An immersive experience based on the life of Elvis Presley is set to open in London later this year. Produced by Layered Reality - creators of Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience and The Gunpowder Plot - will debut Elvis Evolution in 2025 at a Central London location. Photo: Elvis Presley Enterprises LLC While the real-life Elvis never performed on stage in the UK, the show will feature a concert experience where a life-sized digital Elvis will perform some of his biggest hits. It'll be preceded by a journey through his life - from Graceland, to New York and Los Angeles, before heading to Las Vegas - where he took up a seven-year residency between 1969 and 1976. Layered Reality will bring Elvis back through AI and holographic projection, as well as augmented reality, live theatre and multi-sensory effects. To aid the creation of the show, the company have been given access to thousands of Elvis’s personal photos and hours of his home video archive to create new AI Elvis performances that have never been seen before. Photo: Elvis Presley Enterprises LLC Founder and CEO of Layered Reality Andrew McGuinness had this to say on the upcoming experience... Elvis Evolution is a next-generation tribute to the musical legend that is Elvis Presley. Elvis maintains superstar status globally and people around the world no longer want to sit there and passively receive entertainment – they want to be a part of it. It’ll be a memory-making experience that will be a bucket list item for Elvis fans and admirers around the world; people can step into the world of Elvis, walk in his shoes and celebrate his extraordinary musical legacy. The experience will also feature an Elvis-themed bar and restaurant on site, with live music, DJs and performances. Set to debut in London, Elvis Evolution will later open in multiple cities around the world including Las Vegas, Tokyo and Berlin. Photos: Elvis Presley Enterprises LLC To find out more about the experience, and to get presale access before the general sale, visit layeredreality.com/elvis Stay up to date on this and everything else immersive in London by following us on Instagram or X.

Vegetables, a new immersive show for audiences of up to 13 people per performance is set to open at a secret location in Clerkenwell this June. Produced by Muddled Marauders, the show is set to run from 8th to 23rd June. The show's description is as follows: Clerkenwell Bio Botanics is inviting guests for a product showcase at their secret underground research centre. Dr Angela Haas has built a machine that can fix you in ways you didn’t think you could be fixed.. follow this link to be apply to be one of our lucky trialists. To attend, audience members must apply via clerkenwell-bio-botanics.co.uk The Arts Council England-funded show is directed and written by Nathan Ess and edited by Dan Wye (Seayonce). The show is inspired by the work of Julia Davis, Charlie Kaufman and the Channel 4/Netflix series Black Mirror. Vegetables takes places at a secret location in Clerkenwell from 8th to 23rd June. Tickets are available via clerkenwell-bio-botanics.co.uk and are priced at £40 per person.

Photo: R Space Productions Immersive Rumours: Hi Steph. Thanks for sitting down with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about R Space Productions? Steph Ricketts: Yes, I’m Steph and I'm the Managing Director and Founder of R Space Productions. Back when we started R Space in 2018, we just wanted to create a space for people to come and share things they we were working on, make things together and share their skill sets. I had a project name called ‘The Space’ for a while in my head. It’s grown loads in the last couple of years, but when we started, Staines (which was the main hub for most of us) didn’t have a lot of arts or creative areas outside of places we worked at the time, such as Thorpe Park. We'd wait every year for the Halloween season to come along, but we'd get the itch for it around February time, so it was about asking, 'What if we did it all year round? What if we got to do this full-time because we're the one’s creating it?’ The goal of doing these shows [with R Space] has always been to grow people's skill sets and create a space for people to come and be in the industry while learning from us at the same time IR: We're speaking today because DEATHCELL: Magenta is opening later this month, but I'd love to talk about the previous DEATHCELL show that took place back in 2018. How did the idea for that original show come about? Steph: I’d had the idea of creating a prison-themed experience for a while. I'd become weirdly fascinated with prisons, so every time I went away on holiday or travelling, I’d go see a prison to learn about history and culture. When I went to San Francisco, I went to see Alcotraz. Add in my love for graphic novels, comics, and anime, and that’s where the story started - I wanted to tell a story about a prison that wasn’t typical and more fictional. I had snippets of what the story could be at the time, but it wasn’t cohesive. I wrote a 30-page document explaining what DEATHCELL is and what it was like to be in there. There was lore and different paths characters were going to take that would impact their future. People hear me say this all the time, but I’m such a fan of the film Fight Club. What I love about that story is that things can be in front of you the whole time, and you don’t realise. It’s the same with the SAW franchise. As a player in Jigsaw’s games, if you had just listened to the rules without overthinking it, you could have walked out alive. I was heavily inspired by that. IR: For those who didn't attend the 2018 show, can you tell us a bit about what that experience involved? Steph: The best way to describe the show is that it was an introduction or pilot into this world. It showed guests what a day is like inside this prison through the eyes of one character branded ‘Yellow.’ We don’t know their real name because when you go into DEATHCELL, you’re branded with a colour, and your identity is removed from you. Within the world of DEATHCELL, individuals either handed themselves in or were forcibly taken in by masked henchmen known as ‘The Flys.’ This choice determined their journey. Those who resisted faced a harsher induction, such as electrocution, while those who surrendered were taken to the shower room for waterboarding. (Which is still rough!) So at the start, guests were split and experienced one of these paths as they entered. We had actors who were really happy to invest in those scenes and went for it. People came out saying that the waterboarding scene was one of the hardest to watch. After you’d been inducted (as guests) you would all witness a fight between two of the inmates in DEATHCELL named ‘players’. These characters weren't just banged up in a cell somewhere, they were fighting for their lives and earning coins, or credits as we call them, to keep themselves alive. We had stooges planted in the audience, who would get picked out to be part of this fight. We wanted to make the audience feel like they were living and breathing this world, and it could be them who gets picked out next, injecting fear into people. Audiences didn’t think they were part of it, but members of the team were planted as stooges but just in their normal clothes. Before you know it, they’re being beaten up and then on the floor. After that, they were dragged into their cells, which is where the escape room elements of the show came in, and people had to play different games to earn credits. Once you had these credits, they'd get to use them in a vending machine, which sounds completely random, but it just makes sense in this world. After that, they were dragged into their cells, which is where the escape room elements of the show came in, and people had to play different games to earn credits. Once you had these credits, they'd get to use them on a vending machine, which sounds completely random, but the items inside it - from weapons to packets of Magic Stars, USBs with data on them - they’d all help you in various ways. Without revealing too much, the most unexpected items often held the greatest value in escaping DEATHCELL. Some guests would casually snack on their picked bag of Magic Stars chocolate, unaware that their choice could