Image: Minimum Labyrinth For over a decade, Robert Kingham and Rich Cochrane's Minimum Labyrinth have been hosting walking tours through London that explore the capital's rich history and lesser-known corners. With previous tours having delved into the past of areas including Drury Lane and Bloomsbury, the pair have built up a loyal following of fans, a regular cast of collaborators, and have previously worked with the likes of the Museum of London to shed light on the forgotten corners of the city. Their latest experience, Doin' The Lambeth Walk (Oi!), turns its attention, unsurprisingly, to Lambeth. It's their most ambitious production to date, featuring a cast of four performers, and it's as much a walking tour as it is a piece of utterly surreal promenade theatre. Over three hours, the tour covers several kilometres of tunnels, parks, estates and alleyways, as well as two pub stops for those who've both worked up a thirst and need time to process everything that unfolds. Photo: Immersive Rumours We're sworn to secrecy concerning a lot of the specifics in Doin' The Lambeth Walk, and wouldn't want to detract from the joy of discovering exactly what the tour involves for those who attend, but it's fair to say that it's a far richer experience than the dry, fact-heavy style of walking tour common elsewhere in the city, and is unlike anything else we've ever done. As expected, there are heaps of interesting titbits about the history of Lambeth throughout, including nods to Charlie Chaplin and Admiral William Blythe, whose pasts are both tied to the area. There are also numerous detours that explore everything from the 'dead railway' that ferried bodies between Waterloo and Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey to the cholera epidemic that plagued the area and killed nearly 2,000 people between 1848 and 1849. The focus shifts constantly between the buildings and the geographical features of Lambeth, and the people who made the area what it is, showing us how the two have impacted each other and how, ultimately, a place is made by those who inhabit it. On top of this, though, are the performative elements of Doin' The Lambeth Walk, which have been designed in a way that means those who attend are never quite sure what's going to happen next. There's a wonderfully bizarre overarching story woven into the walk's narrative that has nothing to do with the area's history, but frames every interaction the group has with the sights and sounds of Lambeth and before long, those who attend have seemingly stepped through the looking glass, unable to return to reality. With the streets of London also acting as the stage for this tour-cum-theatre experience, passers-by often look on, unsure of what they're witnessing, and the ever-present risk of the tour colliding with reality creates some wild interactions with the general public that heighten the show's surreal feeling. Photos: Immersive Rumours With some hilarious moments woven into the tour's script courtesy of Robert Kingham and Alice Merivale, who lead the experience, and with a host of characters played by Howard Horner and Will Henry popping up en route, every twist and turn on the tour's route holds the potential for another unexpected encounter. By the walk's conclusion, we'd grown quite comfortable stepping out of time with the rest of the city, and after returning to reality, we had a new appreciation for those who have made the city what it is. Oi! ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Doin' The Lambeth Walk takes place across Central London on selected dates in September 2025. Tickets are priced from £37.50 and can be purchased via minimumlabyrinth.org

This interactive experience, based on the multi-billion-dollar franchise, lets visitors get up close and personal with over a dozen dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc After a successful run at ExCel London in 2022, Jurassic World: The Experience returns to the capital in an updated form within NEON at Battersea Power Station. This walkthrough experience, which lasts between 45 and 55 minutes, is packed full of outstanding animatronics, offers endless photo opportunities, and lets visitors get up close and personal with a number of dinosaurs from across the Jurassic World series, including Blue (Jurassic World) and Bumpy (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous). As someone who grew up visiting the Natural History Museum and marvelling at its T-Rex animatronic, which was also likely the first encounter with the size and ferocity of dinosaurs for countless children in the 1990s and 2000s, it's fair to say that the dinosaur-loving kids of today don't know how good they've got it... Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc The experience begins with a journey on the ferry to Isla Nublar, which features a slickly produced introductory video as in-ferry entertainment. The video explains that upon docking, guests will be welcomed into the world-class tourist destination as VIP guests and have been granted exclusive access to see parts of the park not usually open to the general public, including the Genetic Creation Lab and Raptor Training Facilities. There's a notable lack of familiar faces from the film series in this introductory video, which would have helped solidify the link between the experience and the multi-billion-dollar franchise, but in all honesty, no one is attending Jurassic World: The Experience to see a pre-recorded video of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard - they're here to see dinosaurs. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc After disembarking, visitors enter through the Jurassic World gates and find themselves immediately face-to-face with a number of the show's animatronic dinosaurs, including a family of Pachyrhinosaurus and a two-storey tall Brachiosaurus, whose head and neck sways back and forth above the foliage. The attention to detail in these animatronics, and all of the ones that follow, is truly impressive and stands alongside, if not exceeds, the quality you'd expect from any of the Universal theme parks' Jurassic-based offerings. While these dinosaurs are great to admire from afar, there are more up-close and personal interactions to be had with several baby dinosaurs, which are cradled in the arms of Park Rangers throughout the venue. With the dinosaurs on show rotating frequently, there's nearly always a baby pterodactyl or velociraptor on hand for photos and pets. With blinking eyes and heads that move in response to human touch, these puppets are full of life and deliver on the promise of the show being an interactive Jurassic World experience. For the children visiting, it's an instant draw, with groups of people quickly forming around them, but ample time and attention are given to every group that wishes to pet them, so there's no missing out. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc The first half of Jurassic World: The Experience, in which guests spend time around the herbivores, is completely free-roam and allows groups to explore at their own pace. Beside every large-scale animatronic, there are staff members dressed in Jurassic World Park Ranger uniforms, who are all incredibly friendly and happy to chat about the dinosaurs on show and take photos on your behalf without any upsell. Further into the experience, there's both a Parasaurolophus hiding amongst the trees looking for its offspring and a massive Ankylosaurus with its club-like tail standing behind a fence. Opposite, a Gyrosphere, which featured prominently in the films, offers a photo opportunity for guests, and more Park Rangers are on hand to tell visitors about the dinosaurs. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc Guests then enter the Genetic Creation Lab, which rounds off the herbivore portion of guests' Jurassic World experience. Featuring a trio of baby Parasaurolophus inside an incubator, numerous fossilised mosquitoes on display and an opportunity to compare dinosaur droppings from both herbivores and carnivores through gloves, there are plenty of things to discuss with the white lab coat-wearing staff members, who roam the space alongside guests. The baby dinosaur interactions also keep on coming within the Creation Lab, with a female Stygimoloch, complete with a reinforced skull, offered up for the admiration and affection of visitors. Moving upstairs in NEON, guests enter the carnivore area of Jurassic World as groups and proceed through a series of spaces together, guided by Park Rangers. In the first space, a small waiting area, there's a five-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex skull and a chance for younger guests to try their hand at palaeontology by uncovering bones from within a sandpit. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc The real start of this section, and perhaps the entire experience, however, is Bumpy. Within the Jurassic World universe, they're the main dinosaur protagonist of Camp Cretaceous - the animated Netflix series set on Isla Nublar, which takes place in the same time period as 2015's Jurassic World film. Within Jurassic World: The Experience, they're presented as another baby dinosaur puppet that guests can meet one-on-one to pet. To describe Bumpy as cute is an understatement, and the reactions of our group confirmed that they immediately stole the hearts of everyone in the room. Moving into the final rooms of Jurassic World: The Experience, guests come face to face with Blue, the dinosaur protagonist of the recent Jurassic World trilogy, which is the only full-size dinosaur in the experience puppeted by a human performer. Their feeder explains that Blue is the alpha in their family, and we should maintain a distance for our own safety. Jurassic World: The Experience is one of the few attractions where guests actually expect things to go wrong, and true to form, the sirens soon alarm, and guests are told they must evacuate due to nearby dinosaurs having escaped. In the final room of the show, guests find themselves trapped between a life-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex, which stomps across the room and stops just feet away from guests behind a fence, and a Carnotaurus, which is equally massive and intimidating. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc As Park Rangers frantically try to unlock the gate that stands between the group and safety, both dinosaurs wreak havoc on the space by destroying lamp posts and engaging in an extended rally of roars as the sirens and flashing red warning lights continue to blare. While everyone attending Jurassic World: The Experience knows that at some point, they'll be faced with the film's scariest and most iconic dinosaurs, and it'd be a pretty terrible experience if the Jurassic World staff didn't put guests in a perilous situation, the intensity of this final sequence may well catch some families with young children off guard. For adults and big kids, however, it's a pulse-raising set piece that places guests in a situation on par with that of the films, and the production value more than justifies having the 'Jurassic World' name attached to the experience. With plenty of meticulously well-crafted animatronics, engaging interactions with both the Park Rangers and dinosaurs, and an action-filled finale, Jurassic World: The Experience is a great time for families and adults alike, even if it's a little short. The only way this experience could be better is if they dressed all the dinosaurs up in Christmas jumpers, but we'll keep going to South Kensington to see that instead... ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Jurassic World: The Experience runs at NEON at Battersea Power Station until 4th January 2026. Tickets are priced from £28.95 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit feverup.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Jurassic World: The Experience, check out our recent Reviews.

