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The globally acclaimed immersive theatre producer debuts a new, intimate production in their Woolwich home that has no performers, no white masks, and an audience with no shoes. Our review of Viola's Room... Immersive Rumours received a complimentary ticket to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before  our review of Viola's Room. All thoughts are our own. Photo: Julian Abrams It's only been nine months since audiences were last invited inside One Cartridge Place in Woolwich to experience a Punchdrunk show. Set across two sprawling buildings at their new London home, The Burnt City dwarfed every other immersive production in the country in both scope and scale. It was a welcome return of the company's flagship white mask shows, with guests free to follow whichever of the twenty-five-plus characters they desired over three hours. In nearly every way possible, their latest show, Viola's Room, rejects the format fans had waited so long for before their return to London. Thematically, it's a show that touches on absence and loss, and it's chosen to make everything the company is best known for - white masks, large casts, looping structures - absent too. Photo: Julian Abrams Based on a gothic short story entitled The Moon Slave by Barry Pain, Viola's Room follows the story of Princess Viola, a teenage girl who finds herself drawn to the centre of a maze one evening and compulsively dances for hours on end after surrendering her free will to the Moon. Adapted by Booker Prize-shortlisted Daisy Johnson, Punchdrunk's version reframes the original story by first welcoming us into the teenage bedroom of a different Viola growing up in the early 1990s. With Massive Attack CDs on her bedside table and posters of The Smashing Pumpkins on her walls, her empty bedroom is revisited several times throughout the show, first falling into disarray and later being packed up entirely. In typical Punchdrunk fashion, there's no clear answer for why she's disappeared from her childhood home, but the clues we do get imply a fate not dissimilar to the Princesses'. Our introduction to Princess Viola is framed as part of a bedtime story. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and delivered via headphones, we hear of the Princess's first interactions with Hugo, the boy she later becomes engaged to, and how she pushed him into the mud while playing. We hear of the day her parents passed away, and the house was covered in black drapes to mourn their loss. We hear of how she would while away the days dancing in the hallways of the mansion. Above us, a swirl of cloud-shaped lights appears before a play tent in the corner of the room is illuminated. Photo: Julian Abrams During the pre-show briefing it's made clear that we need to always 'follow the light'—while it's an instruction for us, it was a compulsion for Viola. Crawling through the play tent, we enter Princess Viola's world. In Viola's Room, audiences are required to traverse the set without shoes or socks. Walking barefoot for the duration of the hour-long show, the feeling of ever-changing surfaces underfoot is wonderfully tactile - shag carpets soon make way for hard concrete, uneven wooden floorboards, and ankle-deep sand. Having our exposed feet be in contact with all these surfaces throughout the show not only physically connects us to the world, but evokes a feeling of vulnerability in the audience. Photo: Julian Abrams The first half of Viola's Room contains several wonderfully crafted miniatures. Lights in her mansion's windows flicker on and off, charting her movements through the building, and streetlights on the garden path leading down to the hedge maze illuminate her running to heed the Moon's call. As we progress through the story, the tiny objects and spaces we first saw in these early moments as observers become our reality, writ large before us. The most striking, an oak tree at the centre of the maze, seen first in miniature grows to the height of a house by the show's conclusion. It's little surprise that with no performers, the sound and lighting instead play a huge part in creating the foreboding atmosphere that permeates the show. While scenes in 90s Viola's bedroom are soundtracked by eery songs from the likes of Soundgarden, Tori Amos and Massive Attack, the standout musical moment is in the show's second half as a crucifix of Jesus emerges from the darkness to O Fortuna. Helena Bonham Carter's narration is the one constant throughout Viola's Room. While it's well delivered, there's always a sense of detachment between us as listeners and the story we're being told. The absence of anyone besides the groups of six that experience the show together furthers this detachment as if we're ghosts walking through a memory. Photo: Julian Abrams While the looping narrative of Punchdrunk's show is absent from Viola's Room, there is one element that seems to repeat over and over again. In a similar way to the black hallways of The Burnt City that sat between Troy and Mycenae - totally devoid of theming - Viola's Room has numerous white corridors with little more than pieces of fabric draped at eye level. When so much of the set has been crafted with painstaking attention to detail, these corridors seem to do nothing but move audiences to another area without doing anything to build out the world further. Viola's Room isn't the first time Punchdrunk have tackled The Moon Slave. In 2000, when the company was still in its infancy, it staged a version for an audience of four people over four nights. Just like Viola's Room, the show had a reliance on darkness and selective lighting, a pre-recorded soundscape delivered via headphones and next to no cast. The success of that show left a lasting impression on Punchdrunk's Creative Director, Felix Barrett, who described it as "the most pure, distilled version of a Punchdrunk show". It's little wonder that 24 years later, they've decided to revisit the idea for a much wider audience to experience for the first time. While it likely won't develop the same devoted following that its large-scale shows have, Punchdrunk has delivered a show that lives up to its usual high standard. While we'd recommend familiarising yourself with the source material first to get the most out of it, Viola's Room is an experience people should dive into (bare) feet first. ★★★★ Viola's Room will run until 23rd December at One Cartridge Place in Woolwich. Tickets are on sale via punchdrunk.com ,  priced from £28.50 per person. To keep up to date on the latest immersive experiences in London, follow us on Instagram .