impact their gameplay. Eventually, inside the Warden’s office, guests discovered the Warden’s connection to Yellow, unraveling more of their relationship before the experience ended in a chaotic chase sequence. It's been really fun going back and looking at that show, now knowing that we're going back to the very beginning of the story, with a world that has expanded massively beyond what this original did. DEATHCELL (2018) Photos: R Space Productions IR: That original show also set up the world of DEATHCELL and explained why those prisons exist right? Steph: Yeah. The reason these penitentiaries exist in this universe is to bring harmony to people. Imagine a world where there's lots of unrest, lots of divided communities. Within this world, a system is brought in called the ‘Harmony Act’ to ensure that people are behaving themselves and if someone upsets you, or you upset someone, you or them can nominate each other to be picked up and taken to these penitentiaries to be conditioned into behaving better within society. As time went on, they became more and more corrupt, and this one in particular became the most corrupt and is so run down that it isn't part of that system anymore. The Warden became obsessed with playing with the prisoners that came in, and therefore, it's branded as DEATHCELL. IR: I can't recall many other shows from around that time that combined immersive theatre, scare attractions and escape rooms into one experience. Would you describe the original DEATHCELL as unique for its time? Steph: I think it was bold. I can't say for sure we were the first to do it, but as far as I’m aware, we were one of the first to merge those three elements - immersive storytelling escape room experience and run-out scare attraction - and we've just built on it since then. Escape rooms were big at that point, I remember them coming out around 2015, especially horror scare rooms, and there were a lot of escape room elements starting to be experimented with in the scare world, but I feel like we were just really bold at mashing it all together and saying, ‘This could work. We’re just going to go for it.’ Now, I can't see us ever not doing that. It's great to see how quickly the horror and scare industry has expanded in the last six years. Back when I started scare acting 15 years ago, it was all very linear, on-shoulders experiences. I can't speak for what went on in America or in Europe, but definitely within the UK. Nowadays, people want a story; people want to be immersed as soon as they go in and want to feel like they're living and breathing it. Video: R Space Productions IR: Are there any stand-out experiences that you remember combining at least two of those three elements? Steph: Back in 2015, I went to see a show called Generation of Z: Apocalypse; it was by a company from New Zealand. They’d done the Edinburgh Fringe with the show, and I think it was in Mile End when it was London, but that was the first show I went to that had immersive scares, and it broke the rule book to what I knew it to be. It inspired me to want to create theatre like that. I'd worked in scare attractions and was a bit desensitised, but I went into that show, and I was running through underground corridors away from zombies. Obviously, I’m a scare actor, so I know it's not real, but I was running away from it, and I really believed I was in that world for an hour and a half. You had to help someone make it to the operating theatre, distract a zombie, and rescue people. It just opened my eyes to the idea that scare could be so much more. That was a show that really inspired me, and it was one of the first ones I'd seen or experienced something outside of the usual linear attractions that I'd been so used to seeing and performing in. Photo: R Space Productions People want a story; people want to be immersed as soon as they go in and want to feel like they're living and breathing it. IR: DEATHCELL: Magenta, the prequel, is a couple of weeks away from opening, but at one point, you'd planned on opening a sequel to that original 2018 show, right? Steph: Yeah. Back in 2020, we were supposed to do, as we now call it DEATHCELL 2 as a project name. We were looking at a venue at the time, and then obviously COVID came about. We were maybe one or two weeks away from releasing tickets. We're very lucky that we didn't because obviously, the pandemic happened, and we were just about to sign onto a venue. We spent lockdown rewriting that experience. We spent hours on Zoom with various members of the team, just workshopping it, rewriting it, and Magenta soon had more of a part to play in that story. However, the world hasn't seen DEATHCELL 2 yet…and it’s still in the works. IR: Can you tell us a bit about the character of Magenta and how she fits into the wider DEATHCELL world? Steph: When we originally did the pilot, Magenta wasn't in that document or the concept I'd written. However, when we went to add in the escape room elements of the 2018 show, we were questioning, “Why are the games there? Who's been making them?” We came up with the idea of a character called Magenta. We didn't know what she looked like back then; we didn't know what her part in DEATHCELL was apart from that she's the person who creates these games. We didn't know where she necessarily sat in the story, but it gave us enough scope to go ‘Okay, she's the mastermind behind the games’. It gave us a concept to work with to make sure that the games and the theming in those rooms made sense, but it wasn't really communicated to the guests. From an audience point of view, you wouldn't know Magenta existed. Since 2020, we've developed Magenta further, and when we started to talk about this experience, we went ‘Well, if this is a prequel, why don't we tell the story of Magenta and DEATHCELL becoming DEATHCELL?' Photo: R Space Productions Everything needs to have a purpose, so we wouldn't put a jump scare in if there was no need to put a jump scare in. IR: How does your approach to creating these experiences change depending on the length? The 2018 show was 30 minutes, a typical Fright Nights experience is under 10 minutes, but DEATHCELL: Magenta is a full hour-long experience. Steph: When it comes to a lot of scare attractions I’ve worked in at Halloween events such as Fright Nights, you are in there for about 7 to 10 minutes, sometimes quicker depending on if you run out! You only have that limited time to tell an entire story. The theming, the scripts, the character work, the type of scares you have… they need to be snappy because if people don't get the story in those 7 minutes, they potentially come out saying ‘I don't know what I just saw’. You have to be very self-explanatory or utilise things like your marketing, queue lines and your pre-show characters to really tell that story. It’s got to pack a punch as you don't have time to delve into a backstory or characters. Equally, some people don’t necessarily want to hear a story, they just want to be scared, right? These attractions always require the same amount of background work, but guests might not get to see all of that. The types of performance you do is going to be different in fast-paced attractions because someone is going to be in a room for a couple of seconds, and then they're going to be into the next one. How you deliver that performance is very different from how we've got to do it in Magenta. We have the luxury of delving deeper into a story and deeper into the characters. In the world where you’ve got 60 minutes, you have more time to tell a story and delve into emotions a lot more, however, guests are going to be in the space for longer so you’ve got to add more details in to make sure that they aren’t looking around and noticing all the gaps in your experience. IR: Do you feel like you need to pack in loads of scares to match people's expectations if they're used to a Fright Nights style experience? Steph: We still have elements for people needing that scare factor. At the end of the day, that’s where we all started. Without saying too much, there are bits in the show that have that, but all of it is with purpose. I feel like everything needs to have a purpose, so we wouldn't put a jump scare in if there was no need to put a jump scare in. We’re quite good at having honest debates about that - does this