quicker pace than many other immersive shows can, thanks to the show's seasonal structure. Photos: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in town, after returning to Phantom Peak last season following a 2-year absence, bar owner-turned-lawyer Giffard (Stella Saltibus) continues to struggle with keeping their fugitive father, Furbish, out of trouble. Despite the JIA actively searching for Furbish, in 'Flight Of The Furbish', they've been running their mouth at the bar, telling everyone their true identity and revealing that Giffard is their child. Guests looking to play both sides and undermine the JIA puppet hunt will find themselves tasked with securing and destroying the only physical copy of the incriminating CCTV footage and finding a way for Furbish to escape town without being captured. The ongoing power struggle between Jonas and Furbish has driven much of Phantom Peak's ongoing storyline over the last three years, and to now have a physical representation of Furbish within the town's walls is a sure-fire sign that in the not-too-distant future, this chapter of Phantom Peak's story will reach its conclusion with The Great Undoing. Photos: Alistair Veryard Throughout Phantom Peak's history, its autumn and summer seasons have always had the luxury of running for several months before being cycled out. In stark contrast, Hallowed Peak often feels like an apparition – vanishing almost as soon as it appears. There are just six short weeks left to dive into their annual Halloween offering and discover everything it has to offer before Father Platmas ushers in Wintermas to see out the calendar year. While the show's constant seasonal turnover makes it true for every season of Phantom Peak, to see this much care and love go into crafting an experience that's only available for a relatively short time before being removed and replaced is nothing short of miraculous. It's an experience that has continuously outdone itself with each passing season, and with this year's edition of Hallowed Peak, Phantom Peak is the best it's ever been. Until the next season opens anyway... ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Phantom Peak's Hallowed Peak runs until 9th November 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak's Hallowed Peak, check out our recent Reviews.

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 [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] 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.

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 [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] 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