With A Most Mechanical Murder returning for one night only this June at Phantom Peak, we interrogate Moonstone Murder Mysteries Creative Director Sam Emmerson on how to craft the perfect immersive murder mystery event. Immersive Rumours: Hi Sam. Thanks for sitting down with us today. Do you mind letting us know how long Moonstone Murder Mysteries has been running and how many shows you've launched since it first started? Sam Emmerson: It was Halloween 2017 when we first launched in London and the Southeast, but there's a Moonstone Theatre company in the South West of England that's been going for 15 years now. I was with them for a couple of years before starting it up here. Moonstone Theatre Company very much comes from a dining experience background, and it's in the last few years that we've moved more into the immersive experience game. I actually lost track of it at one point, but we've launched around 30 shows to date. IR: How do you go about devising and scripting that many shows? Sam: Generally, either a strong coffee or a large glass of wine tends to help. One of the things that's quite interesting about how we work - although we do the big immersive experiences like we've got coming up with A Most Mechanical Murder, and when we previously did Cyanide In The Speakeasy last year, we mainly do things for private parties and a lot of it is bespoke stuff. For about 1/3 of our shows, the clients will say 'Look, we want to do a show for our venue' or 'It's our 60th birthday' or 'We're getting married. We'd love to do a murder mystery in this sort of world, or this sort of theme' so you get a bit of a jumping-off point there. Alternatively, for the two new dining experiences that we've got for this year, we were just spitballing ideas and going, "What areas have we not touched yet that we think would be popular?" That's why we've got a show set around horse racing and the other one set like in a Renaissance Fair LARPing festival. So do you typically start at a concept or setting and work backwards? Sam: That's the way of creating shows that I find works best because ultimately - for a murder mystery in particular - although there are so many different avenues you can go down, in terms of creating motives there are only really 10 different categories that it can fall into. The order I always go in is to figure out the world that you're in, and then who would then fit into that world. Once you've got that established, then you find the link. That's why the more unique the setting, the more fun you can have. The hardest ones to write, to be honest, are the really generic ones. If it's set in an office, we've got nothing to build off. We did a live lockdown series on Zoom for 12 weeks where we played a new show every week and some of them were 'What are the strangest settings we can think of?'. One was set on the sound stage of a children's TV studio where a clown had been suffocated with a custard pie. Because of the bizarreity of it, you can be so playful with the options there. Moonstone Murder Mysteries Zoom Shows. Photos: Moonstone Murder Mysteries At the end of June you're running A Most Mechanical Murder at Phantom Peak in Canada Water. Can you give us a brief overview of the storyline for the show? Sam: The premise of A Most Mechanical Murder is that the town of Phantom Peak has gathered for the funeral of a murdered robot. However, as the last rights and the user warranty are being read, they realise someone's not there and the Health and Safety Officer of the town has also been found murdered. Fortunately, Inspector Rutherford just happened to be in town at the time, and goes 'Whilst I'm here, I've called on my detectives across the land to come into Phantom Peak to solve the case'. So the audience then set about solving both a human murder and a robot murder at the same time. With A Most Mechanical Murder, the show is set within the universe of Phantom Peak. What kind of things did you have to consider when taking over another shows space for one of your shows? Sam: Firstly, the venue is amazing. Because Phantom Peak is such a unique and big world, it gives us so many different ideas about where we could go. The challenge is making sure that anyone who'd been to Phantom Peak before believed that this had some link to that world without getting too bogged down in the huge amount of lore and information that it already has within it, while also having it so people who'd never been to Phantom Peak before weren't isolated. When we ran it previously, about 1/3 of the guests came because of Phantom Peak, 1/3 came because of us, and 1/3 had just booked because they liked the look of the show but hadn't been to one of our events or Phantom Peak before. It's a little bit of a balancing act with those sorts of shows. Our story is outside of the Phantom Peak canon, and the way we explained that was the dumbest way we could think of. When anyone who had been to Phantom Peak before asked us where the town's usual townsfolk were, we told them they'd gone off to compete as part of the Rhythmic Gymnastics team for the Jonalympics. Photo: Alistair Veryard When you take over a space, how do you make sure it's clear what is part of your world, and what's just part of the venues you've taken over? Sam: Well, the last time we did the show was a little bit like herding cats at one point because Phantom Peak's got things like Videomatic codes written everywhere - we made it explicitly clear that if we tell you it's a clue, it's a clue. If you find it randomly spray-painted in a corner of a dark room, it's not a clue. People would still do it, but I love it despite the confusion it caused because it meant people were really into the game that they were playing. When we did Cyanide In The Speakeasy at the COLAB Tavern in 2023, we had the space for three nights a week. COLAB Tavern had a lot of nooks and crannies from previous shows at the venue, and we had a whole thing where you snuck through the back door to get into the speakeasy. On the first night we did the show, someone found a cabinet filled with fake guns that we didn't know existed, and we also had people coming up to me with random little bottles of poison and I was going "Where did you find this?!" and they'd say "Oh, it was behind that locked door." Cyanide In The Speakeasy at COLAB Tavern. Photos: Moonstone Murder Mysteries This is the second time that you're mounting A Most Mechanical Murder. What were the big takeaways from when it ran previously? Sam: Fortunately, as a whole, it worked very well! There's a couple more interactive elements that we're currently looking to develop so there's always something to do. We only used the indoor space last time, this time we're opening it up to use indoor and outdoor so there's a nicer audience flow. When it's a murder mystery, everyone is 'Okay, go, go, go.' So we're trying to make it clearer to take it at your own pace. You don't have to be running around constantly the whole time because you knacker yourself out by the start of the second half! Sam Emmerson as Inspector Rutherford. Photo: Moonstone Murder Mysteries Your cast is made up of comedic improvisers. How much freedom do they have to go off-script when interacting with guests? I imagine there's a balancing act of improvising and still having to hit specific story beats. Sam: We give our team probably a much longer leash than most companies do. With A Most Mechanical Murder, the actual script is three times the size of a standard Moonstone Murders script. There are scenes that are scripted and will play out - basically the top, the middle and the end of the show where everyone's together. When they're on their own, they have certain points to hit, but they never know what's going to be asked. If an audience member wants to go down a completely random rabbit hole, our actors will go with them. If they want to go and just drill them on facts of the case, they'll also go with it, because it's their night, and it's how they want to play. It's a game within a show, but it's a show at the end of the day. If people get it wrong, that's entirely on them at the end of the night, but if that's the way you people to enjoy our show, we're more than happy to go with them on it. My ethos with our shows is 'Did you get it? Great. Did you get it wrong? Oh well. Did you have fun?'