character really need to be in there, and what does the guest take from it? For us, it’s all about the story, the world building and being immersed as soon as you go in, forgetting that you're in Hackney Wick and have come to watch a show. People are booking because they want to be immersed in the story. Photo: R Space Productions IR: You mentioned earlier that the 2018 DEATHCELL experience had multiple paths for people to go down. Is that the case with this new experience? Steph: This one is more guided. Guests will naturally have their own say in how their room experience goes because of the puzzles they are doing and how they go about them. But for this experience, the end goal is always the same because we want to lead people into the next chapter, which is DEATHCELL 2. With Magenta, we want guests to come along for the journey and not have different outcomes at this point because it’ll confuse the story later on. Your end goal is always the same, but your experience in each room and how various characters or things around you will react will depend on what you do. DEATHCELL 2 will definitely have elements of multi-route. The guests will decide how the show is going to end without knowing it, and then we'll have, in theory, a couple of minutes to switch that on and deliver one of 3 or 4 different endings. Photo: R Space Productions IR: What were your earliest experiences with scare attractions, and how did you find yourself working in that world? Steph: I'm a big believer in fate. You might not understand it at the time, but three years later, you'll look back and understand why. In 2010, I finished studying Performing Arts at Bath Spa University. I was the only third year on my course who didn't get picked for a show - all of them had been picked to be main leads in West Side Story, at The Minack Theatre in Cornwall, and I was devastated. At that point, you feel like you've failed, right? You're like, ‘I'm the only person who's not been picked. What's wrong with me?’ So I felt quite defeated. I remember sitting in this empty house in Bath, and I said to myself, ‘I'm just going to try and make it, whatever make it means’. My family lived near Chessington World of Adventures, so I looked on the Merlin website, and they were doing scare auditions for Scream in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds in London. I thought, ‘Oh, that's the dungeon thing I went to last year and quickly ran up the stairs from’. I was such a wuss back in the day, I'd been to the London Dungeons once before and screamed all the way round. Maybe a week later, I picked up The Stage newspaper, opened it up, and there was the same advert for [Madame Tussaud’s] Scream in there. I thought it was fate. The auditions were in Old Street, so I went to it and then didn't think I was going to get it. I finished the audition, waiting for the call out, and they called me back for the following day for what they call Scare School. I remember leaving thinking, ‘Oh, I actually did something; they want to see me’. I went through two or three days of Scare School, which is basically learning how to be a scare performer. Testing your agility, physical endurance, character work, how you can apply physical theatre to what you're doing, and I'm quite a physical performer - which actually shows in Magenta - you can see in her in her physicality and the way she moves around the space, she's quite creaturesque, or less human than others. I was offered the job to be a scare performer for four months, and I just found my thing. I was suddenly with people who were on the same wavelength as me; I was around so many creative people of different ages. I ended up being extended, and then as more scare actors came in, they’d start talking about other events such as Fright Nights at Thorpe Park and how they go and do it every year. The following year, I auditioned, and I was cast in The Asylum, which was one of their best-loved scare attractions. Over the next couple of years, I was a Show Captain at Thorpe Park for Fright Nights, so I got to look after the performers every Halloween, and it's just gone on from there. I’ve worked on attractions like Saw Alive and Cabin In The Woods, and I eventually became a Team Leader of Entertainment at Thorpe Park, which is where I met a lot of the R Space members. In 2019 as Entertainments Experience Manager, I got to write experiences like Trailers for Fright Nights, and got to work on other experiences such as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train and work globally on the Tussauds brand in 2022 and 2023. More recently, I became a Project Manager for large-scale events such as Fright Nights, Mardi Gras, Oktoberfest, and working with loads of different stakeholders in the industry. IR: Looking back on your career so far, R Space has been a constant for nearly half of it. I guess R Space wouldn't exist without you being in that world.. Steph: Yeah. I've gone from being an actor who fell into doing scare acting for four months to this becoming my entire life, and R Space has been a thread through that for the last seven years, but the jobs that I've done have 100% helped me to become the person I am in R Space. I think R Space has also allowed me to grow in other areas of work because I've been out there in the eld with less protection and structure, so I’ve had to go and the answers myself. I feel like I’ve been out and earned my stripes to make me a great all-rounder, but I still have lots to learn and I still enjoy dipping back into scare acting ever so often. At Fright Nights, I always try to go back in and do some scaring in the new attractions. As the industry grows and grows, I think there's more weight on the performers now. They've got seven minutes to get this whole story across, whereas beforehand, and not to discredit it, you could focus more on jump scares, and people would be scared and run out. That still works, but now people want a story; people want elaborate costumes. The stakes are higher now when you're scare performing because people expect more. Photo: R Space Productions IR: You're set to be playing the titular Magenta in the upcoming show. What has it been like stepping into Magenta's shoes? It's quite a different kind of role from what you've typically done in scare attractions. Steph: Yeah. I haven't performed outside of scare performing for a really, really long time. I'd say that out of the entire project, that's the bit that scares me the most. All the bits that we need to sort in the next couple weeks, not so much. The performing aspect makes me go ‘Oh God, I haven't done this for a really long time.' I felt a bit self-conscious about doing it, but that's because the type of performance I've done recently has been very physical without any dialogue. When we were shaping this character on set, the team were amazing. Jimm, our Head of Creative and Production, has been our main lead in terms of the short film elements. He and the other performers around me really helped me feel at ease more when shooting. When we shot [the short film content] in August, that was probably one of the highlights of my year. I hadn't performed in a really long time, but I came away feeling like I'd challenged myself. I'm always thinking about how to play her or how to be her, but it's been a journey. I'm a great physical performer when it comes to scare acting, but Magenta isn't scare just acting. She's telling the story. IR: Finally, what do you hope people will take away from the experience? Steph: What I am most excited about is for people to be immersed as soon as they get there, see how big the story is, how much we have thought about everything, and how much work has gone into delivering it. We could have easily just done a short film, we could have just done an escape room, we could have just done a piece of theatre, but we decided to bash them all together. I want people to come away with it stuck in their minds. Either because of the story or how we’ve delivered the experience. DEATHCELL: Magenta will run from 21st February to 1st March 2025 at a secret location in Hackney Wick. Tickets are on sale now, starting from £30.00. For more info and to book, visit deathcell.co.uk A massive thank you to Steph and Liam from R Space for taking the time to sit down with us for this interview.