This entertaining but flawed interactive adaptation of Netflix's smash-hit series arrives in London, giving visitors the chance to step into the world of Squid Game. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) Squid Game: The Experience, which has recently opened at Immerse LDN below the ExCel Centre, is the latest interactive experience based on a pre-existing IP to land in London. Following successful launches in New York, Sydney, Seoul and Madrid, this 60-minute-long experience sees visitors competing in a series of games - directly lifted and adapted from the Netflix series - for points and the approval of the masked Front Man. Nowadays, London has no shortage of experiences that offer competitive socialising. With the long-running Crystal Maze experience in Piccadilly Circus, the recent Taskmaster Live Experience in Canada Water, and the upcoming Traitors Live Experience in Covent Garden, every corner of the city has activities that pit friends against each other in a highly themed environment. Given the steep competition and high expectations that come with adapting one of Netflix's most successful series into an interactive show, Squid Game: The Experience unfortunately falls short of distinguishing itself from the city's many other competitive offerings. In the experience, groups of between 20 and 40 compete against each other in tests of memory, agility, and reactions. The experience begins in the waiting area, where each player is given a numbered bib and an NFC-tagged wristband. Players are photographed upon entry to have their faces displayed alongside their scores, and groups are ushered into a recreation of the Dormitory, which is lined with bunk beds and has a pink masked guard guarding the door. There's an in-world introductory talk from a suited games master, making clear that violence of any kind isn't allowed, before the larger group is split into two groups of around 20 players (the Blue and Red teams) and thrown into the games. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) First up is Memory Steps, which is taken from the glass bridge game in Season 1 of the show. With a strip of 12 see-through floor panels ahead of each player, they're given two seconds to memorise the pattern as each panel lights up either red or green. Every player's pattern differs, so there's no safety in copying other players' steps and no room for error. It's here that the problems with Squid Game: The Experience start to become apparent. The show's scoring system, which consists of each player individually tapping their wristband on one of three plinths, is painfully slow to sort, despite every group having a dedicated host with a tablet who ideally would be able to score each contestant after their attempt. Logging scores takes nearly as long as the game, and for those who went first, it's a long wait before they can do anything besides wait for the other competitors to finish. Moving into the next space, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the game competitors are about to play is Dalgona, given the show's interior matches the children's playground theme from that game in the show, but it's in fact Marbles – another challenge from Season 1. In small groups, each player takes turns trying to land a marble in the shape in the centre of a table to claim the other marbles in play. There's some friendly rivalry between the contestants in each group in this game, which is partly down to everyone naturally sticking with their party, and the difficulty level of this challenge means that, again, there's little room for error. Following this second game, the scores on the leaderboard are totalled up after another long wait to tap wristbands, and the leaders of the competition start to become clear. Those who won their game are awarded upwards of 10 points, while most other players receive points in the lower single digits, making the gulf between successful players and those falling behind pretty vast after just two games. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) Thankfully for the players at the top end of the leaderboard, their lead is secure as the next game is scored as a group and sees the Blue and Red teams going head-to-head in Rope Game. Divided by a glass window, each contestant on both teams has 5 seconds to pull a suspended rope as hard and fast as they can in an attempt to move a marker along a track overhead. Despite encouragement to boo those behind the glass and cheer on fellow competitors as everyone works towards a common goal, it's hard to ignore that each player's contribution to this game never exceeds 5 seconds and is largely made up of (you guessed it..) queuing to have their attempt, followed by more queuing to receive their points. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) The best-known and most iconic game from the Netflix series, Red Light Green Light, follows, with both the Red and Blue teams reunited to compete again as individuals. The rules to this one are pretty simple - only move when the room's lighting turns green, and remain stationary when it's red. On hand to oversee the players in this game is a masked pink guard (why they're not in every room of the experience, we're not sure..), who will point out players who wobble, move or fall during the red light sections of the game. With the player count back up to 40, there are quite a few competitors caught out and forced to restart. In a departure from the TV show's depiction of this game, though weirdly, in keeping with the series' mobile game adaptation, there are a number of obstacles scattered throughout the playing field that players can hide and reposition behind, out of view from the guards and the towering Young-Hee doll. While there are a couple of minutes on the clock to make it from one side to the other successfully, players are likely to be completely unaware of how much time is remaining, as the screens showing the ticking clock are at the back of the room and immediately out of players' sightlines once the game begins. Those hoping to time their movements to Young-Hee's song quickly have to adopt another strategy, as it's completely absent from the game portion of this room, and with their head also not swivelling with each lighting change, several elements from the show's version of this game are missing. Despite this, it's far and away the most engaging and tense challenge in Squid Game: The Experience, with a number of false starts catching players out and people trapped up in each other's personal space for extended periods, waiting for the next green light. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) The experience concludes with the final game, Round and Round, which is the only game adapted from Season 2 of the show. With no doors for players to run through while the clock runs down, players need to instead run to one of the Dalgona symbols on the floor when the corresponding symbol appears on screen. It's a pretty brutal game for those looking to make it all the way, with the vast majority of players knocked out in the first round. Those who make it through are quickly whittled down until there's only one player left, who then goes head-to-head with the game's overall points winner in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. In a last-minute reveal, the Front Man, who has only appeared on-screen in each room, enters and presents the winning player with a choice: keep the prize for themselves or divide it amongst all the players. The prize, if it's divided amongst everyone? A discount in the gift shop. Video: Squid Game: The Experience London While Squid Game: The Experience fulfils the promise of immersing visitors in the show's world, and there's a fun novelty to playing the games so many of us are familiar with, it lacks the intensity and polish of the source material. The slow processing of each player's scores ruins any momentum gained from playing the games, and operational issues, including extended delays going into each room, means far too much of the experience is spent waiting around for things to happen. With just two finalists from a pool of 40 players, early setbacks can also feel irreversible. You could argue this makes sense within the show's world - given most of the players would be long dead by the time the final game comes around if competing in the games for real - but the stakes and jeopardy associated with trying to do well are diminished when most players realise they have no chance of making it to the finale. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience (London) For die-hard fans of the series, the chance to step into recreations of the show's games and get photos while taking part will make Squid Game: The Experience an enjoyable visit, even if the gameplay and operations make the experience a bit of a damp squib (game) compared to many other competitive socialising experiences on offer across the city. ★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Squid Game: The Experience runs at Immerse LDN until 4th January 2026. Tickets are priced from £35.00 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit feverup.com From 17th July 2025, winners of Squid Game: The Experience will receive priority consideration for casting in the next season of Squid Game: The Challenge. Find out more here. For more reviews of immersive experiences like Squid Game: The Experience, check out our recent Reviews.