. Moonstone Murder Mysteries run events all over the country. Have you noticed a different between how regional audiences approach the shows compared to London audiences, who might attend immersive experiences more regularly? Sam: Our audience is on the whole quite a broad church and you never quite know what you're going to get. I find London audiences - and I mean this in a good way - they make you work a bit harder sometimes. Whereas sometimes when you go to a place that doesn't have as much available, it's got a different atmosphere to it. I think the great thing with London audiences, especially when you're surrounded with immersive theater fans, is that they will stress test what you've got in every which way. You get a different satisfaction from knowing that things truly do work under that stress test. Murder mysteries seem to have an enduring popularity through all kinds of media. What about them do you think has allowed them to remain so popular and for Moonstone Murder Mysteries to do so well? Sam: One is the curiosity for the morbid in all of us, I think. Because something like murder is so abhorrent, none of us could ever imagine doing it. It becomes almost fantasy, in a sense. That's why our shows are lighthearted - you'd never set a murder mystery experience in a modern-day setting where someone's been in a gang fight or someone's been stabbed. But if you set it on a train in the 1930s and everyone's wearing outfits and doing silly accents and having it off at the back of the train, then that's all kosher - that's good to go. On a lighter level, I think especially the British, we're just very nosy people. So when someone goes 'This has happened, I'm not going to tell you the answer to it.' It's that curiosity of 'I've got to know now', and an actual murder mystery most of the time is just fun. When someone admits to a murder in real life, everyone is appalled. It's a very sombre moment. When someone admits to a murder at the end of a murder mystery event, generally someone will shout 'Hang him!'. You get what I mean? There's a very big difference between reality and fiction. A Most Mechanical Murder runs at Phantom Peak in Canada Water on Thursday 27th June 2024. Tickets start at £36.50 and can be purchased here. Thanks to Sam Emmerson for taking the time to speak with us.

Punchdrunk have today announced Helena Bonham Carter as the narrator for the world premiere of their new production, Viola’s Room. The show opens at the company’s home in Woolwich this May for a limited run. The narration is pre-recorded and audiences will be guided by Helena’s voice, scripted by Daisy Johnson, through headphones. In Viola’s Room, barefoot, and wearing headphones, small groups of up to six at a time will feel their way through a maze-like installation as an unseen narrator guides them on a sensory journey to reveal a story of innocence lost and obsession unleashed. Written by Booker Prize-shortlisted Daisy Johnson, Viola’s Room reimagines Barry Pain’s classic gothic mystery The Moon-Slave for a new audience. Image: Punchdrunk ​ On being part of Viola's Room, Helena Bonham Carter said: Having long been a fan of Punchdrunk, when Felix (Barrett) shared the concept of Viola’s Room with me, I was captivated. How could I resist a gothic fairytale interpreted through Daisy Johnson’s febrile pen, layered with Punchdrunk’s incomparable sensory craft and magic?  It’s an honour to be narrating this truly unique experience.’ Punchdrunk Artistic Director Felix Barrett also said: It was a pinch me moment hearing Helena bring Daisy’s words to life. What an icon - and what a truly mesmerising enchantment she brings to Viola’s Room. I’m beyond thrilled to offer our audiences the chance to have Helena Bonham Carter whisper in their ear and delicately, deviously steward them through our dreamworld.’ The production is conceived, directed and designed by Artistic Director Felix Barrett, with co-direction by Associate Director Hector Harkness (One Night, Long Ago; The Third Day) and design by Casey Jay Andrews, who was part of the design team on The Burnt City. Working with Punchdrunk for the first time are Lighting Designer Simon Wilkinson (Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Vanishing Point’s Metamorphosis), and Sound Designer Gareth Fry (Complicité’s The Encounter; V&A’s David Bowie Is, Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser and Diva exhibitions). ​ Viola’s Room will take place at Punchdrunk’s home at One Cartridge Place, Woolwich. Viola's Room will begin previews on 14th May, and will run until 18th August in Woolwich. Tickets are on sale via punchdrunk.com, priced from £28.50 per person.

A new immersive experience is set to launch in London in March 2024. Bridge Command - which will see participants become the crew of a starship battling to save humanity - is the latest production from Parabolic Theatre, who have previously mounted immersive shows including Crisis? What Crisis? and For King and Country. With two different mission styles on offer - Military Mission and Exploration Mission, the experience with allow for an experience that matches the participants' play style. While both will involve combat, the Military Mission will focus more on ship-to-ship confrontation, with the Exploration Mission seeing the ship go where 'no other craft has gone before'. Professional actors from Parabolic Theatre will join the action as various characters that the crew meet on their journeys through space. Each participant will take on a different role within the ship within four main groups, which are... Operations Team, who are responsible for the overall running of the ship with roles including Weapons, Comms and Helm. Science Team, who will focus on the route of the ship and new findings, with roles including Navigation and Radar. Engineering Team, who will look after the maintenance with roles including Power Management and Damage Control. Command Team, who are responsible for leading the crew and making the big decisions, with roles including Captain and First Officer. The custom-built starship set will respond to events within the story - everything from enemy attacks to ship malfunctions will directly impact the physical set causing systems to break and sparks to fly. Additionally, the experience's episodic format means participants have the opportunity to continue their story in subsequent visits, with events and decisions from previous missions being remembered and influencing the content of return visits. Tickets are on sale now via bridgecommand.space. Previews begin at the end of March 2024, with dates up until mid-June currently available for booking. Prices start at £40 per person Stay up to date on this and everything else immersive in London by following us on Instagram or X.