For one-night only next month, the world of Donnie Darko will be recreated for an interactive, tech-enhanced party beneath Waterloo Station as part of Donnie Darko's Halloween House Party. Image: Cinaethsia Productions The event is being produced by Cinaesthesia Productions, who are currently developing a three-hour immersive experience based on the film set to open in London in 2025. The event will give visitors their first chance to step into the tangent universe alongside Donnie and Frank the Rabbit. The event description for Donnie Darko's Halloween House Party is below.... Greeted at the door by Donnie Darko himself, guests will step through a facade modelled after the Darko's residence. Inside, actors, live music, film screenings, themed bars, and tech-enhanced visuals come together to create an immersive, dream-like experience that mirrors the film’s eerie tangent universe. The night will feature surprise character appearances, interactive moments, and references to key scenes from the movie, pulling you deeper into Donnie’s surreal world, all under the unsettling influence of Frank the Rabbit. Upon entering through a facade inspired by the Darko house, partygoers will find themselves in a surreal, mind-bending world featuring interactive moments and references to key scenes from the film. Expect live performances, 80s-inspired tunes, and themed treats as the Darko universe comes to life like never before. Image: Cinaethesia Productions More about Cinaesthesia Productions... Cinæsthesia Productions is a boundary-pushing immersive theatre company nestled within the cultural tapestry of London, UK. Their international team of imaginative pioneers creates innovative productions that blur reality and fantasy. Through innovative technology, storytelling, and craftsmanship, they transport audiences into extraordinary narratives. With diverse backgrounds and unwavering passion, they craft unforgettable, multisensory journeys that engage and inspire. Going beyond traditional production, weaving captivating wonders and inventing breath-taking worlds. Prepare for an immersive journey that defies reality and transcends time and space. Their mastery of technology brings holographic landscapes and interactive characters to life, merging reality and imagination. Find out more about Donnie Darko's Halloween House Party, check out the event's website here. Donnie Darko's Halloween House Party runs in Waterloo for one-night only on 1st November 2024. Tickets are priced at £21.50 and can be purchased via feverup.com

Image: SWAMP Five years after its initial launch, Isklander, the award-winning online mystery trilogy that captivated over 100,000 players worldwide, is making a highly anticipated return for a limited six-week run. Created by immersive company SWAMP (formerly Swamp Motel), Isklander is a gripping, multi-layered trilogy made up of Plymouth Point, The Mermaid’s Tongue, and The Kindling Hour, that takes place entirely online and blurs the divide between fiction and reality. Players must unravel a conspiracy involving secret societies, corporate corruption, and ancient artefacts—all while interacting with live performers who respond to their choices in real-time. The game’s immersive storytelling and innovative format quickly gained international recognition, leading to a TV adaptation deal with Gaumont - the studio behind Netflix's Lupin and Narcos, and Sky Atlantic's Tin Star. Now, in celebration of its five-year anniversary, Isklander is back, giving both returning fans and first-time players the chance to experience the mystery that started it all. Since its debut in 2020, Isklander has been lauded for its unique format, blending gaming, film, live performance, and interactive storytelling. Unlike traditional online games, Isklander requires no downloads or special software—players navigate a dynamic online world, receiving live video calls and uncovering hidden secrets as they race against the clock. All three shows received widespread acclaim, with The Guardian describing Plymouth Point, the first instalment in the trilogy as 'inventive, gorgeously designed and technically dazzling'. The Stage described Isklander as 'a whirlwind of engaging storytelling... an innovative, hugely enjoyable embrace of digital possibilities'. Priced at £35 per part, per group (up to six players), teams can dive back into the investigation, following a trail of clues across real and fictional websites, hacking into secret files, and making high-stakes decisions as they interact with live characters. The official descriptions for each part of the Isklander trilogy are as follows: Part 1: Plymouth Point As new members of the Plymouth Point Resident’s Watch, your team must track down a missing woman, Ivy. Corporate espionage, occult horrors, and shadowy cabals stand in your way. Search the internet, crack codes, and uncover the truth before it’s too late. Part 2: The Mermaids Tongue Following Plymouth Point, your team must track down an ancient artefact—the Mermaid’s Tongue. A source of great power, it could spell disaster in the wrong hands. Uncover a murky underworld of high society and the forces hiding in plain sight. Part 3: The Kindling Hour After Plymouth Point and The Mermaid’s Tongue, the Isklander trilogy reaches its thrilling conclusion. Infiltrate a powerful organisation, unravel secrets, and evade capture. Trust no one. Find their weakness… before they find you. Beyond Isklander, Swamp has continued to push the boundaries of immersive entertainment with critically acclaimed productions such as The Drop, Saint Jude and Velvet Pines alongside projects for some of the largest global brands, including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Warner Brothers. All three shows in the Isklander trilogy are priced at £35 per group (up to six people). The trilogy, which takes place entirely online, is running until 26th April 2025. Tickets can be booked via isklander.com

This immersive exploration of Elvis's life not only lacks the scale and ambition of previous Layered Reality experiences but tells us nothing new about the King of Rock and Roll. Photo: Luke Dyson Elvis Evolution, which has just launched at Immerse LDN, is the latest show from immersive producers Layered Reality. In this promenade experience, guests take on the role of last-minute audience members recruited from Bob's Burbank Diner to attend the 1968 taping of Elvis' NBC Special, which marked his return to the stage after a seven-year break, and relive his childhood and rise to fame through numerous flashbacks. Layered Reality is best known for Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience, which is now London's longest-running immersive show, having first opened in 2019. The company built its reputation by fusing practical effects, holograms, projections and VR with elaborate, detailed immersive sets and large casts of live actors. This approach to immersive work continued with The Gunpowder Plot, which opened near the Tower of London in 2022, and shared many elements with The War of the Worlds, including extended VR sequences, dozens of detailed environments and actor-driven interactions with small groups of guests. With Elvis Evolution, Layered Reality has set aside the VR headsets and much of the foundations laid in these previous projects, instead opting for an experience with a much larger audience size and significantly reduced immersive elements. It's a disappointing shift in the wrong direction for a company known for pushing the boundaries of tech-heavy immersive experiences, and the result is a show that feels less interactive, less engaging and ultimately less impressive than its predecessors. Photo: Luke Dyson Structurally, the show is a pretty radical departure from the formula that served Layered Reality so well in the past. Rather than the 15 to 20 detailed environments previously presented in Layered Reality experiences, Elvis Evolution contains just eight spaces, three of which are bars, and one is a plain white-walled corridor. Most of the experience unfolds in three spaces: an NBC Studios staff break room, a train carriage, and the sound stage where Elvis's 1968 Special was recorded. In each, the audience of 100+ remains stationary, with little to do but watch on as the story unfolds in front of them. There's also minimal interaction with the cast and no opportunity to influence or enter the story. Occasional pre-programmed rumble from beneath the audience's seats, or gust of wind and smoke in the first half of the show provide some sensory immersion, but the show feels far closer to a traditional piece of theatre than an immersive experience - especially during the scenes in the train carraige, which has the audience sat down, watching the cast perform