Leading VR company Eclipso have announced its newest and boldest immersive experience to date -Colosseum: The Legendary Arena, giving you a front row seat to history’s most enticing show, opening October 24th. Following the success of Titanic: Echoes of the Past, Eclipso - known for their VR experiences in New York, Paris, and across the world - returns with a thrilling production that recreates the grandeur and glory of ancient Rome. The experience will transport visitors to the very centre of the action, combining the latest in VR technology with a gripping story of adventure. Image: Eclipso In Colosseum, The Legendary Arena, the story begins in the bustling heart of ancient Rome. Through the eyes of Caius, guests will be guided through bustling markets and beyond the city’s walls to the looming Colosseum, presenting an opportunity for eternal glory. There, they will meet Flamma, a gladiator who will defy the promise of freedom for a chance at greatness. This journey is more than a glimpse into history, it’s a plunge into the emotion, grandeur and decadence of an empire that resonates in our minds today. Audiences will encounter Gods and citizens alike, experience life as a true citizen of Rome, and feel the intensity of a world where life and legends collide. Image: Eclipso Perfect for history connoisseurs, families, and culture-seekers, Colosseum: The Legendary Arena transforms history into a living spectacle - one that offers an inspiring, interactive adventure inside the world’s most remembered empire. Created in collaboration with the award-winning Small Creative studio, this 45-minute experience uses cutting-edge VR technology to deliver a historically authentic recreation of the era of the Roman Empire at scale. By combining art, culture, and history with immersive storytelling, it offers a breathtaking and unforgettable journey for all ages. Founder and CEO Antoine Lieutaud says: This experience isn’t just a look back at ancient Rome - it’s a chance to step inside its beating heart. Eclipso’s Colosseum: The Legendary Arena is more than a battleground; it takes visitors on a stage where power, ambition, and sacrifice played out before the eyes of an empire. With this experience, we’ve brought that world to life in a way that lets people feel the energy of the crowds, the weight of a gladiator’s choice, and the grandeur of Rome itself. It’s an invitation to experience history not as something distant, but as something alive, emotional, and unforgettable. Karl Blake Garcia, London Venue Director, comments: From the moment visitors don their headsets, every detail has been crafted to transport visitors straight into history. It’ll feel like you’re stepping directly into the streets of ancient Rome, and will be swept away by the roar of the crowds in the arena. It’s incredible to see how technology, storytelling, and emotion come together to create something that is not just seen, but felt. With this experience, audiences aged 8+ will be able to witness Rome like never before - alive, dramatic, and truly unforgettable. Voyelle Acker, co-founder at Small Creative, adds: Bringing ancient Rome to life in Colosseum: The Legendary Arena has been an extraordinary challenge and thrill for our team. Using advanced free-roaming VR technology, visitors can walk the streets, explore hidden chambers, and step into the arena as if they were truly there. This project embodies Eclipso and Small Creative’s mission to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling, combining historical accuracy with cutting-edge tech to create experiences that are as educational as they are breathtaking. By merging innovation and artistry, we’ve crafted a journey that lets audiences feel, explore, and connect with Rome like never before. Colosseum: The Legendary Arena opens at Eclipso on Camden High Street on 24th October 2025. Tickets are priced from £23.00 per person, and can be booked via feverup.com

Image: Punchdrunk Enrichment The full creative team has been announced for the world premiere of Punchdrunk Enrichment’s Fireside Tales, an enchanting interactive adventure for children aged 7-11 and their grown-ups, running at Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores in Wembley Park, Brent, from 6 December 2025 to 4 January 2026. Casting is to be announced soon. Fireside Tales is written and directed by incoming Artistic Director of Punchdrunk Enrichment Steve McCourt. The creative team announced today will also include design by Mydd Pharo (who has designed and directed works for WildWorks, Kneehigh, Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Court, National Theatre and Young Vic), costume design by Melissa Simon-Hartman (who has collaborated with global icons including Beyoncé and Doja Cat, and whose work has been featured by artists such as Little Mix, Stefflon Don and Wizkid, and appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, VOGUE and GQ), lighting design by Sarah Readman (whose credits include Enitan’s Game, Punchdrunk Enrichment; The Glass Menagerie, Yard Theatre and The Burnt City, Punchdrunk as Lighting Associate) and sound design by Dominic Kennedy (whose credits include Enitan’s Game, Punchdrunk Enrichment; God’s Dice, Soho Theatre; You Stupid Darkness, Paines Plough). Fireside Tales is a show about the stories we tell, the ones we pass down, the ones we forget and what happens when we take the time to listen. Audiences are invited to step into a magical world where stories flicker like flames and imagination keeps them burning bright. Developed with schools, Fireside Tales encourages young audiences to draw, write and share their own stories. Mydd Pharo (Designer) said: Working on Fireside Tales with the Punchdrunk Enrichment team has been such a joy. Together we’ve reimagined the space as playful, elemental, and full of possibility, allowing the wild in and bringing the outside alive indoors. It has been a process full of fun, invention, and collaboration, and I’m thrilled to see audiences step into this world we’ve created. Melissa Simon-Hartman (Costume Designer) said: Being part of ‘Fireside Tales’ has been an incredible opportunity to merge my love of storytelling with costume design. I am passionate about creating pieces that don’t just dress a character but help transport audiences into whole new worlds. This production celebrates imagination, heritage, and community, values that are at the heart of my practice. Sarah Readman (Lighting Designer) said: I am blazing with joy to be part of creating Fireside Tales and I'm so excited for people to step into our world, sit around the fire and share stories. Ahead of Fireside Tales, outgoing Artistic Director and CEO of Punchdrunk Enrichment Peter Higgin will embark on an epic 100-mile charity run in October from the Isle of Wight to Wembley, London, over 3 days in a remarkable effort to raise £25,000 for Punchdrunk Enrichment. The money will help Punchdrunk Enrichment reach more children and families, particularly those with limited access to arts and cultural experiences. Funds raised through the Founder to Future Challenge will support their core work: keeping ticket prices affordable, offering schools highly subsidised creative learning projects, and developing bold, imaginative experiences that place children at the heart of the story. For more details, see here. Fireside Tales will run at Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores in Wembley Park from 6th December 2025 to 4th January 2026. Tickets are priced from £15, and can be booked via punchdrunkenrichment.org

Update: As of 2nd October 2025, Till Death Us Do Party will no longer be opening. Producer Robert Mackintosh shared the following: As a group of producers, we have jointly taken the financially responsible decision now to cancel the production. This decision was to ensure that everyone who has worked on the show to date will be paid in full. Till Death Us Do Party, a new immersive production directed by James Doherty that centres around the wedding of bride Florence and groom Tom, will open at One NinetyFour Picaddily this September. Guests assemble, vows are exchanged, and speeches are slurred, as emotional meltdowns, unlikely romances, and family feuds unfold around you - all set to a backdrop of sharp-tongued jokes, death-defying fire-eaters, and knife throwers with questionable aim. Prepare for a bridesmaid speech you’ll never un-hear, and a conga line that may or may not end in disaster. Whether you’re Team Bride or Team Groom, one thing’s for certain: you’ll laugh, cringe, sing, cheer, and maybe even catch the bouquet. You may come for the wedding - but you’ll stay for the mayhem. Meg Hateley and Keiran Constable Within the show, Meg Hateley plays Florence Bush-Fuller, the bride, opposite Keiran Constable, who plays Tom Cox, the groom. Father Michael, the priest, will be played by William Folan-Conray. Additionally, Matt Addis will take on the role of Ollie Bush-Fuller, father of the bride, and Frankie Power as their 'girlfriend' Cyndee. Charlotte Palmer is Marian Bush-Fuller, the mother of the bride, alongside Clare Samuels as Carol Cox, the mother of the groom. Rikki Dallas will play Gareth Pickford, the best man, and Mark Biocca takes on the roles of Uncle Tony & Alexandro Del Pierro. Rounding off the cast are Eleanor Hindson, Louise Lord, Phil Whelans, Katherine Rodden and Louie Wanless. Speaking on the show's announcement, producer Robert Mackintosh comments: Immersive theatre shows are a fast-growing branch of live entertainment. I love the idea of bringing together the great institution of marriage with the joining of two families - a wonderful battlefield of characters, emotions and wicked fun - with an audience prepared to take part and beat the centre of it all. The perfect couple anxious to exchange vows. Two families willing to exchange blows. Until Death Us Do Part….Y! James Doherty, the show's director, has previously worked with Armando Iannucci on Avenue 5, and appeared in The Thick Of It, Veep and the Oscar-nominated In the Loop. James also helped develop the original characters for the Channel 4 hit Mongrels. A well-known face from TV comedy shows, James’ work includes appearances in the BAFTA-winning Him & Her The Wedding (BBC) and BAFTA-nominated Big Boys (Ch4). Other TV comedy credits include The Windsors, Phoneshop (C4), Trying (AppleTV+), Rev, Miranda, The IT Crowd, Count Arthur Strong and Motherland (BBC). James can currently be seen in Season 2 & 3 of House Of The Dragon (HBO) as the recurring barfly, Cley, and as Nick Biddiss in Season 2 of The Gold (BBC). James has also worked extensively in theatre with recent seasons at the RSC and National Theatre. He has appeared in numerous West End musicals, including Come From Away, Chicago and Les Misérables. Till Death Us Do Party was due to open at One NinetyFour Picaddily on 2nd October and run until 20th December 2025.