With the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak once again proves why they're the best immersive experience this side of the Ridge. Photo: Alistair Veryard The platypus-loving town of Phantom Peak has become a mainstay of London's immersive scene in the three years since it first opened. Over the last 12 seasons, the show's constantly updating selection of trails, all delivered through regular seasonal updates, has kept its detailed, lore-rich story progressing at a rapid pace and given guests a reason to return to the town month after month without ever running out of things to do. With nearly 150 individual story trails now under its belt, Phantom Peak has also amassed a loyal fan base and continues to take audience feedback on board to improve on each previous iteration of the show. With its latest season, the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak has once again outdone itself and delivered its strongest experience yet. Regulars to Phantom Peak will be familiar with the show's tried and tested formula. Each new season brings with it a fresh batch of story trails, through which 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, each one is packed full of humour, endlessly silly, and leads you down a path far more bizarre, irreverent and surreal than the start point ever suggested. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those keen to collect all of this season's trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits, and that's without giving yourself time to engage with the various other distractions on offer around town, which include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, and, of course, the varied food and drink options. This season, the town is celebrating the third anniversary of the blimp crash that supposedly killed former Mayor Furbish. Visitors to Phantom Peak's opening season will recall the aftermath of said crash, when much of the town's indoor area was blocked off by the wreckage, and during 2024's Festival of Innovation season, it was revealed in one of the trails that Furbish was actually alive and well, hiding in the mines beneath the town and waiting for the right moment to return. Photo: Alistair Veryard While Furbish's 'death' was a seismic event within the town of Phantom Peak in more ways than one, the biggest consequence to come of it was enabling its current leader, Jonas, to take over and kick-start the events that have been unfolding over the last 12 seasons of the show. Despite Jonas overseeing Phantom Peak from afar, their impact is nevertheless still felt, and whispered talk of their master plan - dubbed The Great Undoing - has been hanging over residents' heads for several seasons now. Will Furbish's return thwart Jonas's scheme, or has the damage already been done? Only time will tell. As ever, many of Burning Blimp's new trails engage with pop culture, subverting and parodying real-world personalities, media, and products. Fans of Severance won't fail to notice the similarities between the Apple TV+ show and the events of 'Pocket Change', which has Mayor Pocket (David Carter) battling against a clone of themselves (referred to as their 'Hottie') for dominance of their shared mind, and the Furby-inspired 'Unbox Me, Coward' concludes with one of the most surreal moments in the show's history - quite the achievement, given how off-the-wall storylines often are at Phantom Peak. Following on from last season's Wicked-inspired trail, 'Unpopular', it's the turn of Les Misérables to get the Phantom Peak treatment in 'Less Miserable'. With three full-length parody songs scattered throughout the trail, which focuses on the ongoing power struggle between JONACO and The Resistance, it's an ideal trail for West End fans, as long as they can handle the numerous digs and swipes made at the genre that are also littered throughout. Photo: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's continued embracing of puppetry, which has only ramped up with each passing season, has given the show's exceptionally talented cast a chance to show off their range as they take control of the town's felt-based residents. On one side of town, General Store owner Datchery (Tatiana Nicholle Davis) unwittingly finds themselves in the middle of a love triangle with the Miss Piggy-inspired Lady Oinkerton, with insults and raised voices rapidly escalating into something akin to a Punch and Judy show. Elsewhere, fan favourite Sherlock Bones (puppeted by Jimmy Roberts, who plays Lovehart) is on the verge of cracking their latest case wide open and needs visitors' help to connect the dots in 'No String Attached'. Giffard (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), the former Canal Bar owner who's climbed the corporate ladder to become a JONACO lawyer, also finds themselves commanding a Colonel Sanders-esque puppet of former Mayor Furbish as they continue to deal with their ongoing family struggles in 'Finger Lickin' Good'. Photo: Alistair Veryard Alongside the physical (and puppet) cast, Phantom Peak's continued refinement with each new season has seen them lean far more into filming bespoke video content for the town's Videomatics and Jonavisions (button/dial-operated screens that display pre-made videos when correct digits are entered). While many videos feature the show's regular cast, former cast members Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer, who now both serve on the show's writing team, work overtime as prominent on-screen talent, taking on numerous roles including an unhinged toy reviewer, a murderous cult leader and a thuggish goon. These engaging live-action videos lend themselves perfectly to the show's unique sense of humour and ramp up the ridiculousness of each trails contents even further. After 13 seasons of Phantom Peak, it's easy to take the show's unique design for granted. Upon launch in 2022, the trail format Phantom Peak adopted was a massive departure from the immersive, open-world norm most commonly seen in Secret Cinema and Punchdrunk productions. Within Phantom Peak, every one of the show's townsfolk remains in one place throughout the experience, meaning there's no risk of being unable to complete a storyline because they've run off behind a locked door, never to be seen again, and without any big set-piece moments outside of the opening and closing ceremony, which everyone is gathered together for, the show removes the sense of FOMO so often built into the design of other open-world immersive experiences. All of the show's best moments are available for every group at any time by completing the trails and interacting with the show's cast one-on-one. Photo: Alistair Veryard Those who have been paying attention to the show's overarching narrative in recent seasons have likely noticed that this initial, multi-year chapter of Phantom Peak's story appears to be coming to a close. Ahead of tickets to last season going on sale, it was announced that it was due to be their final at the show's current Canada Water venue. Thankfully, this closing season has been pushed back to a later date due to an extension on their lease of the venue. While we're still awaiting details on exactly what the future holds for Phantom Peak once it leaves behind its current home, it's clear that there's plenty of life left in the town yet, even if the Great Undoing sees it changed forever. Phantom Peak is far and away the best immersive show London has to offer. An unrivalled experience that continues to deliver season after season, it's a hilarious, engaging and deeply rewarding experience for both regular and first-time visitors. ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival 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 The Burning Blimp Festival, check out our recent Reviews.

This interactive crime-solving experience delivers twists and turns, mountains of detailed evidence, and a complex narrative over the course of 90 minutes. Photo: Sam Bush Jury Games, created by Joe Ball, Tom Black, Ellie Russo and Edward Andrews, is an interactive crime-solving experience that invites audiences to take part in the remote trial of Harry Briggs, an investigative journalist accused of committing arson and murder. Originally conceived as an online experience during the 2020 lockdowns, in recent years the show has found a permanent home at Theatre Deli near Liverpool Street for in-person performances of up to 12 people per session, which can be booked as either private or public shows. In Jury Games' original experience, The Trial of Harry Briggs, the Justice Act of 2025 has recently been passed to try and help clear the backlog of cases caused by the pandemic. Temporary courtrooms, such as the one in Theatre Deli, have been set up across the country to cut through the red tape and allow the processing of cases without all the fuss of 'conventional' courtrooms. While these temporary courtrooms are described in the show's opening Ministry of Justice video as 'a streamlined and cost-effective process', they're also a good way of allowing jurors to have both their phones and drinks from the bar in the room throughout, without being held in contempt of court. Photo: Sam Bush For Harry, who was found at the scene acting erratically and covered in paraffin with a cut on his forehead, the odds are stacked against him in his trial. While he doesn't deny starting the fires that destroyed an office in New Malden, he claims to have had no idea that a cleaner, identified as Richard Holmes, was inside the building at the time. Now behind bars in HMP Wandsworth, he's awaiting the jury's verdict on whether to charge him with murder or manslaughter, and from first impressions, it could go either way. Throughout the 90-minute experience, jurors are presented with dozens of printed documents, numerous online blog posts, social media profiles, emails and bags of physical evidence. Staying on top of everything is no small task, with the group initially advised to split the workload amongst themselves and let the rest of the group know about any important findings. The courtroom's blank whiteboard wall is hastily filled with frantically scribbled information, potential connections are outlined, and a list of questions is drawn up for the accused, who will soon appear via video link for their first questioning from the jury. Photo: Sam Bush Harry Briggs (played wonderfully by Jack Flammiger) initially proves to be an unreliable witness. Speaking via video call on the room's TV monitor, they're cagey and evasive, unable to answer questions without contradicting either themselves or the evidence. It's clear that if the jury wants to make any headway in the case and discover the truth about the night in question, they need to get Harry onside in their follow-up calls. To do so, jurors must look beyond the evidence in the room and involve those outside the courtroom. Using their personal phones, jurors need to communicate via email and call with an anonymous outsider, who seems to know more than they're letting on, but in this first instance, only provides the information needed to help win Harry's trust. Photo: Sam Bush The breadth of evidence available for jurors to uncover throughout The Trial of Harry Briggs is pretty staggering. On top of the detailed printed documents and realistic physical evidence in the room with the jury, there's also a sizeable digital component to the experience, which can be accessed via the two laptops at the back of the room or through guests' phones via QR code. If the group aren't actively searching for personal details or companies' information on the Metropolitan Police database, there's a backup of Harry's password-protected phone that needs cracking, concealed private servers only accessible via IP addresses, and a string of emails and voicemails being left for jurors throughout the experience to keep them occupied. Throughout Jury Games, information believed to be true is cross-checked, theories are quickly disproven, and bombshell discoveries mean the jury's collective idea of what is true and what is false changes with every passing minute. For teams to succeed and get to the bottom of this complex, interconnected story before giving their final verdict at the end of the experience, teamwork and strong communication are key, and jurors need to be okay with others having differing opinions. A lot of a group's success may rest on who else they're paired up with during a public session, and there is a danger of the loudest voices drowning out those less willing to make their opinions known, much like in a real-life jury. The in-person Ministry of Justice co-ordinator, who oversees the jury in the courtroom, does an admirable job of getting everyone involved in the case and can offer gentle nudges in the right direction if jurors end up chasing their tails for too long. Photo: Sam Bush While the story that unfolds across Jury Games’ 90-minute run-time doesn’t comment on the built-in problems often inherent in real-life juries, such as biases, emotional decision-making and legal speak going over jurors' heads, it does give participants a chance to step into the shoes of the hundreds of people called up for real jury duty across the country every day. Despite the case being fictional, there’s a weight attached to each accusation and thought when it’s going to change the trajectory of someone’s life, and the final deliberations over if and what crime to charge Harry with are surprisingly tense, as everyone tries to justify their own opinions. Meticulously crafted, incredibly detailed, and with enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most die-hard true crime fan, Jury Games delivers an interactive experience that puts the audience in control every step of the way. It's a frantic and information-packed 90 minutes that will leave you eager to keep unpacking the details of the case long after a verdict is delivered. With Jury Games, we'd be more than happy to take our seats and fulfil our civil duty all over again. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Jury Games runs at Theatre Deli until 28th December 2025. Tickets are priced from £46.50 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit jurygames.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Jury Games, check out our recent Reviews.