a whistle-stop, sanitised summary of Elvis's rise to fame against a backdrop of slicky-produced video content for 40+ minutes. Photo: Luke Dyson The story within Elvis Evolution is primarily told through the perspective of Sam Bell, Elvis's childhood friend from Tupelo, Mississippi. While the pair were close in their younger years, they lost contact when the Presley family moved to Memphis. Audiences first meet Sam in the NBC staff break room, where he tries to talk his way into Elvis's dressing room and is turned away. Licking his wounds, he delivers a pretty lengthy monologue about their shared childhood in Mississippi and the role music played in their youth. Later in the show, scenes show Sam hearing one of Elvis's songs for the first time on the radio, and in the show's second half, he has a conversation about Elvis in an LA bar with a stranger. The two never saw each other again in the twenty years between Elvis leaving Mississippi and 1968, when the show is primarily set, and while his perspective is certainly a unique one, it doesn't tell us anything about the version of Elvis that millions around the world love. Because of this, the narrative of Elvis Evolution feels oddly removed from the man himself and offers little meaningful insight into his life. There's no real-life stand-in for Elvis in the experience, and he's only seen through pre-existing archival footage and carefully shot recreations in which the actor's face is never shown. While the cast frequently talks about Elvis, he's treated by every character in the show as a mythical rock star who should be adored from afar, and not as a real person with a rich and complex history that's ripe for exploration. Alongside the show's version of Sam Bell, Elvis Evolution features a trio of talented cast members playing supporting roles, including NBC production staff, preachers, recording studio execs and crazed fans. They all do a phenomenal job at wearing so many hats throughout the two-hour experience, and rarely have a moment's rest, but the rapid turnover of characters makes it hard for the audience to connect to any single character besides Sam, whose only connection to Elvis lies in the past, not the present. Photo: Luke Dyson Much of the excitement surrounding Elvis Evolution when it was first announced in January 2024 hinged on the promise of an 'AI hologram' version of Elvis, with the initial press coverage of the show (including ours) highlighting this element of the experience. While it may have been unrealistic for audiences to expect Elvis Evolution to be of the same scale as ABBA Voyage, which delivers a full 90-minute-long hologram concert, the show was said to feature a 'jaw-dropping concert experience where a life-sized digital Elvis will perform iconic moments in musical history on a UK stage for the first time'. There's nothing of the sort within Elvis Evolution, with the only performances we see from Elvis instead being played on screens during the NBC studio scene, which follows the interval. A talented trio of musicians perform live alongside the footage, but none of them are Elvis - the person people have come to see. Most of the footage featured in this portion of the show, besides a montage of famous faces commenting on Elvis's influence on their careers, is freely available on YouTube without the AI-enhanced upscaling that's left the show's version of 1968 Elvis looking like a moving Madame Tussauds waxwork with overly smooth skin. Photo: Luke Dyson While it's never been confirmed, the show's third and final delay ahead of opening, which was attributed to an 'outside vendor going into administration', is likely referencing VFX company The Mill, which closed suddenly in February of this year, and was previously confirmed to be involved in the creation of visuals for the show. Regardless of whether or not their sudden closure prevented the inclusion of the holographic Elvis, its absence is keenly felt all the same. If it had come to fruition, this holographic version of Elvis would have turned the show's finale into something far more exciting, allowed Layered Reality to hold onto its reputation as a company that puts cutting-edge technology at the forefront of its experiences, and met the expectations of the countless lifelong Elvis fans who no doubt rushed to pick up tickets as soon as they went on sale. As it stands, Elvis Evolution offers little in the way of immersion, tells us nothing new about the show's titular character, and lacks the energy and spectacle one would expect from a show about one of the world's best-known performers. ★★★ Elvis Evolution runs at Immerse LDN, ExCel Centre until 28th December 2025. Tickets are priced from £68.00 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit elvisevolution.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Elvis Evolution, check out our recent Reviews.

Photo: Lyra Levin Undersigned - a deeply personal, interactive psychological thriller for an audience of one - is making its international debut this summer with stops in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. The show, which has been created by Yannick Trapman-O'Brien, has enjoyed sell-out performances across the United States, and earlier this year was part of Overlook Film Festival's immersive programme alongside 2024's darling of the London immersive scene, The Manikins: a work in progress by Deadweight Theatre. Our friends over at No Proscenium have previously described Undersigned as "thrilling in every sense of the word", and six months on from their appointment, Todd Martens from the Los Angeles Times commented, "..there are moments I’ll catch myself thinking about the show and the choice I was presented with". Ahead of Undersigned arriving in the UK, we caught up with Yannick Trapman-O'Brien to find out a bit more about the experience... Immersive Rumours: Hi Yannick! Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and giving us a bit of background on your work up until now? Yannick Trapman-O'Brien: Happy to! I’m a performer and theatermaker based in Philadelphia, and most interested in the things we share and exchange with strangers. I’ve jumped around a lot, working in creative research and performative exchanges, public art and history, circus and immersive nightlife, but in the past five years I’ve built a practice of making responsive, intimate theatre pieces for small audiences - most often only one person at a time. That shift in my practice started for me with The Telelibrary - an early pandemic-era experiment in telephone theatre that participants really seized and poured themselves into until it blossomed into something much stranger and more powerful than I ever expected. Five years and 2100 calls later, it’s still operating, and still teaching me new things about co-authoring with audiences, rethinking scale for performance, and making better and better invitations for anyone who stumbles in as my audience of one. Photo: Lyra Levin IR: Undersigned is coming to Europe for the first time this summer with shows in London, Amsterdam and at the Edinburgh Fringe. What can you tell us about the show and the role of the audience within it? YTO: Often, when I say that I make work for an audience of one, and someone understandably asks, “But what does that mean?” I explain it this way: I’ve written a show about you. You’ll be the only one there, and no one else will see it. And everything in the show is written except for anything about you — but that’s fine, because you’re the expert on anything about you, so when you get there, you can share whatever you choose, and we’ll finish it together. The show is a place to have a new conversation with yourself; to speak frankly to yourself about what it is you value, and to cement that truth through action. To that end, there’s not much about the show itself I can tell you, as we make a policy of not discussing the contents of the show at all. In part, this is to provide meaningful privacy for guests, who may well take the chance to discuss things that don’t live anywhere outside of their own head. But it’s also because we want our participants to own as much of the story that emerges as possible. Every guest makes their own calculation of how blindly they are willing to step in, and obviously we’re not opposed to offering some context - I wouldn’t be speaking to you if I was! It’s a very personal experience, it’s 45-55 minutes long, there will be a blindfold, an invocation, and a pointed discussion. But the invitation is for every participant to wonder what might emerge if they didn’t look to anyone else to confirm what their experience might or “should” be, and instead trusted that their own authentic response to the premise, as they encounter it, is something meaningful and