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Phantom Peak is an immersive open-world experience based in Canada Water. Spread over 30,000 sq feet, each season invites guests (or ‘tourists’) to explore the town, complete story trails that involve interacting with the dozen-plus townsfolk, and try to learn more about exactly what the town's mysterious leader, Jonas, is planning for its future. Later this month, the show will begin its 13th season with The Burning Blimp Festival. During WXO Summit 2025, which was hosted at Phantom Peak, we caught up with Nick Moran (Creative Director), Danny Romeo (Experience Designer/Experience Director), and Jonathan Taylor (Head of Marketing) to discuss what makes Phantom Peak unique, the challenges and benefits of the show’s seasonal model, and the audience’s influence on the show’s design. Photo: Alistair Veryard Immersive Rumours: Hi Nick, thanks for speaking with us today. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do at Phantom Peak? Nick Moran: I'm Nick Moran, I'm the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Phantom Peak. My job is twofold. I run the company and also direct the creative by leading the show’s writing team, which is made up of myself, Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer. I also produce the large amounts of video content in each season of the show as well. IR: Across the last three days of the WXO Summit, Phantom Peak has been referenced numerous times in talks and conversations as a great example of immersive work that’s had longevity and operates as a successful business, which is often not easily done in this industry. What is it about Phantom Peak that makes it different from other immersive shows, and how has its design allowed the show to run for nearly three years? Nick: I think there are a few things. Phantom Peak was designed from the ground up to be an open world that people would come to and feel comfortable in and could explore and get lots of different things from. No matter who you are, whether you're young, old, or an ageing hippie, no matter what happens, you can get a different thing from Phantom Peak. That wide audience base helped, as it means the experience is open and accessible to everyone. Secondly, the seasons. Having it feel like Phantom Peak is in some constant renewal – that's its big strength. It means that we can keep elevating the experience and keep trying to make better and better stories as time goes on. Most people don't get the opportunity to do that. They get one shot at it, and then they have to slowly tweak it as time goes on. We're a bit more fortunate in being able to do something different. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: That idea of doing regular content refreshes is something that I’ve heard AREA15’s Winston Fisher talk about this week. I think he sees it as a fundamental necessity for a show to have longevity. Alongside that, something else Phantom Peak does very well is integrating food and drink options into the show with the cocktail trails. From a business side, that must have been a consideration when you first came up with the concept of the experience. Nick: Of course. The food and drink aspect was always inevitable, but it's also a duty. It's a four-hour-long show! They literally have to be able to eat and drink. Otherwise, we're basically in a prison camp. It's only fair. I always wanted to create a long show because I believe that dwell time and your emotional relationship with space are interlinked. If you're somewhere for a long time, you develop a relationship with it. Once, I was trapped for 17 hours in Amsterdam Airport, and I hate Amsterdam Airport. Imagine that, but positive – that's Phantom Peak. [Nick looks over to Jonathan Taylor, Head of Marketing] Nick: How's that line, Jonathan? Was that successful marketing? Is that staying? Jonathan: Yeah, funny. Very on brand. Nick: Good. Thanks, Jonathan. [Nick turns back to Immersive Rumours] Nick: He said it was funny, but he didn't even smile, so he didn't think it was that good… Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: One aspect as to why people like coming back here again and again, besides the content refreshes, is that, I think, for regular visitors, Phantom Peak may have turned into their third space – that non-home, non-work place to socialise and connect – where they feel comfortable. Is that anything that you've ever given any thought to? Nick: It was definitely something we wanted to make. We prioritise audience comfort. Although you could argue Turbo the Hedgehog making Terence the Talking Platypus play Russian Roulette is not necessarily audience comfort-focused. I would argue it's not. That just makes me feel comfortable. Phantom Peak is all about the audience; it’s somewhere where people feel safe to play. We always knew that those things would inevitably lead to somewhere that some people really wanted to come back to over and over. We didn't quite know that the volume of people or the strength of feeling that some audience would have would be so strong, which is incredibly flattering. This strange system and experience that we built and put together really has made people very happy. That's really very gratifying. That third space element, in those terms, I haven't really thought about, but it's definitely something that was planned out with a different metric. IR: We’re coming to the end of this current season, JonaCon, and The Burning Blimp Festival is right around the corner. How’s the planning for the new season going? Nick: The season is completely finished. We're ready to go. The season is ready to go. We've made all the content. Generally, we finish a season 14 months in advance… [laughs] Genuinely, the season is being finalised, but we are actually the most ahead of it for a season we’ve ever been. Wintermas last year was really hard to write... That's the season we always end up coming really close to the wire because going from Halloween to Winter is really hard, as they’re so close together. I can't work on two seasons at the same time. It's just too many stories; we lose focus, and we start to play against each other. That's one of the things that we're trying to get better at, but it’s the start of May, and we’ve finished the season three weeks ahead of launch, which is very good for us. IR: Earlier today, I saw you, Danny, and Tibet having a discussion about some of the specifics for one of next season's trails, so how do you define a trail being done? Nick: You should think of our seasons like an order book. Once we’ve worked out the main beats and everything that we need in those beats, that trail is done. Eight of our ten-ish trails are now in call-outs, which is us saying that they're done. That's us saying we're committing to these things getting made. There might be small tweaks along the way, but generally it's quite rare. We might swap a character out or change a poster, but it's minor things that we'll find out in previews. Photo: Alistair Veryard Immersive Rumours: Hi Danny, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us what you do at Phantom Peak? Danny Romeo: My name is Danny Romeo. I am Experience Designer and Experience Director at Phantom Peak. That essentially means that I'm on the writing team, and I'm the Performance Director as well. I'm also kind of the key spokesperson between the writing team and other departments. I oversee a lot of the execution of ideas. IR: You've been with Phantom Peak since the first season, and over that time, which is nearly three years, the show has evolved and grown massively. How is it trying to turn around new seasons with such regularity? Danny: Yeah. I mean, the turnaround is quite quick. We've actually not struggled with it that much. I think it all comes down to the fact that we've created a very deep and nuanced world with a lot of different personalities and a lot of things happening behind the scenes. It gives us a lot of area to explore. But also, all of our characters grow a little bit each season, which means they always have something new going on in their lives. They've got new struggles and new challenges that we have to help them overcome. The turnaround is usually just about going, ‘ Okay, let's take what happened last season. How has that changed this character? How are they reacting to that personally? What does that present to them moving forward? And how can we explore that in a way where the audience can actively help them solve that problem?’ In that way, the town just becomes a living, breathing place that kind of grows on its own, and we just follow it and document it. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: One of the things we mentioned in our review of this current season is that the design of Phantom Peak allows you to take feedback from what audiences really enjoy about previous seasons and build on it in the next season. We’ve seen this recently with characters like Sherlock Bones, who audiences seem to love and has returned this season for a new trail. How do you take the audience's response to a current season and integrate it into the next? Danny: Yeah, it's a balance. We did strike gold with Sherlock Bones. People seemed to really react to that, which is great because we have a lot of different stories that we can tell with him. It's that perfect balance of we found something that people really like, and also, we have a character that has the flexibility that we can do a lot more with them and explore a lot further with them. We do take a lot of audience feedback into account when making new seasons. That has changed things on a basic logistical level. People complained about walking a lot, so we made a much stronger effort to make sure that steps were in similar parts of town before sending them across. That changed the way we shape our story structure. We made a point of linking things together to create a vibe of investigating a specific part of town and then opening up the world as a story structure beat in direct response to people saying that they were walking so much. Things like the mid-show games with tokens are a direct response to people saying that they didn't feel like they were engaging with other audience members quite as much, so we created this more communal vibe. It's really affected every aspect of the way we make the show. But also, there are things that we have to keep for ourselves. For instance, some characters get really popular, and there just isn't that much to do with them, so we do have to have them take a bit of a backseat, and hopefully bring them back later when we've gotten to a point where there is more to do with them. But yeah, the audience influences the show just as much as anybody else does. IR: Do you think that way of working, where there are constant updates, is something that basically every experience, whether it be open world or linear, can take something from? Danny: I think it really depends on the show. If you take Punchdrunk, for instance, they get a lot of mileage out of their repeatability within the model. They hide secrets and storylines within one singular experience so they don't have to update, and that's enough to bring people back because they want to investigate those secrets, and they want their own singular experience – something that they get to see that nobody else got to see. With us, because we are a slightly more linear experience. Yes, you can go anywhere; yes, you can look at anything, but we do have our 10 set trails, which are a bit more limiting in that we should refresh content if we want continued repeat business, because we have to give people new things to explore. If we only ever had the same 10 trails for a whole year, people might not come back as much because they've already seen those trails within 3-4 visits. I would say it’s a show structure thing, but it's also a… this is a bit weird to say, it's an earned thing. Theatre is a business, and ultimately the open market decides what shows succeed and what don't. I would say that theres' some shows out there that are doing well enough with their first run, but they aren't necessarily getting that kind of dedicated fan base. I would say it would be dangerous for a show like that to repeat and refresh their content all the time because they haven't quite gotten that loyalty yet. If the experience they're offering to a new group of people is vastly different from their first experience, they're not going to build on that word of mouth that they previously had. It might not be the same quality of content because they haven't quite found their feet yet. Once you've been in business for a while and you know what your audience is looking for and you know there’s a dedicated fan base, then you’ve probably earned the opportunity to do completely new content and bring people back for more and more visits. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: Hi Jonathan. Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us what you do at Phantom Peak? Jonathan Taylor: I’m Jonathan Taylor. My job title is Head of Marketing at Phantom Peak, which essentially means that I lead on marketing and comms for The League of Adventure, which is the company that sits over Phantom Peak. My job is basically to keep the ball rolling with ticket sales, keep people coming back, and ensure that what we're saying is interesting, informative and enough to convince people to buy tickets. IR: From a marketing perspective, does the structure of Phantom Peak – in that the content and storyline of the show resets every three months – make it easier or harder to market than a show that didn’t have such regular seasonal updates? Jonathan: It's easier and harder. Every three to four months, we have a reason to go back out to press, go back out to influencers, creators, and the industry to get fresh coverage. Each new season is a point at which, as a business, everything changes. Our menu changes, our stories change, the set changes, the video content changes, and the characters change, so it’s a good opportunity to relaunch. We have 30% of people come back, which is, I think, an industry record. It’s insane. 30% of the audience at any one time have been to Phantom Peak before. The season's help with that because we have a lot of people who like to complete everything, so when we relaunch 10 new trails, they want to try and do them all, complete it all, get all the stories, and know what's going on. It's easy in that sense. At the same time, there are challenges. For the 70% of people who have never been to Phantom Peak before, us saying, ‘Hey, you're coming to JonaCon’, for example, means they might ask, ‘What's JonaCon?’. We have to explain that we're a seasonal show, and people might go, ‘Does that mean if I come now, I'm going to miss out because I'm not coming at Christmas or Halloween?’. It’s about trying to balance the idea that if you don't want to come to every season, you're not going to miss out by coming to just one season. Because we're relaunching all the time, people get confused. It's trying to unpack that in as few words as possible, while also being fun and interesting and informative. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: How do you go about making it clear that the show is ongoing, but the content changes regularly? Jonathan: We've done a bit of a shift recently. We used to focus a lot on seasons – seasons were everything. We would change our logo with each new season. Now, we don't do that. Phantom Peak is the thing that's consistent. It's always the same structure. You're always going to do trails, you're always going to do new things. You have to come three or four times in a three-month period to complete a season, so that means for most people, it's a different show every single time. When you pay £45 for a ticket, you know you're always going to get a different experience. IR: Yeah. If people don't visit with every new season, and then they mention the show to a friend, all of the information that they had in their head about what the show is may be out of date when it comes to the trails and storylines. Jonathan: Yeah, that's true. It's like saying, ‘I did this thing at Phantom Peak; you should go and do it yourself.’ There's no guarantee that they're going to be on the same trail, that they're going to meet the same characters, or have the same experience. One thing we're trying to look into at the moment is guiding the audience and feeding them the way they should talk about Phantom Peak, which is a really impossible task. We’ve recently started sending out surveys, which have very specific questions worded in a specific way to try and get not only the content across, but more of the feeling across, and trying to educate audiences afterwards. That's part of the whole return thing that we've got going on. The fan-run Discord Community is a huge thing with that too, trying to reinforce how we speak about Phantom Peak so that when other people are talking about Phantom Peak, everyone's using the same shared language. We often adopt how the community speaks about it and then might change that in a way that works for us, and then regurgitate it. It's about servicing the community and listening to the community, but also helping the new people who are joining the community for the first time or visiting for the first time and wanting to come back, having the right words to describe it. It's a challenge, but we're trying. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: Phantom Peak is now in its 12th season and has a huge amount of lore to draw from. More often than not, that lore feeds into the marketing communications, especially the emails, which all match the show’s in-world tone and act as an extension of the show’s universe. From your side, how do you navigate that? Jonathan: We try to send an email once a week, and we try to send it to people who are engaged with us. When we're going out to people, we're always conscious that they're probably not in a sales mood, so they don't want a sales email, and we have to make it fun. With Phantom Peak, we really are not a very serious company. We're a serious business in the sense that we have to make money, and we are always looking at how we can ensure we're delivering the best experience in a professional, high-quality way, but at the same time, we're not a very serious company. We'll come up with an idea and try it out to see if it works, matching the tone of the show. Basically, we want to be consistent. We want to be Phantom Peak whenever we're speaking to people. The secret is that we don't really have a clear reason for why we do that. It's just that we're fun. If we're going out to someone who's not bought a ticket, we want to give the tone of what Phantom Peak is, and if we're going out to returners, they already know the tone of Phantom because they've done a trail, they've watched a video, so if we're matching that, it just feels like an extension and something that’s inviting them to come back. If we send an email and we get people in the Discord community or elsewhere say, ‘This is hilarious’ or ‘This is funny’, it doesn't need a click, and it doesn't need a purchase off the back of it; it's enough for it to just keep people engaged. Photo: Alistair Veryard Recently we invented a character called Philip from Marketing, who doesn't exist. I just decided that we needed a scapegoat for something, so I found a stock video of a guy cheering, and I thought it was hilarious. I spent, like, 30 minutes laughing at it. I downloaded it, turned it into a GIF and put it in an email. We came up with an idea, and suddenly, he has a voice and a character. My uncle in New York sent me a message yesterday saying, ‘That Philip, he's really difficult; maybe you should get rid of him.’ He's only been to Phantom Peak once, and he's not going to buy a ticket, but he messaged me out of the blue saying, ‘Oh, Philip's up to his old tricks.’ IR: If your family is signed up for the mailing list, they know what you’re up to at work! That’s a much easier way for them to see what you’re doing than updating them all when you see them… Jonathan: Yeah, it's another way to check in with family, isn't it? Sign them up for the mailing list, send them an email saying, ‘Oh, could you just test this email for me?’ and then we've got their data too! Phantom Peak's new season, The Burning Blimp Festival, runs from 23rd May to 7th September 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more about the show and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Neil Connolly is the Creative Director of Immersive Everywhere, who are best known for adapting pre-existing IP such as Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders into live experiences. Neil has previously worked on creating immersive experiences based on The Crystal Maze, Tomb Raider and Peppa Pig, and has also produced work for the likes of Harrods, Sainsbury’s and Warner Bros. Later this year, under Neil's direction, Immersive Everywhere will launch The Traitors: Live Experience in Covent Garden, which is based on the hit BBC series. At WXO's Summit 2025, Neil Connolly was part of a panel discussing adapting IP into live experiences, alongside Andrew McGuinness from Layered Reality (Elvis Evolution), Olivier Goulet from Supply and Demand (Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue), and Ryan Amstad from Pophouse (ABBA Voyage). Following that panel, we spoke with Neil to find out how he approaches turning pre-existing IP into live experiences, and try to get an answer to one of the burning questions surrounding The Traitors: Live Experience… what happens to players who are banished or murdered? Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: Hi Neil. Thanks for speaking with us today. You’ve made a career out of adapting already existing IP like The Crystal Maze and Tomb Raider into playable experiences. Later this year, you're launching The Traitors: Live Experience. What is the first step in that process? Do you start work once you've already secured an IP, or are you already working on it long before you've acquired the rights? Neil: Great question. I will caveat this answer by saying there is a huge team of us, I'm just one person in the organisation, and I do not pretend to take credit for all of those things... I'm a creative director and a commercially minded creative. I design my creative in line with the operations of the show. Sometimes I have pitched and landed those deals. Sometimes things are brought to me, and I develop them out. To answer your question very directly, it always starts with ‘What is the coolest thing that people want to do or could do in that particular experience?’ I design my shows, and I always approach my creative with ‘I am a ticket buyer, and I have paid money to be at this experience. So, what is the coolest thing that I could be doing for the money that I have spent?’ I'm always designing with that in mind. From that, I then extrapolate and think, ‘How do we design a story and a narrative?’ and build from there. When I've designed most of that, I then go, ‘How do I onboard people into that narrative and into that design?’ Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: Creating a show based on a pre-existing IP means that you'll have stakeholders with a vested interest in protecting that IP, and it's a very different experience from creating original work. How do you juggle trying to keep the experience really great for visitors, but also satisfying for all of the IP stakeholders? Neil: IP holders are often deeply invested in their properties but may not always have a clear vision for how that translates into live experiences, so they’re always looking to us to come in with lots of ideas. What I've often done is create original stories using their world and in their world. So the question is, how do those original stories then operate within their world without ever affecting the timelines or the brand too much? You can't make a show in an IP brand and then, at the end of your live experience, kill off the main character because that's insane. It would massively affect all of the truncated things that go on with whatever else is happening in the brand, so you can't do those things. You often have to work in those gaps and in those myriads. There are often times where things we've done have then become linear within their wider, larger brand, which is super fun and super fun to capture, and it's really nice as a creative because you get to just be a part of the world and play in that world. It's just being super respectful to that, but also having the courage to go at it yourself and say, ‘No, I'm going to do this original storyline’ and ‘These are how these characters are going to develop and play out’. It's all about the public. The public perception, especially when you're doing IP, they're being fed through television or cinema or computer games, and they already exist. You have to respect and have the courage to play in that world. I think when people don't have the courage to play in that world and respect it too much, that's when live experiences become a bit weaker because people want to play. The public, the people who are spending the money coming to these things, want to play in that world. Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: If there are creators who are currently making original, non-IP work but are looking to explore the idea of taking on an IP or a brand deal, do you have any wisdom for transitioning from original work into the IP-based world? What do people need to consider? Neil: It's a deeply personal question, not just for me, but for anybody who is doing it, because there are creatives who want to build their own thing, and I absolutely respect that. I have a lot of friends who do that. I just happened to have gone down the road where I develop IP into other things, and I'm really happy about doing that. It comes down to whether a creative wants to, or is willing to, work in an organisation that is their modus operandi. As a company, Immersive Everywhere takes on IP. We license an IP, we develop it out, and we bring those shows to the world. Spoiler alert: further down the line, there is original IP that we will bring to the world when the time is right. It's work we will have developed internally as a company, but right now isn't the right time because we're having too much fun and are really excited about developing IP into various different experiences. It's that balance of personal and business. There is no wrong answer, and there is no right answer to that question because it really comes down to, speaking specifically as creatives, not as business people, what do you want to do? Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: I’ve got to ask you at least one question specifically about The Traitors: Live Experience, which opens in July. Without spoiling the experience, can you tell us what happens to people who get banished or murdered, and is it still going to be a satisfying experience for those who are eliminated first? Neil: Well.. I've designed an experience that is incredibly satisfying for everybody playing in an incredibly intense environment that has incredible subject matter. At the end of the day, it is a game, and you pay to play; you don't pay to win. Within the game, there are winners and there are losers, but we've designed an experience that guarantees that everybody has an incredibly satisfying experience, and it is always a win-win scenario. The Traitors: Live Experience opens in Covent Garden this July. To find out more about the show and book tickets, visit thetraitorslive.co.uk. To find out more about Immersive Everywhere, visit theeverywheregroup.com. This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization.