Champagne, acrobatics, and cabaret combine to make a riotous and sexy night out in semi-immersive show Sabrage, which recently premiered at Lafayette in King's Cross. Photo: Johan Persson Sabrage, the latest show from Australian producers Strut & Fret and Southwark-based Menier Chocolate Factory, has opened its doors at Lafayette in King's Cross. Taking over a space that up until now has primarily been a music venue, it's a champagne-soaked evening of acrobatics, cabaret, comedy, singing and lip-syncing that treats its audience like extensions of the show's eight-strong cast. Within Sabrage, champagne is a running theme. The show gets its name from the ceremonial technique of slicing off the top of a champagne bottle with a sabre - an act that fittingly opens the show - and presumably, there are crates of the stuff positioned backstage, given how much is sprayed, downed and decanted throughout the evening. Photo: Johan Persson Across two hours, the show offers guests the chance to witness some wonderfully choreographed numbers from both the ensemble and the likes of Skye Ladell, whose suggestive solo performance to 'Go F**k Yourself' by Two Feet has them silhouetted against a red backdrop. There are excellent musical performances from Rechelle Mansour peppered throughout and anxiety-inducing feats of acrobatics, including foot juggling from the incredibly skilled Emma Phillips, who balances and spins four parasols followed by a large wooden table on the soles of her feet. Christian Nimri's sharp rollerskating routine transitions into an impressively high-speed aerial hoop sequence, while acrobatic duo Kimberley Bargenquast and Flynn Miller close out the show's final act with a duo straps performance that sees them hang onto and off each other as they rapidly spin above the audience. It's moments like these in which the intimacy provided by Lafayette's size comes into its own. With so little distance between the performers and the crowd, the skill and expertise on display from the entire cast can be taken in and appreciated all the more. Photo: Roy J Baron While Sabrage isn't billed as an immersive experience, it's structure and design lends itself to being semi-immersive, and there are plenty of moments in which the cast and the audience interact. The performers can often be seen under a spotlight leaning over Lafayette's balcony above the crowd, hanging off ladders and ledges amongst the tables, or sitting in the laps of audience members with next to no notice. In between the main acts, the hosting duo of Remi Martin (the person, not the Cognac) and Spencer Novich offer up numerous moments of explicit humour and take great joy in roping in the audience as they weave around the space. There are grapes thrown from the venue's balcony into the mouths of audience members and the cast down below, some cringe-inducing impressions coaxed out of the audience by the duo, and during a show-stopping rendition of 'Non, je ne regrette rien' from a naked Martin, who uses his.. instrument... as an instrument behind a waist-high French flag, an audience member is called upon for help picking up and handing over microphones and lotions outside of Martin's limited grasp. Photo: Johan Persson There are also a couple of big set-piece moments in Sabrage that directly involve the crowd. An on-stage pillow fight quickly spills out into the stalls, with plumes of feathers flying everywhere as performers and audience wage cushioned war against each other, and later in the show, Martin and Bargenquast, champagne bottles in hand, hang off the end of a rotating pole that spins over the crowd as bubbles fill the room. Audience members' empty champagne flutes are topped up by the pair from directly overhead, and in a moment that feels ripped from the opening of Babylon, one guest has champagne poured directly into their mouth from 10 feet in the air before Bargenquast spins away to top up more glasses. Immersive elements aside, Sabrage is a wonderful show that'll likely leave you smiling ear to ear. With some great adult humour, provocative moments and impressive feats of acrobatics on display, it ticks all the boxes for a great night out. For those looking to scratch that immersive itch with a new piece of work, there are also plenty of fun interactions for both individuals and the wider audience to engage with that feel tailor-made to ensure everyone leaves happy. Raise a glass! ★★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Photos: Johan Persson/Matt Crockett Sabrage runs at Lafayette in King's Cross. Tickets are priced from £25.00 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit feverup.com

We grab our Orbs of Interaction and step into the Nether for Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue - a new immersive experience based on the best-selling video game. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue Minecraft, the open-world sandbox game adored by kids worldwide, is far and away the best-selling video game of all time. In 2023, it was confirmed to have crossed over 300 million sales, massively outselling its closest rival, Grand Theft Auto V, by around 125 million sales, and despite being 14 years old, it has a monthly player count larger than the population of most countries. While fans of Minecraft around the world had been eagerly anticipating the opening of A Minecraft Movie, those in London had another reason to be excited: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue has also just opened. Following a successful run in Dallas last year, this immersive Minecraft experience has its UK & European premiere at Corner Corner - a new venue in what's quickly becoming one of the defacto locations for new immersive experiences in London - Canada Water. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue Aimed primarily at families, Villager Rescue invites guests to step into the Minecraft universe, where they're tasked with saving a group of villagers who have been infected by a zombie horde. Taking on the role of heroes, guests must work to craft a cure before time runs out while going through seven different rooms that are lifted directly from the game's diverse world. It all begins with the Orb of Interaction - a glowing handheld device that acts as a multi-tool throughout the experience. With the flick of a wrist, it's able to chop down trees, craft items, open chests, fight mobs, act as a bow and arrow and sword, and transport resources. Following an introductory video featuring a duo of Minecraft characters, Tobin and Dayo, guests enter a woodland-themed training room to learn how to use their Orbs first-hand. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue With 360-degree projections on the walls and floor being rendered live in Unreal Engine, guests interact with the environment by waving or shaking their Orb of Interaction when standing on marked spots and can pick up items projected onto the floor by stepping on them. What these actions do depends on which item on the projected screens becomes highlighted - a tree will be chopped down for wood, an enemy knocked onto their back and despawned. The responsiveness of this project game world is pretty good, though sometimes you'll find yourself waving the Orb with nothing happening as a result. In what would soon become a running theme of our visit to Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, the younger visitors in our larger group were running around collecting wood and stomping on projected apples with speed and dedication while the adults in the group took a more laid-back approach to resource gathering, likely aware that we'd need to preserve our energy for what was to come. With training complete, Tobin and Dayo guide guests through crafting tools and weapons by tapping their Orbs on chests or furnaces to collect resources and then placing them into the correct crafting table slots. It's a frantic game in which each crafting table is scored individually, allowing some light-hearted competition between guests. All of those resources are later used to expand and grow the village, which is presented on touch-screen displays in the following room. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue Those already familiar with Minecraft will likely be aware of what happens to the village once nightfall comes - a zombie siege spells disaster for the village population and gives guests their quest for the remainder of the experience: save the villagers (hence the experience's title..) Moving through different Overworld biomes, including a forest, tundra, and mines, guests continue to gather further resources by using their Orbs of Interaction to open chests, chop down sugar canes and beat up spiders. At the show's midpoint, the most complicated room (for those unfamiliar with the game) has guests crafting Obsidian to build a portal into the Nether by combining water and lava. The Obsidian is transferred onto a portal until it fully lights up, which allows us to move out of the Overworld. Throughout the experience, there are a dozen or more real-world objects - like the portal - that respond to guests Orb's, which adds a much-needed element of tactility to the otherwise projection-heavy experience. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue From there, it's a hop, skip and jump across a floor made of lava to fight a mob in an arcade-style game that has guests throwing felt 'snowballs' at a projection of Wither Skeletons, Zombie Pigmen and finally, Blaze, in a fire-filled landscape. Regardless of people's familiarity with Minecraft, this portion of the experience is the most engaging and fun - it's also the only section that the Orbs are needed for. The previously mentioned energy conserved by the adults in our group was all but expelled following this section, with numerous comments about the experience being like a workout between older visitors. The younger guests showed no signs of flagging though... Rounding off the experience, all of our gathered resources are brewed into a potion to save the villagers, with a practical Brewing Stand letting off smoke to show its completion. All visitors to Villager Rescue, regardless of age, are given a unique 25-digit code to redeem a Minecraft Experience Digital Cape in-game, which is a nice souvenir of their visit for Minecraft players. Photo: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue Judging by how much fun the younger members of our group were having, Villager Rescue delivers exactly what it promised: an opportunity for fans to step into the world they've spent countless hours exploring digitally in real life. While the experience might not convert non-gamers, it's packed with dozens of nods and small references to the original game that will delight long-time players. The opportunity to run around and play within such a faithfully crafted environment will also have a lot of younger die-hard fans smiling from ear to ear. If you have kids who love Minecraft, you probably don't need this review to tell you if they'll enjoy it - as they almost certainly will. For adults who are unfamiliar with the game and are without kids, the likes of Immersive Gamebox or Escape Arcade will likely offer a more rewarding (though equally exhausting) experience. Photos: Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue ★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue runs at Corner Corner in Canada Water until 4th January 2026. Tickets are priced from £27.00 for Adults and £22.00 for Children. To find out more and book tickets, visit minecraftexperience.com/london For more reviews of immersive experiences like Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, check out our recent reviews.