worth discovering. IR: Where did the idea for Undersigned first come from? YTO: Undersigned began as a private commission way back in 2019. I got a phone call out of the blue from someone who had heard about my work and was looking to commission a piece of immersive horror. And my immediate instinct was to decline - maybe even to run away, which isn’t a practical choice on a phone call but it serves as a testament to how ill equipped I felt for the genre as someone who has watched a few episodes of Spongebob Squarepants through my fingers, rapt in terror at totally harmless levels of peril. But the client was persistent and offered me enormous flexibility, and I pitched the beginnings of an odd idea, and we went with it. The event came, and I did like 12 shows in one night, and I was totally bowled over by what those 12 random partygoers made with their time. I felt an enormous curiosity, and an enormous burden of care that I honestly didn’t have enough tools for at the time. I spent a few years looking for resources, talking to other artists and therapists and sex workers and all manner of people who hold heavy things and practice care and aftercare. At the same time, I logged more and more hours with The Telelibrary, and I found my own growing set of tools and practices. And so in 2022, I brought the piece back down from the shelf and started putting into practice all the questions and ideas I had about making safe places to be dangerous, and offering discomfort as a form of care. Photo: Lyra Levin IR: In the years since it was created, has Undersigned changed and developed based on the way audiences have approached the show? YTO: One of the great gifts of doing these low-throughput shows is the luxury of having something small, adaptable and sustainable enough to hold it year over year, and to gradually let hundreds of people pour through over time. As dorky as it sounds, I think about a school field trip as a child where I was brought to a cave and they told us how a stalagmite forms gradually from the steady repetition of just little drops of water, and I feel a touch of that same awe. For Undersigned, there’s an element of that accumulation; some mark of the generosity of every participant lingers, and comes to hold the next participant. And there’s a way that all the hands running over the surface make some parts of the experience smooth and worn over time - guests have really shown me what the piece is about, where they are inclined to linger, and how to stay out of their way. But I also think there’s a sharpening that happens too; there’s a fine point at the center of the question we present, and we’re always using the lessons from each guest to shift and adjust and ensure that edge stays keen, and that we can hold it steady enough for someone to press as far against it as they dare. IR: Do you find people go into Undersigned with some trepidation about not having a safety net of other participants around them, or do they instead find that to be freeing? YTO: I have to imagine participants sometimes feel nervous to be the only one there, and I know there is some subset of audiences for whom that’s just a dealbreaker. I’ve met people who say, “It would be my nightmare to be the only one there.” But I think that when those participants actually try it, they may find the experience isn’t at all what they imagined - which is maybe informed by the image of an empty theatre and you all lonely in the middle. The truth is we all spend time alone in our own heads, and I think for most of us it’s quite a crowded room. As facilitators, our job is to help that experience be as freeing as you suggested, and to guide someone away from the concern that they need to “do” anything or make something happen. The show is a chance to just respond organically, and to notice how your responses may be freer or stranger or different as you settle into the fact that there is no one there but you. Photo: Lyra Levin IR: Finally, what advice would you give to those looking to attend on how to best prepare themselves beforehand? YTO: Well, for starters, I would say that there’s nothing anyone has to do in preparation for this beyond grabbing themselves an appointment time and showing up at the right time and place. I’m really proud of the work we’ve done building the ramp into and out of this experience, and as someone who has frequently found myself only checking the confirmation email for an event while already on the train to get there, I’m always grateful for experiences that understand how expensive it can be to have to give energy and brainspace to something before it starts. But for those who enjoy looking forward with anticipation, or for those who are inclined to plan and prep (somehow also me, on the train heading to the event I haven’t read about with a backpack full of things I might need), there are a few things you can do to give yourself more space for whatever experience emerges. We give you the choice to bring an offering to use in the process, and it can be a great gift to spend a little time in the days preceding noticing what small objects in your life seem to have some kind of heat or charge to them, and choosing one that feels like it’s at a tipping point. And since I’m always in favor of people holding themselves with more care, I’d say to do so you could arrive early, so that when you’re inevitably later than planned, you’re still not rushing yourself. Better still, if possible I’d even recommend you save yourself some time for after the experience that you can spend alone; maybe there’s somewhere in the area you’d like to grab a solo meal afterwards, or a shop you’ve been meaning to pop into, or even just a nice walk you can talk through a nearby park, or to a tube station a little further away than is efficient. Some participants find that the time spent in their own company at Undersigned leaves them hungry for more - and some participants find that having plans after gives one a very functional alibi should one decide to keep their time at Undersigned as their own little secret. Undersigned will run at an unannounced location near London Bridge from 24th July to 26th July 2025, and at Underbelly Cowgate from 31st July to 12th August as part of Edinburgh Fringe 2025. The show asks for a Down Payment of £80.00 for London performances and £13.50 for Edinburgh performances. To join the waitlist for London appointments, visit yannickto.com/undersigned, and for Edinburgh appointments, visit underbellyedinburgh.co.uk

Image: Paramount+ To celebrate the launch of the new Paramount+ series Dexter: Resurrection, Paramount+ invites fans to step inside the mind of TV's most iconic antihero with Dexter: The Experience, powered by Fever - an unmissable new immersive event coming to London this July. The exclusive, limited-run experience will plunge visitors into Dexter Morgan’s twisted world, from his first kill to his dark rebirth in Dexter: Resurrection. Due to popular demand, which saw all available tickets sell out in 20 minutes on 24th June, an additional release of free tickets to Dexter: The Experience will be released on 1st July at midday via Fever. Those looking to secure tickets should sign up for the waitlist via dextertheexperience.co.uk. The event will have a standby line for those without tickets, but expect long waits. Taken on a journey through a labyrinth of rooms, fans will become dark passengers guided by an exclusive voiceover from Michael C Hall as Dexter Morgan himself. With each new room, the mind bends further, encouraging fans to think, react and follow his code while navigating interactive challenges that blur reality with memory. Fans will experience a fictional slice of life as Dexter, exploring his earliest memory to his first kill and every grisly milestone after that. By solving gruesome puzzles, mind-bending riddles, and gore-filled games, passengers will hope to make it out by cracking Dexter’s code. Pulling from series themes such as analysing blood spatter at Miami Metro Forensics, piecing together evidence, and escaping the Empire Hotel from the upcoming series, passengers will find themselves immersed in the dark and twisted world of the notorious antihero. Once the day’s investigating is done, it’s time to wind down with a bloody Mojito at Cuban Bar. Crack the code, and as a reward for surviving Dexter’s mind, dark passengers will be treated to an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming Paramount+ series Dexter: Resurrection, which debuts on Paramount+ on 11th July. Dexter: The Experience will run from 10th to 13th July at 83 Rivington Street in Shoreditch. To be in with a chance of securing a free ticket, register at dextertheexperience.co.uk before the ticket release on 1st July at 12pm via Fever.