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Inventive Productions is a London-based immersive theatre company that has produced three of the city's most well-known immersive cocktail experiences. Debuting with Alcotraz in 2017, Inventive Productions has since opened Moonshine Saloon and Avora to huge success, with over 1 million visitors having been to one of their productions since launching. Their shows have successfully launched elsewhere in the UK, with versions of Alcotraz now in Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Brighton and Bristol. Recently, the show launched internationally, with a location in Melbourne, Australia. At WXO's London Experience Week 2025, Alcotraz welcomed WXO attendees for a social networking event, and Inventive Production's founder, Sam Shearman, was part of a panel alongside Phantom Peak's Nick Moran and representatives from You Me Bum Bum Train. Following their talk, we spoke to Sam about how Inventive Productions first came to be, how they approach creating their booze-filled immersive experiences, and what the future holds for the company as it rapidly expands. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions Immersive Rumours: Hi Sam. Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about Inventive Productions? Sam Shearman: I'm Sam Shearman, the founder of Inventive Productions. We’re an immersive hospitality group with 10 locations across three concepts. We operate Alcotraz, which is a prison-themed immersive experience where guests smuggle their own liquor into the prison and play out a narrative involving prison guards, a corrupt Warden, and inmates looking to escape. We also have Moonshine Saloon, which is a wild western experience that predates Alcotraz – a sort of prequel experience, if you will – where you’re a bootlegger looking to join an illicit moonshine operation. Our most recent concept, which launched in 2022, is Avora, which is inspired by James Cameron's Avatar and the world of Pandora. Guests are transported to this other world where this really fun, super-detailed narrative unfolds for guests. We've had success in expanding nationally, so across those three brands we've now got nine locations in the UK: six are Alcotraz, two are Moonshine Saloon, and currently just the one Avora in London, which is in London. Last year, we opened our first international site in Melbourne, Australia, and Sydney is due to open later this month, which is super exciting. Avora. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: Something that came up during the WXO Summit panel that you were just a part of is that the original idea for Alcotraz came to you while you were a university student. Is that right? Sam: I was a bit of the cliche of a guy who had an idea and would tell everyone about it. I didn't want to fall into the trap of not being the guy who also tried to do that. I had no background in this industry; my background was in business management. I did a brief stint at Universal Pictures doing new release marketing for them. I was also on a graduate scheme at Mondelez International, which is the corporate powerhouse behind Cadbury, Oreo and Kenco, where I worked across sales, account management and marketing roles. The idea for Alcotraz came to me from a few different angles. One was a genuine passion and love for the themed spaces that were starting to appear back in 2015-2016. Speakeasy bars were just coming around, but there wasn't a huge amount. There were a couple where you'd have to do a few knocks on the door, or you'd enter through a fridge door or something like that, but the level of immersion really stopped at the decor and at the intake. That always frustrated me as a fan of highly deep-themed experiences and theme parks. I always thought it was a missed opportunity not to have a narrative go through it, allowing you as the customer to be immersed from the start to the end, and that really frustrated me as a 24-year-old going to those sorts of venues at that time. I thought there was a gap there to create something that took that level of theming, that level of immersion, to a new height that hadn't been done in London before at the time. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions The second driver behind Alcotraz was a bit of a love-hate relationship with cocktail bars. I always found it frustrating having to give up a large chunk of a booking I had, trying to dissect complicated menus and figure out what's in there when really, myself and whoever I was there with probably wanted to catch up with each other. I thought there was a real beauty in a concept where the power was put in the hands of the expert – the mixologist – and you could say, ‘Hey, look, I really like this; I really like that’ and they could craft something that ticked those boxes, was a bit more creative, added a few variations and created something different there. The final element really was just the fantasy of true crime, the prison genre, and I thought that these three elements could combine, and that was the genesis of Alcotraz. It could tick a box that hadn't been ticked before with regards to theming; it could be a new cocktail solution where the power is in the hands of the mixologist, and it is a highly themed, highly rich experience that has storylines that would appeal to fans of The Shawshank Redemption or Orange Is The New Black and so on. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: If you were to ask someone in London if they knew of an immersive cocktail bar, I think the odds are pretty high that their first answer would be to name one of your three shows. They’ve been tremendously successful and are really well-known amongst people in the city, right? Sam: Yeah. I'd say we've managed to gain a bit of a reputation as the experimental cocktail guys, and again, it's been a bit of a perfect storm with immersive theatre being on an upward trajectory. At the same time, competitive socialising has also gone through that same upward trajectory. There’s been a genuine culture shift in people's expectations of going to a pub, bar, or restaurant and expecting more. I think we satisfied that demand for wanting more at a time when people had other options. We’ve managed to find our niche within that world, but from the point of view of getting a really good story, you're going to get theatre, and you're going to get high-quality cocktails. I think that's where we found a really good lane that exists within the wider hospitality space. Moonshine Saloon. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: The theming of all three shows are pretty distinct from one another, and while they’re not based on pre-existing IPs, they use the tropes and iconography of things people are familiar with – prisons, westerns and sci-fi. There must be a lot of other genres that you've considered for future shows, right? Sam: Yeah. To answer the first part of the question, whilst inspired by popular films and TV shows, we have created our own worlds within our experiences and even have our own little interconnections between the storylines. There is no affiliation, reference or connection to any existing IP, as it is all our own creation, which is something we are very proud of. It's really important to pick, in terms of theming, something that has a fan base or a preconception about it. That's where the beauty of new concepts could be, but the sky's the limit, and the model works. Our format of being very intimate shows, where you, as a guest, get very close contact with an actor, is not done in many of these experiences because often they have a much higher throughput of guests. Ours are very intimate by design, which means nine times out of ten, the actor's going to know your name, and you're going to know the character’s name by the end of it. That allows this great shared camaraderie to exist between you and a small group as an audience, which I think delivers something unique compared to some of the much larger experiences out there. That can be translated to different themes and different concepts. As for which ones will be successful? If I had a crystal ball that could tell me, that would be amazing. Avora. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: What do your future plans look like for the company? Have you got any new shows on the way, or is your focus on expanding the shows that already exist into new territories? Sam: It’s a bit of both. We’re definitely trying to navigate which cities globally have the demand and the appetite for our immersive experiences and taking the existing IP that we've created and opening them in the right cities. That's one half of the trajectory over the next two to four years. London remains a unicorn from the point of view that it has the highest throughput of experiences happening, the highest throughput of guests that are attracted to them, and therefore we're going to continue to use London as our hotbed to create new concepts. We've got some really exciting ones coming. One centred more within a fantasy world, which we're super excited about. There’s a huge fan base that we're looking to attract who will be fans of that genre in general, and then another concept is a format shift in trying to differentiate from what we've previously done. A lot of our experiences so far and in a lot of other experiences, the characters are so obviously signposted. What I mean by that is the Guard at Alcotraz, they’re the actor; they’re who you’re going to speak to. The same goes for the scientist at Avora; they're wearing the costume; you know it's the actor. These characters are, by design, exaggerated and over the top. I think there's a really nice new territory to play within that I haven't seen done that many times on our scale, where the lines between the guest and the actor can be way more blurred. Instead of having over-the-top characters, over-the-top costumes and accents, there's a story that can be born from the idea of who can I trust, who is involved in this experience and who is not involved. You might be sitting with a couple that you think are going through this for the first time with you, but they reveal themselves in the final moment as being a part of this massive conspiracy. There's a lot to unpack there and to be revealed, but I feel like that’s a new territory for us to play within. Moonshine Saloon. Photo: Inventive Productions For more information and to book tickets for Alcotraz, Avora and Moonshine Saloon, visit their respective websites, which are linked below. alcotraz.co.uk avora-experience.co.uk moonshinesaloon.com This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization.