The smash-hit immersive exhibition depicting Tutankhamun's journey into the afterlife arrives in the UK for a 14-week run at Immerse LDN. Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition This review is from the London run of Tutankhamum: The Immersive Exhibition In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. That discovery - which is regarded as one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds - quickly turned the little-known pharaoh into one of the most famous people in the world some 3,000 years after his death and sparked an interest in Ancient Egypt previously not seen by the general public - a phenomenon dubbed 'Tutmania'. Now, a little over 100 years on from Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition has arrived in London for a 14-week run at Immerse LDN below the Excel Centre. The exhibition has been on a world tour over the last few years and has already surpassed over 1.8 million visitors - a staggering number that shows the public's interest in Tutankhamun is as strong as ever. A mix of 360-degree immersive projections, virtual reality, and holograms alongside more traditional displays of replicas, Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition promises to transport visitors back to Ancient Egypt in a way those who have attended previous exhibitions on King Tut could only have dreamed of. Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition The opening rooms of Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition looks a lot like any other museum exhibition. Large wall-mounted panels provide information and context about Tutankhamun, their place in Egyptian civilisation, and their lineage; glass cabinets house numerous objects, and in the centre of the room is a golden funerary mask and sarcophagus. While nearly all of the items on display at this exhibition are, in fact, replicas (the originals are now part of a permanent collection at the Great Egyptian Museum in Giza), they give you an appreciation for the care and detail put into all the objects left to help the pharaoh on his journey into the afterlife. Further into the exhibition, the focus shifts to Howard Carter and explores his life leading up to and following the discovery of the tomb. Most of his excavations were funded by English aristocrat George Herbert, who had provided Carter with one final season's worth of funding just prior to the tomb's uncovering. Replicas of Carter's meticulous notes and sketches from that time are on display, which demonstrates just how methodically they worked after their discovery. Every item was catalogued, and blueprints of the tomb's layout and contents were documented with care and precision - something that was often far from the norm at the time. Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition The exhibition's main space, which offers 360-degree projections, lies behind a curtain at the far end of the traditional exhibition space. In stark contrast to some of the small trinkets and sheets of paper in the previous rooms, everything in this space is writ large. Standing 8 metres tall, the four walls of the space display an ever-changing series of bright, colourful, Instagrammable animations on a 30-minute loop. It's by far the most impressive part of Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, and will be the space visitors will likely spend most of their visit in, but it's worth noting that once visitors enter this room, the vast majority of the exhibition's educational information is now behind them. Broken up into eight chapters, covering everything from the origins of Egypt, the discovery of the tomb and the Egyptians' beliefs in life after death, the visuals constantly shift and evolve as they progress through each chapter. Nearly all of the content on offer in this room is abstract, and there's no storyline or dialogue to follow besides a brief chapter made up of footage from archival British Pathé newsreels. While the highlight of this section is Tutankhamun's journey into the realm of Osiris, in which the camera rapidly flies along the River Nile as the pharaoh journeys into the afterlife, we'd recommend staying in the space for the full 30-minute loop to get the most out of it. The room's size is quite stunning and truly engulfs your vision, absorbing you into the experience. Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition Later in the exhibition is the first of two virtual reality scenes. With visitors wearing their own headsets and seated on a swivel chair, they're free to look around as they again follow Tutankhamun's journey into the afterlife. Anyone familiar with the VR sections of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience will notice some similarities, with constantly shifting vantage points and scenes on offer as you soar through the sky. After narrowly avoiding rivers of molten lava, the climax of this scene has Tutankhamun having his soul weighed against a feather - a judgement that will decide his fate in the afterlife. VR headsets later return for another scene, which allows visitors to step into the Metaverse and explore a virtual space on foot. Starting in Howard Carter's excavation camp, they're soon transported into the tombs below. This scene works in the same way as Horizon of Khufu, a VR experience that allows visitors to explore virtual renderings of the Giza Plateau and the Great Pyramid of Giza. Walking around this space alongside a dozen or more Howard Carter avatars, all gliding around without an expression adds some light-hearted humour to this portion of the exhibition, even if it's unintentional. Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition For many years now, London hasn't been short of immersive experiences that use projections. Long before the likes of Lightroom and Frameless opened, Immersive Van Gogh showed that there's a continued appetite for these kinds of experiences. In recent years, there's been a notable shift towards more educational immersive projections, with the likes of The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks at Lightroom and the BBC Earth Experience in Earl's Court leading the way. This exhibition feels like the next step in that journey, with history being presented on a scale not often seen. While there's constant debate around just how 'immersive' these kinds of experiences really are, they undoubtedly offer a modern, engaging way to learn about the world around us that's not always possible in traditional museum spaces. Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition manages to strike a balance between being both educational and entertaining and is an enjoyable couple of hours for families and groups looking to learn (a bit) more about Ancient Egypt, their views on eternal life, and the legacy of the boy king. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition runs from 28th March to 29th June 2025 at Immersive LDN, Excel London, and will be at SEC Glasgow between 24th July and 26th October 2025. To find out more and book tickets, visit feverup.com For more coverage and reviews of experiences like Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, check out our recent Reviews.