Photo: Squid Game: The Experience Following confirmation that Netflix's smash-hit reality competition, Squid Game: The Challenge, has been renewed for a third season and is now casting, it's been announced that London-based players of Squid Game: The Experience at Immerse LDN can gain an advantage over other applicants to the upcoming season of Netflix's biggest unscripted series. Beginning 17th July, winners of the in-person immersive experience will receive priority consideration for casting, though it does not guarantee a place in the show. Players at the experience will also be able to apply through on-site QR codes and social media links. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience Squid Game: The Experience, which opened in London earlier this year, invites players to take in five challenges inspired by the television series’ nail-biting games, including Red Light, Green Light, Glass Bridge, Tug of War and Marbles over 60 nail-biting minutes. The experience is currently booking until 4th January 2026. While the final season of Squid Game has now aired on Netflix, Season 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge is set to premiere on 4th November 2025. The show puts 456 players through a gauntlet of high-stakes games, intense strategy, and psychological tests, all for the life-changing prize of $4.56 million. The first season saw tens of thousands apply, but only one walked away victorious. Photo: Squid Game: The Experience Squid Game: The Experience runs at Immerse LDN until 4th January 2026. Tickets are priced from £35.00 per person. For more info and to book tickets, visit feverup.com

Punchdrunk Enrichment has announced that Steve McCourt has been appointed as the company’s new Artistic Director and Co-CEO. Steve will succeed current artistic director and founder of Punchdrunk Enrichment, Peter Higgin, who will be stepping down in December after 17 years. Photo: Nina Photography The Brent-based theatre maker and educator is currently Associate Director of Punchdrunk Enrichment where he is writing and directing the upcoming festive family production Fireside Tales (running at Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores, Wembley Park from 6 December). His previous work for the company includes immersive learning project The Creature Chronicles, teaching resource The Immersive Learning Toolkit and the development and delivery of Punchdrunk Enrichment’s programme of workshops, masterclasses and mentoring projects for teachers. Steve has also worked with companies such as Tall Stories, Improbable, Blind Summit and The Wardrobe Ensemble, taking work for young audiences to stages including ​​​​​​​​the Lyric and the Vaudeville Theatre (West End), Sydney Opera House, Royal Opera House, National Theatre of Holland, Bregenzer Festspiele and Spoleto Festival. Punchdrunk Enrichment was founded by Peter Higgin in 2008 to take the innovative practice of Punchdrunk into communities and schools, becoming the pioneer of immersive learning internationally. Now operating as an independent charity, Punchdrunk Enrichment’s projects have reached over 200,000 people and include The Lost Lending Library (reaching 40,000 children as an installation project for whole schools and now touring internationally as a family show) and productions such as Enitan’s Game  (the first show to be staged in the company’s own unique immersive venue ‘Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores’ in Brent), Against Captain’s Orders (created in partnership with the National Maritime Museum) and Greenhive Green (which took place in a care home for older people including those with dementia). In 2024 alone, Punchdrunk Enrichment worked with 64 schools, delivering immersive learning projects across the UK, and welcomed more than 3,700 children and families into the company’s new venue in Wembley. Photo: Paul Cochrane Speaking about his new appointment as Artistic Director Steve McCourt said: Punchdrunk Enrichment is an extraordinary company. As Associate Director, the last two years have brought my happiest and proudest moments as a creative – thanks, in no small part, to Peter’s exceptional leadership and vision. As we enter our next chapter, I see my role as both a custodian of the company’s legacy and as a frontiersman ready to lead the team into new creative pastures.  I’ve been a Brent resident for over 15 years and have seen first-hand the creativity housed in every school and home in the area. From Kilburn to Kingsbury, the borough is brimming with stories waiting to be told. As Artistic Director, I look forward to working closely with Brent artists and audiences to create work that is locally rooted and globally relevant.  I’m honoured to continue my journey with Punchdrunk Enrichment as Artistic Director. I’m excited to lead our incredible team as we celebrate the imagination as a catalyst for change, close learning gaps and offer every child the agency to become the protagonist of their own story – to become the authors of futures yet to be written’ Photo: Ali Wright Peter Higgin, outgoing Artistic Director said: I have had the privilege of calling Punchdrunk and Punchdrunk Enrichment home for the last 25 years and am honoured to have been on the most amazing journey with Punchdrunk Enrichment over the past 17 years.  As the organisation continues to embed itself in Brent now is a great time to step back and handover to fresh artistic leadership. I am thrilled to hand over to Steve and I can think of no better person for the job. He understands the power of Punchdrunk Enrichment's immersive practice and has already proved himself invaluable as Associate Director. He has a deep love of creative work for young audiences both in theatrical and educational settings.’  Nabil Al-Kinani (Punchdrunk Enrichment Trustee) said: I'm incredibly happy about Steve's appointment as Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Punchdrunk Enrichment. Steve embodies a thoughtful and respectful approach, understanding that rich cultures and communities existed in Brent long before Punchdrunk Enrichment's arrival. Rather than imposing a new vision, he's committed to championing, elevating, and investing in the borough’s existing talent and vibrant cultural landscape.  His unique ability to leverage Punchdrunk Enrichment’s resources to amplify local voices and enrich the community sets him apart as a true force for good. I'm genuinely excited to witness Steve lead Punchdrunk Enrichment into this meaningful and impactful chapter’ As he steps away from his role after 17 years, outgoing artistic director and founder of Punchdrunk Enrichment Peter Higgin is launching a fundraiser: the ‘Founder to Future Challenge’ to support the ongoing work of the company. This October he will run from his home in Ventnor, Isle of Wight to Punchdrunk Enrichment’s home in Wembley. At almost 100 miles, he will complete this remarkable challenge in three days, running three Ultra Marathons back-to-back with an aim to raise upwards of £25k to support Punchdrunk Enrichment and local youth-focused organisations on the Isle of Wight and in Brent. As a registered charity, Punchdrunk Enrichment relies on donations to help 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 the company’s 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.

This 24-hour-long immersive experience in rural Wales is an intricately crafted, deeply atmospheric weekend of occult mysteries and meaningful immersion. Photo: Lemon Difficult A three-hour drive outside of London, deep in the Welsh countryside and down the kind of single-lane road that has you saying, 'There's no way anyone would actually drive down this at 60mph', sits Treowen. Flanked on all sides by grazing sheep, standing alone atop a hill, and surrounded by rolling green fields in every direction, this 17th-century manor house, complete with oak panelling and hidden nooks, is as picturesque a place as you could ever hope to spend a weekend in. It's also home to one of the best immersive experiences we've ever done. Running from noon to noon with an overnight stay on-site, The Key of Dream combines fine dining, puzzle and escape room elements, improvised interactive performance and branching narratives to create a one-of-a-kind, occult-infused immersive experience that's driven by the audience and their choices. For each show, groups of up to 20 are free to explore nearly every inch of the Jacobean house and its grounds to their heart's content in an attempt to untangle the show's elaborate web of Lovecraftian mysteries and discover the root cause of what's going on at Treowen. With an exceptionally detailed narrative that rewards exploration and curiosity, the ability for guests to directly shape how the story unfolds, a remarkably committed and talented cast and the luxury of ample time to become absorbed into the world, The Key of Dreams offers those who attend the rare opportunity to completely detach from the outside world, dive headfirst into a fully realised alternative reality and truly lose themselves in the story for a full day. Photo: Lemon Difficult Ex-civil servant Wyn Haffenden (Rik Sowden) has been plagued by nightmares since inheriting Treowen. After countless sleepless nights and endless strange dreams, they're at their wits' end and have reached out to dogged Miskatonic