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. SWAMP is a London-based brand agency that has previously worked with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Warner Bros to create immersive and experiential activations. From an overnight stay in the John Wick universe to a blood-soaked Vought office, SWAMP have consistently delivered elaborate and detailed experiences for some of the world's best-known global brands, alongside a string of critically-acclaimed ticketed Original productions for the general public, including The Drop, Saint Jude and the Isklander Trilogy. At WXO's London Experience Week 2025, SWAMP's Ollie Jones and ITV's Head of Brand Experiences, Charlie Cooper Henniker, presented a case study on their collaboration on a brand activation to promote Trigger Point Series 2 in 2024. Following their talk, we spoke to Ollie about SWAMP's path to becoming a brand experience agency, how that work sits alongside their Original productions, and their approach to creating new experiences. Photo: SWAMP Immersive Rumours: Hi Ollie, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind just introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about SWAMP? Ollie Jones: My name's Ollie Jones; I'm the co-founder and CEO. SWAMP is a brand experience agency and an immersive experience production house. We work with brand partners to do marketing events, and we also, at times, produce our own independent direct-to-consumer events. IR: Our readers are probably going to be more familiar with your original productions like The Drop and St Jude, but the brand activation side of the company is far more active than the original productions side. I would love to know how you first established yourself as an immersive brand agency. Ollie: Me and Clem, my co-founder, and some of the key early members of SWAMP are from a theatre background; we studied theatre. Clem and I started the company because we saw a lot of brand experience stuff happening, and we thought it was a bit flat and bland. When we were sweating blood into an Edinburgh show for no money and putting all our free time, and often all our not-free time, into that, we began to realise that brand experience work could be commercially rewarding and could help to prop up that other side of our life. We thought we could add something to the world of brand experience, and our expertise fits it really well. We always had dreams of doing our own stuff with the proceeds of brand work eventually, but that was expedited when we hit lockdown because everything got cancelled. We had nothing else to do, so we decided to make Plymouth Point, which is the first of the Isklander games. We felt we should do something during lockdown; we had nothing else to do, and we thought we had a cool idea. We thought if nothing else, it'll be something you can put in front of people and say, ‘Do you want to do an online brand experience? They can be interesting…’ but it took on a life of its own and became its own thing, and actually did end up saving the company. We did get a lot of work through it, and it made its own money, so we came out of lockdown much stronger than when we went into it. Photo: SWAMP Following that, we did The Drop, our second show, for two reasons. One was to re-establish ourselves as a live company. Having gone into lockdown as a theatre company and come out as a digital experience company, we needed to reset everyone's understanding of what we did, but also we were starting to realise at that point that independent shows were not only artistically nourishing but also the best new business tool you could ask for. Potential clients would happily come; they'd happily take a free ticket to this show, especially when it turned out to be quite good and the press liked it. So now we kind of exist on this cycle. The brand experience work is the vast majority of our income, and the originals, as we call them now, are not the vast majority of our income, but they serve their own purpose in terms of our artistic integrity, in terms of a new business tool, in terms of being a creative agency that actually puts its creative on its sleeve, and that puts its money where its mouth is and makes its own shows on the side, so that's why we do both. Video: SWAMP IR: You mentioned that transition came about largely during the pandemic off the back of Isklander. For others working in immersive that want to do the same thing, do you think there is a viable path following the same model that you did, or do you think it was a perfect storm of doing successful online work during lockdown? Ollie: I think we probably had all the right tools in place for lockdown to be as successful as it was. I think if you look at us and if you look at increasing numbers of other people who brands are working with, a lot of them come from doing their own stuff, and that's how brands find out about them. It's often that stuff that's better and more heartfelt and more interesting, and like it's a work of passion or organic artistic expression, and that's where I think the strongest connection with an audience is. It makes sense that people who work in the brand experience space go to things like that and think that's what I want my audience to feel. Also, we made Plymouth Point on nothing. Something we keep trying to do is remember we made that show on nothing. There are ways to make something interesting within a budget; you don't need a brand experience budget to make something that makes you feel. IR: Finally, one thing that I've always found interesting about SWAMP’s work, whether it’s branded or original production, is that you've never repeated an idea. With every new show, you completely reset. Is that coming from a place of just not wanting to repeat yourself, or are you trying to expand your scope so that in the future you have a wide-ranging set of tools to pull from? Ollie: Yeah, I think the business sense would say it's not the right thing to do, because we find a formula that works and then immediately throw it away and start something new, but I do think it comes from a genuine interest in trying new things. New stories and ideas come to us, and we want to just get into them in different ways. We like to stay creatively motivated and creatively interested, and it in itself has become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now we've done however many originals that are completely different from each other, it keeps the impetus on us to make sure the next original IP is something brand new and different again, and we have an idea, which again is a completely new format… Photo: SWAMP For more information on SWAMP, visit swampexperience.com. This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization.

Image: Kerry Churcher Koro, a brand new production company specialising in immersive and interactive theatre, tours its critically acclaimed playable theatre piece, 1884, this autumn. The tour includes HOME Manchester, Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry, Carrow House in Norwich (as part of Norwich Theatre Beyond), and the Wellcome Collection in London. Created by a team of creatives led by award-nominated playwright Rhianna Ilube, 1884 is an immersive game-theatre show inspired by the legacy of the 1884 Berlin Conference, an often-overlooked historical turning point for the African continent and the world. Welcome to Wilhelm Street. Make yourself at home! Photo: Paul Husband Taking place in a modern fictionalised setting named Wilhelm Street, 1884 isn’t a history lesson – it’s a fun, fast-paced, and thought-provoking journey where play and protest meet. Played around tables, participants form small family groups, collaborate on playful activities, and make choices about how to build their family community and make their house a home. However, as rules are gradually imposed on the groups and it becomes increasingly clear that not everything is within their control, they must decide how to respond. 1884 asks: how is history recorded, and who is left outside of the room where history is written? Somewhere nearby, there’s a meeting going on. A very important meeting. Run by very important people. Making very important decisions about your lives. But you and your family are not allowed inside… Photo: Alex Brenner Co-created by artists, historians and activists, 1884 is a groundbreaking game-theatre show inspired by the impact and legacy of the 1884 Berlin Conference which contributed to the carving up of the African continent by colonial powers. The experience invites audience members to build a community and connect with strangers, ultimately exploring the ways in which anti-colonial resistance movements have been excluded from our public history and collective historical narrative, and how this omission highlights a glaring oversight in how we memorialise the impacts of colonialism. Co-creator, writer and project director Rhianna Ilube commented: 1884 was inspired by the work of activists from the African diaspora in Berlin who have been raising awareness about how Germany has largely erased the memory of its role in the colonisation of Africa. I wanted to bring the story of the 1884 conference to the UK, but the nature and impact of this show has gone much further than I could've imagined. 1884, created over a year of debates, experimentation and playtests with Coney and amazing creative collaborators, touches on the heart of crucial questions about land ownership, memorial cultures, decolonisation, gentrification, protest and more. I'm so proud that it will be experienced - and shaped - by even more audiences across the UK and in Athens this autumn, and I am happy that Koro is taking the show forward. Photo: Alex Brenner Led by artistic director Marie Klimis, Koro is a new production company specialising in grassroots immersive, interactive, and site-specific theatre. Continuing the legacy of former game-makers and co-creators of 1884 Coney, Koro create, produce, and tour shows that place the audience at the heart of the storytelling experience, with work that centres on urgent contemporary narratives that reflect society and history. Koro will launch a new biennial festival of socially-engaged immersive and site-specific theatre in 2027, with a special focus on celebrating the voices of migrant and global majority theatremakers. Photos: Marie Klimis/Rhianna Ilube/Tatenda Shamiso Acclaimed playwright, theatre-maker, and film programmer, Rhianna Ilube has recently been selected to join the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard in New York. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Playwriting, and Highly Commended for the Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award (Samuel Takes a Break… - The Yard Theatre, 2024). Rhianna is currently writer-on-attachment at the Royal Court Theatre, and an alumna of the Royal Court Writers Group and the Oxford Playmakers. Performance director Tatenda Shamiso won the Emerging Talent Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2023 (NO I.D. - Royal Court, 2023), and was the Associate Director on the West End return of For Black Boys… (Garrick Theatre, 2024). Koro's 1884 is at Wellcome Collection near Euston from 22nd to 25th November 2025. Tickets can be booked via wellcomecollection.org