Later this week The Space near Mudchute will become home to Your Christmas Carol Experience. With only 10 audience members enterting at a time, the show will engage with their own stories, connections, and memories as they encounter the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Ahead of the show opening, we spoke to the show's director, Kelsey Yuhara, to discuss the show's conception, how they've adapted the Charles Dickens classic, and what audience members can expect from the show. Photo: Phokal Hi Kelsey. Thanks for chatting to us. Do you mind telling us a bit about yourself? Sure! I am Kelsey Yuhara, a multi-disciplinary artist working in immersive and site-responsive performance, theatre and improvisation. I am performing regularly with Comediasians, CSI (Crime Scene Impro) and BATSU! London at the Underbelly Boulevard Theatre. Later this week Your Christmas Carol opens at The Space. Can you tell us what inspired the creation of the show? I was taking a walk on a crisp autumn day and just talking about ideas. I was walking past a church nearby where I had thought vaguely, years ago before the pandemic, about collaborating on a walk-around Christmas Carol in various locations.  This year, however, I thought about what would happen if the story was mostly about the ghosts - because I love the idea of ghosts. The more I thought about it, the more enticing it was to dive in and imagine an experience where one would be encountering their own past, present and future spirits. A Christmas Carol is a beloved festive tale, how are you planning on putting a unique spin on the story? As a theatremaker, I'm probably the last person who others would think would want to adapt a traditional tale because I love new writing and contemporary projects.  This take on the classic tale though, is truly modern. There's no Scrooge. It's not taking place in Victorian times. None of the human characters you otherwise have come to associate with Christmas Carol feature either. I explained this to someone the other day and they asked "Well, is it even still A Christmas Carol?" And I feel, yes and no. The audience in this version are in the position of Scrooge and you'll encounter your versions of memories and 'ghosts'. I don't assume that everyone is a stereotypical miser, but I do think there is an element of Scrooge or Scrooge logic in all of us - which is why it's such an enduring tale. The themes and intentions of Dickens' original story I believe come through in this take - but you're going to experience them with many of your senses (except taste unless you stay for a mulled wine in the cafe afterwards!) - and also magic and your imagination!  Essentially, even though it is based on an enduring classic, it is a thoroughly modern take, and it is Your Christmas Carol Experience (emphasis on 'your' and 'experience'). This version, I should note, is also not for the passive watcher. There is, of course, some watching, but you'll be engaging too. Photo: Phokal It's an intimate experience with only 10 audience members entering at a time - can you speak a little about how that allows you to craft a more engaging and immersive experience for guests? I was thinking about why any audience would choose to go to a live performance (as opposed to watching A Christmas Carol on Disney +, which the 2019 miniseries I also, for the record, think is great). Ten is the number in this instance, that we can reasonably fit into some of the spaces we're using. The use of these smaller spaces is also a choice and an opportunity to play with each space as its own atmosphere and world. We want the past, present and future to feel distinct and by moving into different spaces, I feel like audiences will get that sensation of going on a journey.  There is also more close interaction with performers, where dissolving the fourth wall in this case, I hope will make audiences feel more immersed in the experience and a part of it. Can you tell us a bit about the cast for the show? The cast is a wonderful mix of talents all bringing different strengths in dance, puppetry, improvisation & immersive performance, physical theatre, magic & mentalism, clown, music and choir.  It's really, really exciting to have so many skills to draw on and enhance the experiences in each space.  They're all vibrant and proactive creators in their own right and it's an honour to be working with them on this show. We have the following cast performing for you in Your Christmas Carol Experience: Time Keeper – Romer Spirits of the Past – Yuxuan Liu, Noah Silverstone and Ashlee McIntosh Lantern Bearer – Emma-May Uden Spirit of the Present – Andrew Phoenix Present Aide – Hannah Hawkins Spirit of the Future – Mahalakshmi Spirit of Now – Sofia Zaragoza What are you hoping audiences will take away from the show? I hope that, as always, we remember what we are grateful for during challenging and uncertain times; that in the depth of winter, there is a rebirth coming; to find new ones and remember to cherish the connections we hold dearest, and to reconnect with our own power over our destinies. Looking forward to the new year, what projects do you have coming up? Following this run, we would love to grow Your Christmas Carol Experience for the coming years. Lilli and I will continue to be working on Rain Weaver which is a devised production that we started last year. We'll be expanding the casting and hopefully take it to Edinburgh Fringe. There is also some new writing coming up that Lilli is producing and is excited about. At the moment, she is not allowed to disclose when and where but give TO a follow at @toentertainmentltd, and we will keep you posted. Your Christmas Carol Experience runs at The Space near Mudchute on 21st and 22nd December. Find out more about the show here. Stay up to date on this and everything else immersive in London by following us on Instagram or X.