2023's best immersive show returns in an expanded form, bigger and better than ever before. Bacchanalia is an unmissable piece of immersive theatre. Photo: Akil Wilson When Bacchanalia was first staged at Crypt in Bethnal Green back in 2023, it was a sensation. Off the back of a cast made up of some of the immersive scenes most recognisable faces and the promise of a fresh take on the Greek tragedy, the show's initial run sold out in just over two weeks - long before the doors to Thebes opened. It was an intense, intimate, and unforgettable immersive experience that proved the next generation of immersive creators could deliver shows as impactful and memorable as Punchdrunk has been doing for so long, with a fraction of the budget and resources. When we reviewed the initial run of Bacchanalia, we called it the best immersive show of 2023 and said Sleepwalk Immersive had 'captured lightning in a bottle'. With this 2025 version of Bacchanalia, which is playing at Hoxton Hall until 6th April, Sleepwalk Immersive has outdone themselves. Expanding the show with additional storylines, characters, more one-on-ones, and a hell of a lot more space, their adaptation of Euripidies' The Bacchae has improved on the version presented at Crypt in every possible way, and they've delivered one of this year's must-see immersive shows. Photo: James Lawson Bacchanalia tells the story of Dionysus - the god of wine, pleasure, and theatre - returning to their birthplace of Thebes. Angered by the city's refusal to acknowledge their divinity and seeking to punish those who wronged their mother, the arrival of Dionysus throws the House of Thebes, made up of the recently inaugurated Mayor Pentheus and their mother Agave, into chaos as they struggle to keep the god's influence over the city and themselves at bay. The audience, who all wear black hooded cloaks for the duration of the 90-minute show, has the freedom to explore the venue and follow whichever characters they wish. Sleepwalk's adaptation of The Bacchae has a distinct 1960s influence. There's a direct comparison being drawn between the rapidly growing chorus of Bacchae that Dionysus has under their spell, full of those happy to cast aside societal expectations in favour of ecstasy and radical freedom, and the Nixon-era counterculture movement that rejected mainstream culture, embraced free love, and came to define a generation. Further reinforcing this aesthetic, posters scattered around the venue for Pentheus' mayoral run that bear a striking resemblance to those Richard Nixon had during his campaign, a soundtrack made up of songs from the era, and several costume designs that have seemingly been ripped straight from '69 Woodstock all help tie together the image of '60s Americana. Photo: James Lawson In comparison to the show's previous outing at Crypt, the move to Hoxton Hall has afforded the show some much-needed breathing room. Within the tight confines of Crypt, there was a sense that Bacchanalia's story was far bigger than the space available - it was an epic story, forced into being told at a small scale. With their upgrade to the much more spacious Hoxton Hall, the story now has a venue far better equipped to contain it. Thematically, it's a wonderful match for a narrative about Dionysus - the god of theatre - and being able to explore the seldom-seen backstage areas of such a venue is exciting enough in its own right, but it's made all the more exciting when it's packed full of world-class performers and an audience eager to chase after them. Of course, with that increased space comes a change to how audiences will experience the show. Spread across all four floors of the Grade-II listed building, there's a lot more navigation of tight hallways and corners needed to keep up with everything going on in Thebes. It's impossible to catch everything in one visit, but for fans of Punchdrunk's work, it's no doubt a welcome return to the familiar feeling of being lost in a labyrinth of stairwells and corridors with intense FOMO. Exploration of every corner of Hoxton Hall is highly encouraged, even if it's just to avoid finding out later that there were entire areas of the venue you missed out on (something we realised had happened to us after the show...). Photo: Akil Wilson For half the audience, their introduction to Bacchanalia begins on the top floor with Agave (Fania Grigoriou), who's awoken from a nightmare and slowly begins to get ready for her son to be sworn in as Mayor of Thebes. At the same time, several floors below, Pentheus (Christian Loveless) is sitting with an old friend, Tiresias (Fionn Cox-Davis), who's recently returned to the city and brings with him news about the 'divine crusade' he had been tracking on his journey home. Pentheus, who's on the verge of being officially made mayor, is dismissive, believing that Dionysus (Peter Broughton) is neither a god nor a threat to the citizens of Thebes. It'll come as little surprise that Dionysus is, in fac,t both, and the city will soon be succumbing to his wishes. Photo: Akil Wilson Nearly all of Bacchanalia's biggest moments, including Pentheus' inauguration as mayor and the show's climactic final moments, now take place both on the raised stage and in the centre of Hoxton Hall's Main Hall. With a two-tiered balcony overlooking the space, audience members can view these scenes from up in the gods or experience them up close on the ground floor as if they were citizens of Thebes. Having the space to let these key scenes spread out over a much larger area than at Crypt makes it far easier for audiences to get a clear vantage of what's happening, and the space's verticality allows moments like the arrival of Dionysus (Peter Broughton), who first appears under a spotlight on the first floor before sprinting through the balcony seating and down the stairs onto the ground floor, to shine. There's also a whole host of moments that happen in the small confines of Hoxton Hall's backstage area that weren't present in the show's previous outing. Tiresias, who makes use of every surface and ledge throughout Hoxton Hall's stairwells as they traverse the venue's multiple floors, is a wonderful expansion on the similar scenes in Bacchanalia's Crypt run, which were limited to a small staircase at the rear of the main space. As for the power struggle between Dionysus and Pentheus, the wonderfully tense interrogation scene between the pair, which now takes place behind a closed door for a select few, is a highlight. With Pentheus believing he has the upper hand over a disguised Dionysus, his confidence and self-righteousness are felt with every line, right up until Dionysus' voice settles back into its usual cadence and the mask drops. Photo: James Lawson Nymph (Ruth Howard) and Xanthias (Jordan Ajadi), who make up the chorus of Bacchae and are never far from Dionysus' side, both move around the venue with abandon and grace thanks to Howard's excellent movement direction. The pair twist and throw their bodies in symmetry, perfectly encapsulating their devotion to Dionysus, who will often command them with the flick of a wrist or pointed finger. For Agave, their slow descent into becoming one of Dionysus' followers is portrayed brilliantly by Fania Grigoriou, who sells the enchantment Agave finds themselves under in the latter half of the show with zero inhibition and plays the family matriarch with warmth and love in the first half - something that makes their actions in the show's final moments all the more impactful. The biggest additions to the show's story come in the form of Semele (Maya McQueen) and their former lover, Zeus (played by Rob McNeill), who is the only new character added for the Hoxton Hall run. While Semele was present in the Crypt version of Bacchanalia, their story has been expanded considerably, with numerous scenes in which Zeus and Semele tenderly push and pull against each other, as well as moments where Semele can silently observe the citizens of Thebes. Photo: James Lawson Bacchanalia has been a project seven years in the making for Sleepwalk's Artistic Director Sebastian Huang. From humble beginnings as a show for one audience member first conceived during his studies, through to the two sold-out runs at Crypt and now, taking over Hoxton Hall, it's clear that his passion for adapting The Bacchae into an immersive form has borne fruit. Bacchanalia is an unmissable immersive show that's up there with the best work London has to offer, and with this latest iteration of the show, the Sleepwalk team have firmly established themselves as some of the city's best new creators. ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Bacchanalia runs at Hoxton Hall until 6th April 2025. Tickets are priced from £54.00 and can be purchased here. For more information about the show, visit sleepwalkimmersive.com

Leo Doulton's collection of highly improvisational, operatic shows gives audiences the chance to influence and shape their wyrd worlds in unique ways. Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton The Uncanny Things Trilogy is a series of shows fusing immersive theatre with operatic performance. Set within a world very similar to ours, each show invites audiences to come face-to-face with an Uncanny Thing, a supernatural being that has the power to change and shape the world around it in both positive and negative ways. Through a series of rituals, bargains, and deals, audience members are given the freedom to decide how each show unfolds, with the consequences of those choices potentially impacting the other shows in the trilogy. With a cast of five performers, all of the cast's dialogue is delivered through improvised song, though the audience is under no obligation to also sing. Taking place across several tunnels beneath Southwark Bridge at COLAB Tower near London Bridge, the audience takes on the role of local residents who are there to help decide how best to manage the power and influence the Uncanny Things have over the borough and its residents. Over the course of three evenings, we attended all three shows in the trilogy, which includes Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (first performed at COLAB Tavern in 2022), Come Worship Our Uncanny King (first performed as part of Voidspace Live 2024), and Come Murder An Uncanny Thing (which debuted at COLAB Tower during this run). All three shows put the community in a different position of power against the Uncanny Things and offer unique ways of interacting with and shaping the world. Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton While the trilogy can be approached in any order, Come Bargain With Uncanny Things acts as the logical introduction to this wyrd world. With deep lore, a whole host of mechanics and information to quickly get your head around, and a sense that the decisions made by audiences can have real consequences (both positive and negative), it may initially be an overwhelming experience for those who are unfamiliar with the kind of folklore that deals with fae, changelings and hellkins. At the start of the show, the community is presented with two requests from local residents that they need to investigate. During our visit, these included an elderly woman hoping to be granted more time to connect with her family before passing and a blossom tree whose glowing leaves were concerning those who lived nearby. In order to deal with these requests, the audience must get advice and guidance from Guildmaster McCall (CN Lester), The Wyrd Gazer (Amy Kearsly), and Carol (Sarah Griffin), the local council representative, as to how best to approach the unwieldy Uncanny Thing, who will seek out any loophole possible to push back against the community's demands. For the community to achieve what it wants, it needs to stay on top of what's happening in all corners of the space. Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton Those working with The Wyrd Gazer must plan and enact small rituals to gain valuable information from the Uncanny Thing, as well as solve puzzles to craft potions that temporarily change the Uncanny Thing's form. This informs how those working alongside Guildmaster McCall approach the Uncanny Thing for the larger invocations to solve the community requests, as that valuable information on its true nature informs how best to approach it. Those creating small, handmade offerings for the Uncanny Thing need to also be aware of any new information gained from the other groups so its likes and dislikes can be taken into account when trying to win its favour. Audience members who have experience playing games like Dungeons & Dragons or regularly do roleplaying games will likely find it easier to get their heads around all of this information, but those who haven't dabbled in those worlds may at first be overwhelmed and confused about how to best approach these tasks. Given the improvised nature of each performance's narrative, which again is based entirely on what the audience decides to do, missteps can have fairly costly ramifications. This cycle of receiving requests, planning offerings, potions, and rituals repeats three times across the course of Come Bargain, giving the audience time to get their head around the show's intricacies. By the third and final request of the evening, our audience had seemingly mastered their respective roles, which allowed us to temporarily communicate with the recently deceased Angela, the elderly woman whose initial request we had not chosen at the beginning of the evening. Helping her children get some much-needed closure was a fittingly poignant ending to the show, and it showed that helping the individuals within a community can be just as meaningful as helping the collective. Overall, the tone of Come Bargain balances being both ominous and haunting, yet inviting. CN Lester and Amy Kearsly's operatic, improvised performances throughout the show, which take the form of both individual pieces to smaller groups and as a duo during the invocations, go a long way to creating this atmosphere. Often, the pair's ethereal hums will echo throughout the space, acting as a backing for the snarls and growls coming from the Uncanny Thing (Leo Doulton), which remains bound within a circle at the far end of the space for the show's duration. Come Worship Our Uncanny King (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton The second show in the Uncanny Things Trilogy, Come Worship Our Uncanny King, is much lighter fare. With the Uncanny King sitting atop a throne in the centre of the space, the community is there to give praise and thanks to the supernatural ruler. There's no justice being sought, no scheming and underhand tricks to be wary of, and no duty to do right by anyone other than the King. We have found ourselves in their court, and we are there to entertain them. Structurally, the show shares a lot of similarities with Come Bargain, though the stakes are a lot lower and the mechanics are simpler. The audience once again splits off into smaller groups to work on various activities against the clock, which are later presented to the Uncanny King. Those into arts and crafts will naturally be drawn to creating offerings with Adorer (CN Lester), while elsewhere in the space, the community will also work on creating short processionals such as toasts, hymns, and performances with The Master of Processionals (Hester Dart) that highlight the best qualities of the Uncanny King. Additionally, debates on a selection of topics decided by the King give the community further chances to pander to the King's ego, with them making the final ruling on whose argument was the strongest. Come Worship Our Uncanny King (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton Come Worship Our Uncanny King is billed as a comedic farce, which is fitting. With much less of a focus on trying to help the wider community of Southwark, the cast has much more room to play with the audience's suggestions and build upon their light-hearted creations. During our visit, an offhand comment about us having a pair of cats at home quickly spiralled into an extended dialogue throughout the court about their virtues, which culminated in an improvised choir of operatic meows from CN Lester and Hester Dart. Given so much of the show's content is decided by the audience's choices, cats became a running theme throughout the rest of the performance, with both audiences and cast harking back to these moments throughout the evening. Later in the show, following a suggestion from the King that they'd like to see us create a competition in their honour, a wordplay-based game was presented to the court, with all of the participants, including a wordless Silent (Sarah Griffin), who took part with gestures instead of words, slowly bowing out to let the King win. It was a sycophantic decision from the audience to throw the game in the King's favour, but it was rewarded handsomely with boons, which allowed the King's court to have their wishes and desires granted. Come Worship Our Uncanny King (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton Rounding off the trilogy, Come Murder An Uncanny Thing sees the community return to seeking justice for the people of Southwark. With The Vigilante (Amy Kearsley) having bound an injured Uncanny Thing, the group must decide what to do with the dangerous being now in their control. From the outset, it's made clear that the Uncanny Thing has caused great pain to the people of the borough, with direct mention of the events that unfolded in Come Bargain, and the show's central tension is formed around the question of whether we should be kind or cruel to it. In this show, the audience holds the greatest amount of power over the Uncanny Thing, and without the oversight of council officials, have much more freedom to decide how best to use its powers without any of the red tape present in Come Bargain. Come Murder An Uncanny Thing (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton For those looking to enact vigilante justice, crafting remedies will punish the Uncanny Thing. Bound to enact what we as an audience wish it to, there is again total freedom for visitors to shape the narrative of the show. Suggestions that it should remove its own teeth or feel the pain it's inflicted on others as retribution were offered up by the audience during our visit. Those instead looking to create positive outcomes from the Uncanny Things bounding can craft uses for the Uncanny Thing to enact with The Lawful (Hester Dart), such as reducing the pain of those in the local hospital or providing shelter to the area's homeless population. All of these remedies and uses come at a price, however. The Uncanny Thing will assign a value to each request based on how much of its finite power it will take to enact. As an audience, we don't know exactly how much power it has to give before destroying itself, so all of our choices remain hypothetical in the first half of the show, with a final decision needed after the show's interval. Come Murder An Uncanny Thing (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton That central tension of Come Murder - whether to use the Uncanny Thing's power to better the world around us or use it to punish itself - comes to a head in the second half of the show. All of our propositions must be debated and weighed up against one another. The Uncanny Thing will decide the order in which it enacts the remedies and uses, so not everything we demand of it may be possible before it dies. Conflicts of opinion between the audience are a given, with them trying to balance helping the community with punishing the Uncanny Thing for what it's done. There are conflicting ideas from the cast also, with The Vigilante and The Lawful clashing on what the best course of action is, acting like an angel and demon on the shoulder of each audience member. We'd wager most audiences will ultimately want to mine the Uncanny Thing for as much as they can, be it positive or negative, without showing the supernatural being mercy, so the question becomes how much can be achieved before its death. Come Murder An Uncanny Thing (2025) Photo: Claire Shovelton Having now spent roughly 7 hours inside the wyrd world of The Uncanny Things Trilogy, the thing that's really stuck with us is how much freedom each show affords its audience. When we interviewed Virtually Opera's Leo Doulton last month, he referenced Parabolic Theatre's 2019/2022 show Crisis, What Crisis? as a key influence that informed the creation of this work, and that is certainly present throughout each part of the trilogy. It's rare that a creator is willing to hand over total control of a show to the audience, let alone three shows. By offering the audience that freedom, it allows them to forge their own path and take real ownership of what unfolds. It's a testament to the show's cast and crew that each show doesn't spin off into chaos, unless, of course, that's what the audience decides they want to do... ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] The Uncanny Things Trilogy runs until 30th March 2025 at COLAB Tower near London Bridge. Standard tickets for each show are priced at £45, with tickets for all three shows available as a bundle for £105. For more info and to book tickets, visit designmynight.com Read more reviews of immersive experiences like The Uncanny Things Trilogy here.