Image: COLAB Theatre Step inside a new era of theatre at the Invitational Theatre Festival this September at the COLAB Tower. Over one extraordinary weekend, discover boundary-pushing performances that don’t just immerse you—they invite you in. This pioneering new form of theatre places the audience at the heart of the story, not as passive spectators, but as welcomed participants in a shared narrative. From intimate encounters to daring large-scale experiments, the festival showcases bold creators redefining how stories are told. Whether you’re an artist, a theatre-lover, or simply curious about what comes next, the Invitation Theatre Festival is your chance to be part of something truly revolutionary. The Shop for Mortals and All Fools by Vinicius Salles Photo: James Lawson Old relics, curious finds, hidden trinkets, and heirlooms – treasures that whisper forgotten stories. In this enigmatic shop, a select audience is invited to an exclusive preview of its mysterious collection. Step into a world where gods and mortals clash, and chaos reigns supreme. Where the memories you thought were long forgotten still linger, haunting your every step. The Shop for Mortals and All Fools is a site-responsive and immersive physical theatre experience conceived by Vinicius Salles. Inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae, this bold production delves into one of the greatest tragedies ever written, weaving an original and compelling narrative that explores power, vengeance, and the fragility of the human spirit. Photos: James Lawson 💰 From £22.00 🕒 13th September - 3rd October 2025 🎟️ Book via tickettailor.com CREATURE by Peter Broughton Image: Peter Broughton Creature - the most exclusive immersive experience in London this year. One audience member. One experience. From Peter Broughton (Co-Creator and Associate Director of Bacchanalia) comes a fusion of puppetry and immersive theatre, inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Take a seat in a wheelchair, guided into darkness by a gas-masked figure, and don headphones that plunge you into a world of shadows, sound, and tension. Confront the phenomenal, towering puppet in an intimate, one-on-one encounter with the unknown. "I told you I would be with you on your wedding night. And here I am, as promised." 💰 From £102.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Uncle Barry's Birthday Party by UNCLE BARRY Photo: UNCLE BARRY What makes for a fun party? People (you’re invited), gossip (someone has to spill the beans), booze (obviously), dancing (optional), flirting (encouraged), cake (yes), a good playlist (please)... and Uncle Barry! You're invited to share an evening with us, celebrating Uncle Barry's Birthday. We know he'd love to have you. Photos: UNCLE BARRY/James Lawson 💰 From £19.20 🕒 26th - 27th October 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk The End by COLAB Theatre Image: COLAB Theatre The world outside is lost — the husks roam, the infected devour, and every choice means life or death. Humanity’s last survivors have gathered in the bunker, but safety comes at a price. Trust is fragile. Secrets run deep. And sabotage is never far away. Apocalypse isn’t just a game. It’s a live-action survival horror experience where you and your fellow survivors are thrown into the final days of civilisation. You’ll forge uneasy alliances, solve desperate challenges, and fight to prove your worth — because when the bunker doors close, not everyone gets to stay inside. Step into a world of fear, strategy, and betrayal. Feel the tension rise. Hear the husks scratching at the walls. When survival is on the line, how far will you go? 💰 From £12.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Medea by Robert Halvorson and Adelaide Leonard Image: Robert Halvorson and Adelaide Leonard Euripides’ play Medea serves as the point of departure for this one-woman show that can be performed with multiple actors. Maddy’s expectations of Santa Fe, New Mexico, are falling short. She’s isolated, her YouTube channel is stalling out, and her husband, Jay, is leaving her for another woman. All without a second thought for their daughter, Bella, who Maddy feels further away from than ever right at the moment Bella begins puberty. In rage, Maddy acts out and puts her family in danger. With those she cares about most remaking their lives without her, Maddy starts plotting her revenge - sleeping with a long-time protege, lashing out at lawyers, and opening up old wounds. Teetering on the edge, Maddy clings to her spiritual practice. When it becomes clear Jay will not take her back, she chooses to do anything, including taking a life, to prove she’s worth it. 💰 From £9.60 🕒 16th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Spy of the Year by Tom Black/Arlo Howard/Chloe Mashiter/Hannah Raymond-Cox Photo: Spy of the Year The Spy of the Year Awards is the most important night in any spy’s calendar, but this year’s celebrations are threatened when a shady organisation begins leaking top secret information. Even worse: one of the agents at your table is the leak. Together, can you get past personal vendettas, messy histories and emotional revelations to uncover the leak before the end of the night? Fresh from sold-out runs in LA, Chicago, and London’s own Voidspace Festival, Spy of the Year is an original Jubensha led by a live actor, blending role-play with puzzle solving and hidden traitor games. A strictly limited capacity of six players will face challenges, swap secrets and solve mysteries as the clock ticks down. Whether you’re a James Bond, an Ethan Hunt or a George Smiley, get ready to uncover the truth… 💰 From £12.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Timonopoly by Brite Theatre Image: Brite Theater Come Fortune! Let’s play a game. It’s only money... Inspired by Timon of Athens, one of Shakespeare’s least known works, Timonopoly is a unique experience, a game, a show, an event. Play a game with Fortune and see how easily any of us can fall through the cracks of society... whoops! Brite Theater continue to push the immersive envelope, creating ever more daring audience-specific work and bold adaptations of classical material. The long-anticipated final instalment of the multi-award-winning Coward Conscience trilogy, following Richard III (a one-person show) and Hamlet (an experience), Timonopoly is fresh from a successful first run at Edinburgh Fringe. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 26th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk DREAM CAGE by King Lexie Image: Dream Cage For twenty minutes, in a dreamworld built for two, a performance unfolds. Not of spectacle, but of attention and curiosity. DREAM CAGE is a tender framework for an intimate encounter, treating the landscape of a dream as the most precious of materials. It is a one-to-one ritual that asks: What happens when the sound a dream makes is given a voice? An interaction with dreaming and the spaces in-between awaits. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Strangers: A Magic Play by Joe Strickland Image: Joe Strickland To celebrate its ten-year anniversary, Strangers is returning with a brand new interactive storytelling magic show. In the same way that a musical blends theatre with music and lyrics, Strangers: A Magic Play blends theatre with magic and illusion. Stories are interwoven with magic and audience collaboration to create an audience experience which challenges what and how we think about magic and performance. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk The Evil Ex Game by Jet Vellinga Image: Jet Vellinga Madame X invites you to her tea parlour for an intimate evening of storytelling, gossip, and connection. She’s offered to facilitate a special version of “The Evil Ex Game”—an obscure party game she came across this past July.* According to its rulebook, players must “share the best stories about their worst dates.” How provocative! At its heart, the game is simple: Draw a card, overshare, vote for the best story, rinse and repeat. However, as with everything that piques Madame’s interest, there’s more to this game than meets the eye. Perhaps your neighbor steals your card, or worse, your story! And speaking of stories... Bear in mind that Madame only serves tea to patrons with particularly scandalous (hi)stories. Will you spill the tea? RSVP now. *Despite its title, The Evil Ex Game is about romance and dating in general and (Evil) Exes are not required to play. 💰 From £6.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Cool Lab Office of Terrestrial Confusion - Tunnel 1 A debriefing on Earth’s most unstable export. Welcome back to HQ. Your exposure to the human construct known as “COOL” has been confirmed. You arrive here as both expert witness and data point. Preliminary findings remain inconclusive. Contradictions persist. Some insist “COOL” is a resource, others a performance, a weapon, or simply an elaborate Earth joke. Your testimony will decide which version survives. Your mission is to distil its components and trace its patterns: where it appears, who names it, who carries it, how it mutates across borders, fashions, and generations. Working in pods under live supervision, you will classify specimens, perform field tests, and debate paradoxes. Will you argue? Will you contradict each other? Will you contradict yourselves? This is a participatory research facility. All findings will be archived by the Office of Terrestrial Confusion to prepare the next upcoming missions to Earth. Observation commences now. 💰 From £24.00 🕒 26th - 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Andy's Coming by Chronic Insanity Image: Chronic Insanity Toy Story meets Kill Bill, the audience becomes the revenge seeking childhood toys of a university student after they've been abandoned at a charity shop. With the guidance of their magic 8 ball, the toys plot their comeback in this fully interactive TTRPG theatre show. Journey through the high street to find allies and supplies, before confronting your one time owner in a thrilling climax. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 13th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk TATE Accompli by Chronic Insanity Image: Chronic Insanity You've gotten the gang back together for one last heist, and the prize is a big one; the centre piece of the brand new exhibition at the Tate Modern. However, when you break into the gallery that evening, the clock strikes midnight and something changes in the air. It's like you've crossed over into some other reality where up is now down, the sleeping have awoken, and nothing will be the same again. Tate Accompli is the new TTRPG live show, from award-winning theatre company Chronic Insanity, about what happens if you try and steal art from the public for your own private gain. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 27th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk Imprisoned with the Pharos by Chronic Insanity Image: Chronic Insanity Chronic Insanity invites you into an immersive horror experience inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Imprisoned with the Pharaohs. As magicians and archaeologists exploring a pyramid, your choices will determine the story’s twists and turns. Will you confront the ancient foe or escape to safety? Every performance is uniquely crafted by you; How you respond to the adventure, how it responds to you, and whether the tower of bricks at the centre of it all, ready to be excavated, will instead topple and seal your fate. This is a TTRPG theatre show from award-winning theatre company Chronic Insanity. 💰 From £18.00 🕒 20th September 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk The Clocktower Image: The Clocktower Step into the heart of a storm-battered oil rig, where steel walls groan, machinery hums, and suspicion lurks in every shadow. Clocktower is a social deduction game in a gritty, nautical setting. Over the course of the game, you and your fellow players will take on key roles aboard the rig — each with unique abilities that could save the crew… or sabotage it. Together, you must uncover who among you is working against the group before it’s too late. If you enjoy Werewolf, Mafia, Traitors or Blood on the Clocktower...you're gonna love this! The setting creates a tense, industrial atmosphere: a common space where alliances form, secrets unravel, and trust is tested. As the game unfolds, expect bluffing, bold accusations, and clever strategy — with no one ever fully out of the action. Whether you’re a seasoned social deduction player or brand new to the format, Clocktower promises a thrilling experience of mystery, betrayal, and high-stakes decision-making deep at sea. 💰 From £20.50 🕒 22nd October - 1st November 2025 🎟️ Book via tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk COLAB Invitational Festival runs at COLAB Tower near London Bridge from 26th to 27th September 2025, with select shows running across various other dates in September and October. For more information and to book tickets, visit tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk

Photo: Harry Johnson From Saturday 18th October to Sunday 2nd November, families are invited to enjoy a limited-time Halloween Trick-or-Treat adventure at The Paddington Bear Experience, London’s award-winning immersive attraction, located at the iconic County Hall on the South Bank. From 3pm daily, guests can upgrade their visit with a special Trick-or-Treat package (£10 per child), which includes a souvenir pumpkin sweet bucket, a selection of sweet treats throughout the experience, and a pair of exclusive Paddington Bear ears. Children will meet beloved characters from the Paddington stories who will be handing out treats along the way, ending in a safe and joyful Halloween celebration in Windsor Gardens. As visitors step into Paddington’s world and embark on an exciting immersive adventure through some of the most memorable locations from the Paddington stories, they begin with the hustle and bustle of Paddington Station, greeted by a friendly Station Master and taken on a lively train journey through London’s most famous landmarks all the way to the Browns’ charming house at No. 32 Windsor Gardens. Once inside the famous tree-adorned hallway, the Brown family whisk guests into a whirlwind of multi-sensory activities as they need to help Paddington and his family prepare for a very special occasion - The Marmalade Day Festival! With numerous themed rooms to explore, interactive games, character interactions, and lots of surprises along the way, the adventure culminates in a very special Windsor Garden Street party where visitors have the chance to enjoy the Marmalade Day festival. A range of food (including Paddington’s famous marmalade sandwich) and beverages are available to all, as well as an opportunity to enjoy fun and games with the Brown family. The Paddington Bear Experience will capture the hearts of the entire family, no matter the age. The Paddington Bear Experience is a unique and fun-filled interactive experience inspired by the nation’s favourite bear, spanning more than 26,000 square feet of London’s iconic County Hall on the riverside of the Southbank. Photo: Harry Johnson The Paddington Bear Experience is currently running at County Hall on South Bank. To find out more and book tickets, visit paddingtonbearexperience.com

Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc The dinosaurs are still roaring at Battersea Power Station, after Jurassic World: The Experience has become one of London’s most popular family attractions of the year. Since opening in spring 2025, the must-see family-friendly experience has already welcomed over 180,000 visitors through its iconic Jurassic World gates. With demand showing no sign of slowing, NEON has confirmed they are extending the experience’s run and releasing a new wave of tickets, including sought-after peak dates for October half-term and the Christmas holidays. Families and fans of the franchise now have until 4th January 2026 to catch the experience before it leaves London. Excitingly, guests can also take advantage of special September midweek afternoon prices, with adult explorers able to visit for £23 and children for £18, valid for all sessions from 2pm onwards. As we enter Autumn, students can also now enjoy 35% off tickets on weekdays by showing a valid student ID at the box office. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc Created by NEON, a global leader in producing experiential entertainment, Jurassic World: The Experience is the inaugural experience at the brand-new NEON at Battersea Power Station visitor space, located next to the iconic London landmark. Bringing one of the biggest blockbuster franchises in cinema history to life for dinosaur fanatics of all ages, the experience is the first of many live entertainment spectaculars set to be staged at this new attraction. Visitors to the experience are transported into Jurassic World as they walk amongst prehistoric giants and encounter different species across two floors of immersive environments. Highlights include walking beneath a towering Brachiosaurus, exploring the lab of genetic development, coming face to face with Velociraptor Blue, and even get a rare up-close look at the most vicious dinosaur of them all, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Guests can also interact with baby dinosaurs, discover and engage with actual fossilised dinosaur bones. In the coming months, NEON Battersea Power Station is set to host a rolling programme of world-class experiences, with the next major show due to be announced in October. Photo: Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment Inc 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

Image: DARKFIELD Renowned for their trademark shipping containers popping up across the UK and internationally, DARKFIELD bring four of their most critically acclaimed productions to London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from Tuesday 7th October to Sunday 2nd November, in their biggest and longest ever presentation in London. Audiences can find themselves boarding a new airline, slipping into an immersive dream, lost in a labyrinthine hotel, or navigating a war-torn world, across FLIGHT, COMA, EULOGY, and ARCADE. Fresh from sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, BFI London Film Festival, Shoreditch Town Hall, and a region-wide collaboration across Greater Manchester; DARKFIELD present their largest ever collection in the heart of East London, with containers returning to the city for the first time since 2022. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Using the nostalgic 8-bit aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE’s interactive narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars. Over 30 minutes, players will guide their avatar through a world ravaged by endless war: you can choose a side, win or lose the war, search for a peaceful route, or join a cult promising a better version of reality. Players will ask themselves difficult questions as they navigate a world where some will win and others will lose. No two journeys through the experience will be the same. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic COMA invites audiences to take part in a mass experiment, and together, slip into a collective dream, encouraged by a mysterious voice in their headphones. Harnessing all of the skills in DARKFIELD’s technical arsenal, COMA takes place in the pitch-darkness, utilising 360-degree binaural sound, and with some unique additions developed specifically for this show that leave audiences wondering what’s real and what’s a dream. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic EULOGY is a surreal, otherworldly journey through a dreamlike, labyrinthine hotel that exists entirely in your mind. How you arrived is a mystery, and why you’re there remains unclear. Just make sure you read the pamphlet. This intense and exhilarating ride uses speech recognition technology to deceive the senses and transport audience members through rooms, down corridors and into the bowels of this strange and not altogether comfortable hotel. How your dream unfolds is, in part, up to you. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic FLIGHT takes place in a shipping container, the interior of which exactly resembles an Airbus 320 economy cabin, and over 30 minutes explores the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, taking audience members through two worlds, two realities and two possible outcomes to their journey. There are many worlds in which this plane lands safely. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Bordering their two home bases in Hackney Wick and Silvertown - where the DARKFIELD offices and studio reside - the company are embedding themselves in their local community, building on a rich and growing creative presence in the area. DARKFIELD will work with local creatives and businesses throughout their residency. In addition to the four container experiences, Darkfield will provide a bar area and buzz for audiences to enjoy in between experiences. Will you take on all four containers? Glen Neath, Co-Artistic Director of DARKFIELD, commented: It’s long been our dream to establish a site where we can host all our containers in one place, so we’re very excited to finally open DARKFIELD LONDON so close to our two bases in North-East London. It’s great to have such a long residency at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which is fast becoming a mainstay in London’s cultural scene. This is the first time we’ve presented our containers in London since 2022, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be back! Immersing audiences into total darkness, using DARKFIELD’s trademark 360-degree binaural sound delivered through headphones, each container will immerse audiences in a new world where everything is not quite as it seems. DARKFIELD will be at Queen Elizabeth's Olympic Park from 7th October to 2nd November 2025 with ARCADE, COMA, EULOGY and FLIGHT. Tickets for each show are priced from £14.00. For more information, and to book tickets, visit darkfield.org/london2025