ScreamWorks are back with The Ghost Hunt - their latest horror immersive experience in Bethnal Green. Following the success of their previous show, Bloodbath - which we reviewed earlier in the year, the creative team at ScreamWorks are swapping out serial killers for paranormal investigation for their Halloween offering. We recently spoke to Gary Stocker - the CEO of ScreamWorks, to discuss their new immersive experience, the success of Bloodbath, and their future plans for immersive horror offerings... Would you mind introducing yourself and explaining a little bit about what inspired the creation of ScreamWorks? My name is Gary Stocker and I am the CEO of ScreamWorks, although I would like to add from the outset that I am just one of a team of people all of whom work tirelessly to produce our shows and build the ScreamWorks brand. I have been producing shows for the best part of 17 years. I originally trained as a lawyer, but after a brief stint in the City I decided that the corporate life was not for me. I had previously performed in Covent Garden as a street performer and worked as a professional magician and decided that I would prefer to continue this kind of work, rather than to become a lawyer. I quit my job and shortly afterwards started a travelling circus, called Chaplin's Circus, which I toured for about 6 years. It was a narrative-driven circus in that the shows were always scripted and the cast always comprised both circus performers and professional actors. Our first show was called 'Backstage' and the audience were invited to watch a circus show from behind the curtains, learning about the history of a 1920s circus on the brink of bankruptcy and all the trials and tribulations of circus life. In the end, we rotated the stage and the audience would watch the grand finale, in which I performed as a human cannon ball! We sold the circus to a theme park in 2018, which was lucky timing in light of COVID and all that ensued. During my time as a circus proprietor, I engaged in a number of joint ventures to produce pop-up Halloween events. For example, we were involved in the Screamland launch in Margate and ScareNation's Dr Carnevil and the Circus of Fear was one of my productions - a very successful walk-through scare attraction in Watford (we had about 12,000 customers over a 2-week period). I love horror and Halloween so I always knew that I wanted to produce more immersive horror experiences. In 2022, I worked with Claudio Cecconi and my business partner William Ravara to write my first show, Bloodbath. I was heavily inspired by Punchdrunk; while I wasn't a massive fan of the Burnt City overall (please don't hate me!), I love the scale of Punchdrunk's productions and the detailed set dressing. I was however a little disappointed that some of the set dressing and props proved to be irrelevant to the story. I remember I found a set of headphones and put them on, but nothing played. There was a telephone but it didn't ring. And lots of the books and exhibits, while detailed and 'in theme', had no discernable relevance to the narrative. When I left The Burnt City I said to my friend, "I'm ready to start producing again. When I left The Burnt City I said to my friend, "I'm ready to start producing again." Photo: Punchdrunk's The Burnt City How did your experience of The Burnt City inform how you approached creating Bloodbath? My first production decision was that in my sets, everything will lead back into the narrative; I want to reward the curious. If you find a bottle of wine and have the balls to open it, enjoy! If you find some paintbrushes and want to create something, we will not stop you. For me, one of the main joys of the immersive format is that it gives us an opportunity to play. One of the early highlights of Bloodbath for me was when a customer opened the fridge and started to make themselves a ham and cheese sandwich using the ingredients they found around the house. It was not easy to make that happen. Each day I would position the ingredients in slightly different places, to try and inspire customers to help themselves. I remember telling my control room to communicate with me urgently by radio the moment that they saw a customer making a sandwich. By day 4, it finally happened! When you look at the wider industry, what do you think your shows offer that isn’t being done by other immersive productions? Our mission is to be the market-leading provider of immersive horror experiences. We want to create immersive experiences which are fully end-to-end immersive. Anything which can take you out of the story should be eliminated; with Bloodbath that meant we couldn't have security at the door or staff checking tickets. Instead, we kidnapped our customers from the street and took them to the location; after all, a serial killer would not advertise the location of his home. We even extend the immersion into customer service if necessary. With Bloodbath, if you called the customer service number you would speak either to Jack, our serial killer main character, or Abel, his deranged but weirdly endearing brother. If you sent an email, Jack would be the one to reply. This worked really well. Lots of customers felt like they already knew the characters before they attended the event, even bringing unusual gifts for the characters, which was very sweet. Photos: Scremwork's Bloodbath This pre-show immersion worked well - perhaps too well! On one occasion, an immersive theatre critic, who had come to review Bloodbath, was standing outside the venue refusing to come inside. [Editor's Note: It was not Immersive Rumours] They called the customer service number and got connected directly with Jack. They demanded to speak to our customer services team - they wanted some reassurance that Jack was not a real serial killer and that they would not die if they entered the house. Of course, Jack could only confirm that he is a real serial killer and that there is no customer service team at Bloodbath - Just Jack, Abel and Mother! They wanted some reassurance that Jack was not a real serial killer and that they would not die if they entered the house. While this was very amusing and demonstrated that we had done a great job setting up the immersion of our narrative, in retrospect we probably lost a lot of potential customers by being a bit too scary. However, the customers who were brave enough to step into Jack and Abel's crazy world, loved this aspect of our show, so it is not a decision I regret. We are a few days into The Ghost Hunt being open to the public - how has the process of getting the show to this point been? How did the experience of putting on Bloodbath influence the creation of this show? The set for the Ghost Hunt is by far the most elaborate set we have ever built. We have effectively built an entire 10-room house. We worked so hard to get it finished on time, and I am so proud of myself and my team. We learned a lot from Bloodbath, and so it certainly inspired the logistics of this event, but at the same time, the show itself is entirely different. Poster for The Ghost Hunt You really will get out of this show what you put into it. If you really engage with the set and the characters you will find a fascinating and multi-layered narrative (as well as a few well-crafted jump scares to keep you on your toes) Can you give us a hint of what to expect from The Ghost Hunt? The Ghost Hunt is a Halloween experience which takes place in the former home of the Luff family, all but one of whom lost their lives in a horrific murder-suicide on 31 October 1937. Armed with torches, guests are invited to explore this abandoned house to discover for themselves what happened on that fateful night. Unlike Bloodbath, The Ghost Hunt places responsibility on the guests to discover the story for themselves. There are no voiceovers to spoon-feed narrative and no traffic lights to regulate customer flow. This makes the show logistically far more challenging than Bloodbath, but we have an exceptionally strong cast of actors, playing the ghosts of the Luff family and their mysterious lodger, and these actors are available to guests to deliver narrative and to respond to the guest's questions and decisions. You really will get out of this show what you put into it. If you really engage with the set and the characters you will find a fascinating and multi-layered narrative (as well as a few well-crafted jump scares to keep you on your toes). What inspired the new show and why did you choose to not immediately continue the story of Jack and Abel? Ghost Hunt is inspired by a number of true stories which we have meticulously researched and conflated. Some of the characters and the story are inspired by personal events related to my own childhood. It's not uncommon for me to explore aspects of my own trauma through the work I create. Several aspects of Bloodbath were also inspired by my own childhood. Jack and Abel needed a break for a while; they had a good eight-month run and will be back next year, for sure. It's good to give people some time to miss them. We also want an opportunity to show the world what else we can do as a company and perhaps to appeal to a broader audience; as I said before, some people were too scared to attend Bloodbath because they feared they might actually be murdered!! We remember attending Bloodbath and finding photos of our group from our social media pinned to the walls. Jack also greeted us by