The exceptionally well-crafted Phantom Peak delivers another outstanding season of open-world adventures with JonaCon. Photo: Alistair Veryard With JonaCon, Phantom Peak has entered its 12th full season since opening in Summer 2022. An open-world immersive experience that invites visitors to engage with the numerous residents of the town, interact with off-kilter pieces of tech and solve puzzles while completing any or all of each season's 10 new trails. It's pretty much the closest thing you can get to stepping into a real-life video game, and it continues to one-up itself season after season. With probably their strongest set of story trails yet, Phantom Peak has never been better (though we've been saying that with basically every season since it first opened..). While Phantom Peak's Autumn and Winter seasons have always been tied to the real-life events we have 'over the ridge' with Hallowed Peak and Wintermas, Spring and Summer are when the show's creative team can let loose with their own, original overarching themes. Previous seasons have featured the Platypus Parade, which saw the opening of Platyworld, a platypus-themed exhibition (which was actually a front for JonaLabs) and The Festival of Innovation, which had the town's residents presenting bonkers inventions such as The Fear Finder and ProstleBot in a science fair-style competition. JonaCon may be their most out-there theme yet... After tense negotiations and after bidding well over the odds, Phantom Peak has been chosen as the host town for JonaCon, a convention-cum-celebration of JONACO's head honcho, Jonas. There's a lot worth celebrating too - with JONACO recently having mounted a successful mission to space, mended relations with Wintermas demigod Father Platmas, and seemingly thwarted an attempted uprising from anti-JONACO group The Resistance in recent seasons. Huge banners adorn the town's main square, paying homage to the Sun Daddy himself, and groups of tourists have taken to cosplaying as Jonas to really get into the spirit of the convention. Photo: Alistair Veryard By way of summary for those new to Phantom Peak, the town used to be home to a local company, Miramine, which mined for a powerful substance called Diamant below the surface of the town. Following the unexpected death of sausage-fingered Mayor Furbish in a blimp crash, Jonas and JONACO swooped in and ousted Miramine. With them came a series of innovations and changes throughout town that are still present today. While some townsfolk love Jonas and all he's done for the town, others remain sceptical. There's a boatload more backstory we could explain, but this review would be 15,000 words long, and that's all you really need to know if you're a first-time visitor. As previously mentioned, Phantom Peak's new set of story trails are some of the strongest they've ever created. Thanks to the regular changeover of available trails with each new season, Phantom Peak's writing team are able to incorporate and build upon the elements of the previous season guests loved the most. The standout new character from last year's Wintermas season, Sherlock Bones - a dog puppet parodying Sherlock Holmes (though surely you realised that by the name alone..) - makes a welcome return in the trail 'Bad To The Bone', which sees Sherlock battling their nemesis, Meowiarty, on the cliffs of the Reichenbark Falls in dramatic Punch and Judy fashion. Fans of Wicked will find great delight in 'Unpopular', which features a full-length parody of the musical's song that's aimed directly at one of the townsfolk, Perigate, who has long grappled with their position in the town's social hierarchy. Photo: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in town, Phantom Peak's Videomatic machines, which play pre-recorded video content when a valid 4-digit code is correctly entered, have some exceptionally well-crafted films. We're introduced to the grandfather of long-time fan favourite Dr Winter (who looks suspiciously like Dr Winter, just in a bald cap) in 'Too Fast, Too Furrious', and a tense recreation of a basketball game made with a cast of puppets and a selection of the show's gift shop plush toys as a crowd in 'Winner Takes It All', delivers some of the season's biggest laughs. Phantom Peak also doesn't shy away from lampooning and commenting on the world outside the show throughout its trails, touching on everything from the emotional manipulation of television show contestants in a video package for Phantom Peak's version of Great British Bake Off, to calling out the likes of Mr Beast for their use of young children's attention for monetary gain. Photo: Alistair Veryard Every trail zips along at an enjoyable pace, providing plenty of opportunities to interact with Phantom Peak's various townsfolk, who are the backbone of the experience. With a cast fully committed to improvising and responding to whatever they're being asked by tourists, every interaction with the town's residents is a delight. As with so many immersive experiences, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it, so don't shy away from interacting with the show's cast whenever you get a chance, even if they're not directly tied into the trail you're working through. With a very generous 4+ hours to explore the town every session, Phantom Peak allows guests to take things at their own pace. There's no danger of missing any big set-piece moments while in the town, as each trail's pace is driven entirely by however fast or slow any given group decides to work through the storylines. There are also plenty of distractions to pull guests away from the main storylines, with a fully functional arcade, a trio of carnival games, a bar with an extensive menu of cocktails and numerous food options courtesy of RoboChef, and add-on experiences including a Cocktail Experience and Puzzle Hunt. Photo: Alistair Veryard Late last year, when the pre-sale for this Spring season of Phantom Peak first opened, it was announced as the final season of Phantom Peak at their current Canada Water home. Since then, they've managed to secure an extension at their massive 30,000 sq. ft venue, with the previously planned final season now on hold for a little while longer. The team behind the show are currently working on locking in a new location for the show elsewhere in East London, seemingly confirming that the world of Phantom Peak has a lot of life left in it yet. Regular readers of Immersive Rumours will know our feelings on Phantom Peak have never wavered. It's the best immersive experience London has to offer and is the crown jewel in the city's immersive scene. An unrivalled experience that continues to deliver season after season, Phantom Peak is deeply rewarding for both first-time visitors and die-hard fans. Praise Jonas! ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Photos: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's JonaCon season runs until 11th May 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more about the show, and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak, check out our recent Reviews.

R Space Production's latest show invites guests to take part in a series of 'pained conundrums' against the clock in this immersive horror prequel. Photo: R Space Productions This review contains mild spoilers for the contents of DEATHCELL: Magenta. DEATHCELL: Magenta, the latest show from R Space Productions, is billed as part immersive theatre, part scare attraction and part escape room. A prequel to 2018's DEATHCELL experience, DEATHCELL: Magenta offers visitors the chance to better understand how the world of DEATHCELL came to be and how the show's titular character became the 'twisted-tinkerer' behind the rogue detention centres' life-or-death challenges. Photo: R Space Productions In the original DEATHCELL, the character of Magenta existed in the shadows. The clues were there as to her existence, but she wasn't part of the show in a tangible way. In DEATHCELL: Magenta, the focus lands squarely at her feet, and she’s present through almost every second of the hour-long experience. The experience begins on a nondescript street on Fish Island, just south of Hackney Wick. Guests are first greeted by a pair of roaming actors in neon pink and yellow trucker hats named Greg and Pee-Wee. Both are huge movie buffs and engage visitors with zippy back-and-forths about their favourite films. They're eagerly awaiting a preview screening of a new horror movie, Magenta, which is playing at Rewind Rentals - a Blockbuster-esque video rental store that's somehow still operating despite the dominance of streaming services. Photo: R Space Productions After being ushered into Rewind Rentals, guests settle in to watch the Magenta short film, which is being projected onto the back wall of the room. It's got a distinct 80's B-movie vibe, with buckets of fake blood, gruesome deaths and a particularly uncomfortable scene involving barbed wire that felt like something out of SAW. Fans of the original DEATHCELL will enjoy the numerous references made to the 2018 show, but being familiar with that show certainly isn't a requirement to enjoy the experience. While the short film provides some much-needed world-building and adequately sets the scene for what's to come, the run time is far too long. Clocking in around 25 minutes, it takes up nearly half of the experience's overall duration and will likely leave guests eager to get through it so they can try out Magenta's 'pained conundrums' for themselves. After a clever reveal of the door through to the next room, guests are dropped into the world of the film, and the escape room portion of the experience begins. Photo: R Space Productions With Magenta (Steph Ricketts) looking into each room through a sheet of plexiglass, guests are tasked with solving her series of escalating puzzles against the clock. Accompanying guests in each of these rooms are a pair of 'Flys' - masked henchmen there at the behest of the Warden who oversees DEATHCELL, and has recruited the reluctant Magenta to do his bidding. Regular escape room visitors may make light work of the numerous puzzles that fill up the back half of the show, but for those with less experience, it may prove to be a frustrating time. With the Flys and Magenta watching on as guests frantically search through cupboards, shelves and drawers for items, try to decode numerical sequences and work out the combinations to various padlocks, their presence is both a blessing and a curse. If you're really struggling, the Flys will offer up wordless clues to point you in the right direction, but Magenta is more direct with their words and will call you out if you're doing a particularly bad job (At this point, you can probably work out how well we did solving these puzzles...). Any small victories you get are amplified knowing you've got an audience watching on, but it also makes the failures sting even more. In each group, one unlucky participant will find themselves separated from the rest of their team for a portion of the show, being locked away inside a small, dark space for several minutes to try and find a solution to one of the puzzles. Their escape is entirely dependent on strong teamwork, so communication is key if they want to see the light of day again. Photo: R Space Productions The strongest moments of DEATHCELL: Magenta's puzzle-solving sections come in the final act. Guests are told to put on boiler suits and crawl on their hands and knees through an extended pitch-black crawl space. Most of the show's scares are contained in this section, with multiple dark corners playing home to masked creatures that are more than happy to invade your personal space and drag you backwards by the ankles, leaving you scrambling for an escape. Luckily for them, the exit to this crawl space is locked and requires groups to potentially backtrack to find the solution. With little more than a glowstick to light the way, turning every corner is a daunting prospect that's not for the faint of heart. DEATHCELL: Magenta's final room also offers up an intense time-pressured test by way of a chained-up Fly holding the keys to freedom. With them wildly swinging an axe at anyone who gets close, it's a challenge to retrieve the necessary items from their person successfully, and it effectively ramps up the tension before you're able to make your final escape. The conclusion of the show sees Magenta emerge from behind the plexiglass for a face-to-face confrontation with DEATHCELL's Warden. One final reveal ties the ending of this show directly into 2018's show, and guests are free to leave, having played their part in securing the fate of countless future DEATHCELL prisoners. Photo: R Space Productions If you're looking for some out-of-season scares and a challenging escape room experience, DEATHCELL: Magenta goes a long way to scratching those itches. While it wasn't the scariest immersive experience we've ever attended, and the puzzles may rely on padlocks and numbers a bit too much, the show's combination of various theatrical elements creates an experience that's trying to innovate in a very crowded market. We'll be eagerly awaiting news on the next instalment in the DEATHCELL series, and in the meantime, will try and get a little better at puzzle solving... ★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] DEATHCELL: Magenta runs from 21st February to 1st March 2025 in Hackney Wick. Tickets are priced from £30.00 for General Admission. For more info and to book, visit deathcell.co.uk