name at the climax of that show. It’s a level of intimacy and personalisation that helps draw visitors deeper into the world. Is that something you found audiences responded well to? Audiences loved this aspect of Bloodbath. It was exceptionally expensive and time-consuming to implement, but it was a very powerful mechanism for converting our guests from mere observers to direct participants in the story. The word 'immersive' is used a lot these days, often inappropriately. For me, an event is not really immersive unless you as an individual feel that you are part of the story and have the freedom to exercise autonomy and interact directly and personally with the characters. This is something which we will develop more in future productions, for sure. You’re also running a more family-friendly show called Ghost Detectives throughout October. Can you tell us a bit about that show and why you chose to also do an all-ages show? When I owned Chaplin's Circus, I used to produce immersive experiences for children at Christmas time. One of my previous shows, called Ice Grotto Advent-ure, was entirely sold out across all UK locations. The concept was simple: Rudolph had lost his nose and without it, could not fly. The children stepped inside a full-sized advent calendar to go on an adventure (hence the name 'Advent-ture') to find it. The special effects were awesome. It was such a feel-good event and we really convinced thousands of children that they had single-handedly saved Christmas! They would literally leave the event screaming. "I just saved Christmas!" Poster for Ghost Detectives On the face of it, Ghost Detectives is a very simple but poignant story about a young boy called Isaac who has lost his pet mouse Stripey, and does not want to 'cross over' until he finds him. The Ghost Detective Agency is recruiting young detectives to help solve this case. Unfortunately, the house is owned by a grumpy old man who hates children, so the guests have to find a way to trick the old man into letting them inside the house. The real quest is to discover why the old man is so grumpy and why he hates children; for me, this story is a bit of a tear-jerker, as the guests will discover a sad but beautiful truth which is the key to reuniting Isaac and Stripey (and also the old man, with his wife, the love of his life). What’s the future looking like for ScreamWorks? Are there already plans in motion for shows in 2024? These are tough times for everyone. Immersive theatre is expensive to produce because of the limited capacities and the low ratio between audience and actor numbers. I am pleased to say that we are managing to keep our head above water and we work very hard to keep our prices as low as possible (our RRP is £45.00). We have some exciting plans for 2024, but as always our main focus is on our current show, to ensure we deliver the best possible customer experience we can. We will launch an escape room format later in the year using the same set as Ghost Hunt, but we will release more information about that closer to the time. The Ghost Hunt runs from 5th October to 31st October in Bethnal Green. Tickets are available to book here. Ghost Detectives runs from 21st October to 29th October in Bethnal Green. Tickets are available to book here.

Immersive Rumours received complimentary tickets to this experience and as such, are disclosing this information before our review. They have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. Bloodbath is an immersive horror experience located in a secret location in Bethnal Green. It's been produced by ScreamWorks - a brand new name on the immersive theatre scene, and one we suspect we'll hear a lot more of in the near future. If this show is anything to go by, and their future plans are as ambitious as this show is, they'll soon hold the crown for having the most intense immersive shows in the city. Bloodbath was an overwhelming, boundary-pushing, scary and intense experience, which goes far beyond anything else currently on offer in London. For some time, the capital has lacked any truly scary things to do (for theatre anyway..) so it's great to see that change with the arrival of Bloodbath. Prepare to have your personal space invaded, the limits of taste and decency pushed, and all of your possessions taken off you and literally thrown in a bin (but of course, you'll get everything back at the end!). The show's story is a relatively simple one - you've been invited to visit the home of a real-life serial killer, and over the course of an hour you're piecing together the story of how he became who he is today and discovering what became of his numerous victims. We learn all this from chilling audio and video recordings, rummaging through the remains of his dilapidated home, and of course, hearing directly from the killer himself. Upon arrival to the secret East London location, you're greeted with Missing posters for his latest victim, Jenny McPhearson. Last seen mere metres from where you're stood, her whereabouts have been unknown to the authorities for several weeks. Jack, our host for the evening, is keen to avoid prying eyes - earlier in the day we received an email from him with meeting instructions that made clear that he's trying to avoid 'those in positions of power' from getting in the way of his 'great plan'. Missing poster for Jenny McPherson After check-in, and signing the waiver that grants the organisers permission to verbally abuse, touch, shock, force feed and restrain us, we have sheets thrown over our heads and are escorted inside. The reactions of those in the nearby petrol station forecourt are unknown to us, but it's no doubt quite the sight for passers-by. Unsurprisingly for an immersive horror show, the experience is linear and see's us moving from room to room over the course of the next hour. At first it's a gentle easing into the story as we're free to explore several rooms of Jack's house without interruption - learning more about the family history and the current state of affairs for Jack, his brother Abel and their mother, Grace. Through the walls we repeatedly hear loud banging and screaming - muffled voices and shrieks that leave us unsure if it's other guests genuinely fearing for their lives, or just the actors trying to scare the life out of them. Bloodbath is a show that seems to revel in taboo and voyeurism. With the whole world seemingly obsessed with true crime and real life murders, the show feels like a natural progression of our collective fascination with the grizzly stories you can hear on any of the hundreds of true crime podcasts available online. The show is inviting us to see what being in one of those stories would be like, and at points makes us complicit in what's happening to those around us. Photo: ScreamWorks A sequence mid-way through the show allows the audience to engage directly with the idea of pain as entertainment, inviting us to directly inflict it upon a helpless woman behind a glass screen. There's an anonymity afforded to audience members by the white cloth masks they wear for large parts of the experience. It encourages us to be worse versions of ourselves when given the chance. The small cast of actors we meet throughout all manage to perfectly flip between being darkly comic and genuinely scary. Abel, who we meet early on in the show, is a warm and welcoming psychopath who later turns into a terrifying Leatherface-esque figure, causing us to literally climb and crawl for our lives. Photo: Screamworks There are personal touches throughout the experience that made us truly feel like guests of a serial killer, rather than just a visitor to a show. These included photos of our party lifted from our social media accounts defaced and pinned to the walls, our names scrawled in blood on the bathroom mirror, and consistently being referred to by name - despite never having introduced ourselves. Nearly every one of the points raised in the waiver before we entered happened to either all, or some of us. Your comfort level with these kinds of things is going to vary from group to group, but we feel it's worth noting that if your group is a mix of genders, the female guests may be on the receiving end of the most uncomfortable interactions - or at least that was our experience when we visited. Photo: Screamworks While this might all sound quite heavy, overall Bloodbath is as much a psychological thriller as it is a traditional horror experience. It's not 60 minutes of jump scares and being grabbed, and you'll likely come out having had as many fun moments as scary. Our group all walked away saying we had an amazing time, and we'd definitely be back for whatever ScreamWorks have cooking up next. We would highly recommend reading the Consent page on the ScreamWorks website before booking, so you're able to get a better understanding of what you're letting yourself in for. You can of course revoke your permission for any of these things to happen to you at any time by using the safe word or action. Not for the faint of heart, Bloodbath is a killer night out for those looking to push themselves outside of their comfort zones. ★★★★¼ Bloodbath is located at a secret location in Bethnal Green, East London. The show is currently running until the end of May 2023. Tickets are available through screamworks.co.uk, with prices starting at £45 per person. Thank you to Jack and the team at ScreamWorks for inviting us to experience the show.

Torches in hand, we venture into Bethnal Green's most haunted house to experience the latest show from London's top immersive horror producers. Halloween is an apt time for an immersive theatre company that specialises in horror experiences to return with a new show. Following up the 8-month run of Bloodbath, which occupied their venue located below the arches of Bethnal Green, Screamworks are back with a show that offers big scares and a compelling story for those willing to dive in head first... Set within the abandoned home of the Luff family, who all died in 1937 in a bloody murder-suicide, visitors are invited by paranormal investigator Hector Phoenix to explore the family home and uncover the story of what caused their horrific deaths to occur. Screamworks previous show blurred the boundaries of what is the norm in immersive experiences, with actors force-feeding and tying up visitors, on top of at its climax attempting to undress those who have braved the show, it was an arresting experience for those who attended. The most confronting parts of Bloodbath saw visitors become complicit in the actions of a serial killer, and played with the ideas of voyeurism and torture being little more than entertainment for blood thirsty audiences. In our recent interview with Gary Stocker - the CEO of Screamworks - he shared how their commitment to creating the immersive experience may have put some visitors off by appearing too intense. Therefore it's no surprise that The Ghost Hunt's website seems to promise a show that's less intense than Bloodbath, with no physical contact between actors and visitors, and a storyline that's sold as more spooky than gory. On paper it may seem like a step away from the boundary-pushing experience that made their previous work so engaging, but in reality The Ghost Hunt is just as intense and terrifying an experience, with dozens of moments that had us jumping, screaming and recoiling in fear. Upon entry, each visitor is handed a torch - it's largely up to them to find their way through the space and discover what's hidden inside the various dimly lit rooms that make up the 45 minute long experience. Putting the responsibility onto visitors to find their own way helps ramp up the tension, and makes going around every corner a frightening prospect. You're free to explore at your own pace, which allows ample opportunity to pour over the clues scattered throughout if you're so inclined. A section midway through the show allowed us to sit around a makeshift ouija board as we quizzed one of the house's spirits on what had happened there nearly 100 years prior for as long as we liked. The shows cast of five, who can appear and disappear at a moments notice through a maze of secret doors and hidden entries keep you constantly on edge. One moment towards the end of the show saw Hector Phoenix, the paranormal investigator who tasked us with exploring the house in the first place, appear behind us in a moment of complete darkness. Elsewhere, Geoffrey Luff - with a knife sticking out his back as he's slowly dying of blood loss, cornered our group in one of the rooms as we were interrogated on what had become of his children. The key difference between Screamwork's productions and your run of the mill scare experience is the ambitious storytelling. The Ghost Hunt tells a cohesive story that is drip fed to guests across it's 45 minute duration. Through various newspaper articles and letters scattered across the shows 10 rooms, along with some set pieces that offer both scares and exposition, you leave the experience having learnt about the supposedly true history of the shows setting. Previously we claimed that Screamworks would soon to be the leading immersive horror creators in London. Based on the screams both from our group and the echo's of those elsewhere in the venue during our visit, they've delivered a show that confirms that theory, and we now feel they're hands down the top creators of immersive horror experiences in the city. While time is limited to experience this show before it closes on 31st October, future plans for the venue involve an escape room featuring live actors that will open in November. We'd recommend trying to get down there before this show closes as it's easily one of the best scare attractions on offer in London this Halloween season. ★★★★ Screamwork's The Ghost Hunt runs from 5th October to 31st October in Bethnal Green. Tickets are available to book here.

A journey into the Underworld for 20 guests a performance, COLAB Theatre's modern-day retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice opens in their brand new venue on the Southbank. Immersive Rumours received complimentary tickets to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before our review. They have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. Following a year-long silence from COLAB Theatre, the immersive theatre company 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 jumpscares 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. 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 The Descent runs until 18th November near London Bridge. Tickets are priced at £28 and can be booked here.

We jump aboard the Wishmas Train to review Secret Cinema's latest immersive production at The Old Bauble Factory beneath Waterloo Station. Wishmas - an original immersive production from the Secret Cinema team - has opened at The Old Bauble Factory in Waterloo. Tailored for families and younger audiences, this 60-minute walkthrough experience promises a 'fully immersive festive realm, featuring live actors and enchanting storytelling'. Located beneath Waterloo Station on Launcelot Street, it takes place within The Vaults - a venue well known for having hosted a string of immersive theatre shows in the past. Photo: Matt Crockett Our Wishmas journey begins in the Sorting Office with one of the Wishkeepers - the elf-like assistants whose mission is to ensure every Christmas wish makes it safely to Father Christmas. With the walls of the room adorned with dozens of small birdhouses, we're told all about the journey wishes make, the important role Robins play in delivering said wishes, and a bit about the world of Wishmas. It's an extended scene in which guests sit and listen to a Wishkeeper deliver a monologue - something that occurs several times throughout the show. Whether that is a blessing or a curse likely has to do with how engaged your little ones are if you're visiting as a family... Photos: Matt Crockett One of Wishmas' strongest elements is undoubtedly the set design by Julie Landau. The Wishmas Train, with its candy-striped poles and festive dividers, feels like stepping into an alternate universe where TfL have extended the Northern Line to Lapland. The Merry Maps of Everywhere Room - where reindeers' movements are tracked across the globe - is a festive twist on a military command centre, and small details such as the individually labelled doorways in the themed hallways of the venue sell the idea that we're only seeing a small part of a much larger festive operation. Photo: Matt Crockett The latter half of the experience allows the audience to interact with the world in a tangible way - tasked with using Wishmas' reindeer trackers to locate missing puzzle pieces, and turning large cogs to reverse time with the Clock of Now. These activities, all thoughtfully designed with children in mind, provide rewarding ways to involve every guest in the narrative. It's a welcome shift from the opening half-hour, which lacked any hands-on activity. Photo: Matt Crockett The experience concludes with a face-to-face with Father Christmas. Always teed up to be the highlight of any festive experience, the show's ending delivers a series of wholesome moments. There are some fun sleight-of-hand tricks on display from both Father Christmas and his Wishkeeper assistant, and a short sing-a-long section in which we're all encouraged to take part. While we visited without any children, the reactions and looks of wonder from those in our larger group seemed to confirm that it's a heart-warming end to our time in Wishmas. On top of the standard tickets that give you access to the full 60-minute walkthrough experience, there are a couple of other ticket options available for those looking to extend their visit. These include a meet and greet with Father Christmas (which includes a gift and souvenir photo), as well as a visit to the craft workshop where you can make your own bauble to take home. Photo: Matt Crockett Following Secret Cinema being bought out by TodayTix in 2022 for around $100 million, the company seem to now be entering a new phase. Reports of them taking over a venue in Camden Town for future productions have alluded to them moving away from the large-scale, free-roaming experiences that helped them become so well known and instead pivoting to timed-entry walkthrough experiences more akin to Wishmas. While this show works overall given its target audience, the potential retirement of the format that served them so well up until now would be a loss for both audiences and the immersive industry as a whole. It's hard to imagine an adaptation of something like Stranger Things or Guardians of the Galaxy working as well as a walk-through experience. ★★★½ Wishmas runs until 7th January near Waterloo Station. Tickets start at £29 and can be booked via wishmas.co.uk

Next month will see the opening of Once Upon A Kingswood Christmas - an immersive Christmas experience in South London. Running from the 16th to 23rd December, Once Upon A Kingswood Christmas is set within Kingswood House - a 19th century, 32-room mansion in South Dulwich. The family-friendly immersive promenade experience is put on by Cerebrum Entertainment, who have previously mounted a version of the show at Wentworth Woodhouse near Sheffield. Cerebrum Entertainment is an immersive events company that has previously produced experiences for the likes of Universal (Halloween Ends in Picadilly Circus) and New Line Cinema (It: Chapter Two at The Vaults). Delve into the magical world of 'Once Upon a Kingswood Christmas' and embark on a journey that will spark wonder and joy in the hearts of both young and old. Our show is a celebration of love, family, and the true spirit of Christmas. Immerse yourself in a captivating tale that will transport you to a winter wonderland like no other. Let your imagination soar as you discover the origins, traditions, and joyous inspirations behind this new and exciting Christmas Fairytale. With every moment you spend, you'll be captivated, amazed, and filled with the warmth of the holiday season. Help Bella find the Fairtyale Alliance, rescue Father Christmas from the clutches of the Snow Queen and save the Festive Season! Here's the trailer for the experience... Tickets are priced at £20 each, or £70 for 4x general admission tickets. Children under 2 years old are free. Once Upon A Kingswood Christmas runs from 16th to 23rd December at Kingswood House in South Dulwich. Find out more about the experience, and book via onceuponachristmas.uk

Sleepwalk Immersive have announced the cast for their debut show - Bacchanalia, an immersive retelling of The Bacchae by Euripides. Set to open later this year at CRYPT in Bethnal Green, each show will see an audience of just 40 audience members explore the space with six performers. Take a trip to the city of Thebes, where King Pentheus believes he has everything under control - that is until his divine cousin Dionysus turns up seeking revenge on the family who have expressed doubt about this upstart god’s status. Witness first-hand the clash between mortals and the divine. You will ask yourself … do you deny a god? The creative team behind Sleepwalk Immersive includes Sebastian Huang as Artistic Director, Ruth Howard as Movement Director, Maya McQueen and Peter Broughton as Associate Directors and Madeleine Houghton as Executive Producer. The cast features Jordan Ajadi (The Burnt City), Ruth Howard (Sleep No More, The Greatest Night of the Jazz Age), Christian Loveless (Phantom Peak, Tomb Raider The Live Experience), Fionn Cox-Davies (The Drowned Man, The Burnt City), Peter Broughton (The West, Phantom Peak) and Fania Grigoriou (The Burnt City, The Drowned Man). Full Cast List: Jordan Ajadi Ruth Howard Christian Loveless Fionn Cox-Davies Peter Broughton Fania Grigoriou Sleepwalk Immersive is also running a Kickstarter campaign for the show that includes rewards ranging from signed posters to show access with 'exclusive access to a one-person pre show experience'. You can back the project here. Bacchanalia opens on 12th November at CRYPT in Bethnal Green. For more information visit www.sleepwalkimmersive.com