University alumnus Randolph Carter (Dan Osbaldeston) for help. Carter, in turn, has extended invitations to both Dee (Emily Carding) - a historiographer with reason to return to Treowen after 20 years - and us, the newly recruited Friends of the Miskatonic University, to try and get to the bottom of these eldritch goings-on. Alongside these three core characters, guests may also find themselves trading stories with The Collector (Maxine Dubois), unravelling the show's complexities with sharp-tongued lawyer Hope (Leo Doulton), or quietly unearthing long-held secrets with housekeeper Sophie (Monica Salvi), who knows a lot more than they let on. Upon arriving at Treowen, those who stay on-site are escorted to their rooms to settle in before lunch. Awaiting guests is a copy of The Miskatonic University Field Guide, a red, hardback book that serves as each guest's bible for the experience. With 35-odd pages of printed information and handwritten annotations from Carter, it's heavy reading for those who expected a gentle easing into the show and pretty overwhelming at first glance, but essential to understand both how the show's many mechanics and systems work and how much influence the guests have over the story. Alongside the Fields Guide sits an invitation to become a badge-holding member of the Friends of Miskatonic University, and for some, a second invite to instead join rival society, PRISMA. While the FMU Field Guide makes clear that collaboration and knowledge sharing between FMU members are essential if the expedition at Treowen is to be a success, it's apparent that some information must be held closer to one's chest, and as time goes on, not all of the guests' goals will be aligned. Photo: Lemon Difficult As explained by Carter in the Field Guide, there are multiple paths to uncovering the secrets held within Treowen. While guests can engage with these elements as much or as little as they like and still have a rewarding experience, for many, a good place to start is working through the Cuttings, which are scattered throughout the garden and house. By decoding the inscriptions on each of the 80-odd cuttings, guests will uncover an important, hidden phrase that The Collector has expressed a keen interest in finding out. Guests looking to dive deeper into the show's rich lore can jump onto any of the five story strains, which have taken influence from the real-life history of Treowen and folklore from the surrounding Monmouthshire area, through numerous diary entries, cryptexes, puzzles, and physical props spread across the venue. If all of this sounds like a lot to take in, that's because it is. There's a steep learning curve to the opening hours of The Key of Dreams, and the sheer volume of things to look at, take note of, and investigate can be too much for those still grappling with exactly what they should be spending their time focusing on. The show's cast is on hand to gently nudge guests in the right direction if needed, but The Key of Dreams is first and foremost an audience-driven experience, with very little explicitly spelt out. Among our group of 20 guests, many seemed to take to the complex puzzle-solving elements with ease, while others opted for a slower approach, instead retreating to the Snug with a hot drink to while away the hours doing more traditional jigsaw puzzles, which also tie into the show's broader narrative. Photo: Lemon Difficult Underpinning the puzzle-focused elements of The Key of Dreams, there's a huge focus on immersive interactions between guests and the 6-strong cast, which manifests itself in a number of ways. With one actor to every three guests, there's an unbelievable amount of face time offered to those able to pull themselves away from the puzzles. One-on-one, improvised interactions with the cast are commonplace and can occur at basically any moment, whether it's passing a character going up the manor house's grand staircase, catching them as they prepare tea or coffee or, in the case of Carter, when they're stood out front of the building having a cigarette. For those who choose to align themselves with a particular character or society, there's a series of scheduled meetings for either FMU or PRISMA members in pre-arranged locations around the house, where guests meet to debate and discuss their next collective steps. For the wider group of 20, the numerous meals (lunch, supper, dinner and breakfast) that occur throughout the 24-hour stay, in which Dee and Carter eat alongside guests, give ample opportunity to see the interpersonal relationships between characters become more and more strained as the intensity of the experience begins to ramp up. Photo: Lemon Difficult One of The Key of Dreams’ greatest strengths is in how much time it gives you to exist inside its world. With a full 12 hours of narrative breathing room on the first day and an additional handful of hours the following day, there’s space for something beautiful to occur: an emotional connection with characters that builds slowly and quietly, then hits you all at once. Characters' true intentions simmer beneath the surface of every interaction, their motivations remain murky for most of the day, and you might spend hours in the world before their masks begin to slip. In lieu of a pre-written script, the show's cast have instead studied a 40-page-long document and spreadsheet, which has character archetypes, motivations and potential outcomes for shows clearly outlined. This loose structure allows the audience's decisions, whatever they may be, to steer the story in whichever way they decide and allows the cast to respond to those choices on the fly with improvised dialogue and scenes. One such improvised scene that’s stuck with us came over dinner, in a moment between Dee and a fellow guest. Earlier in the day, those aligned with PRISMA had been asked to uncover the precise question Dee needed to ask as part of a ritual scheduled for a few hours’ time. In between courses, a theory to that question was posed, loaded with meaning and painfully direct. It tied directly into Dee's past and cut to the core of their character's motivations for returning to Treowen. Without a moment to think, Carding delivered a response so unfiltered and heartfelt, it felt like a dagger to the heart. The mask had slipped; we understood their pain, and every prior interaction we'd had with Dee was reframed in an instant. Photo: Lemon Difficult The show's durational nature also allows ample time for the relationships between fellow guests to mature. Helped in large part by the communal meals and common goal of trying to get to the bottom of exactly what's going on within the house, everyone is more than willing to work together, share information and fill each other in on the backstory they've missed out on while investigating elsewhere. As multiple story strains started coming to a head, guests ran around the house trying to find one another to make sure no one missed out on the big revelations, and by the evening, nearly everyone was on a familiar, first-name basis with the rest of the expedition crew. Once night falls upon Treowen, things take a darker turn. Down by the pond, something macabre has been recovered from the water. On the top floor of the house, there has been a revelation involving a music box, and someone is chanting in tongues. In the cellar of the building, hooded figures stand in a circle, preparing to take part in a cult ritual, and hushed whispers are coming from behind a trapdoor on the first-floor landing. Photo: Lemon Difficult As tension continues to build with every passing hour, guests find themselves scattered throughout the house for late-night meetings. As the clock approaches 11pm, things reach their climax. An improvised confrontation between Carter and Dee (whose body has now been taken over by an otherworldly being) does little to release the tension in the air but offers an ending point for the day's experience, some 11 hours after guests first walked through the doors of Treowen. With a new day comes the final hours of The Key of Dreams. As everyone tucks into breakfast in the Banquet Hall, word reaches the expedition party that the house has once again changed with new sets of puzzles and cryptexes. There's a final opportunity to mop up any leftover story strains, and more importantly, a collective decision must be made that will impact either Carter or Dee in a major way. Given that The Key of Dreams lasts 24 hours, the price of attending is admittedly a lot higher than what you'd typically pay for any other immersive experience. Starting at £450 per person without accommodation (which ranges from £350 to £700 per room), a visit for two people will easily cost you over £1000. While that's a considerable amount of money to spend on anything other than a mortgage payment, it's absolutely worth it. With 15+ hours of narrative to throw yourself into, outstanding performances from the cast, all meals included, and the chance to spend the night in such a beautiful setting, it's arguably remarkable value for money, especially when compared to shows like The Burnt City, which would be upwards of £100+ for VIP tickets and ran for a (in this context..) measly three hours. While in real life, no supernatural creatures or otherworldly beings are actually exerting their influence over those at Treowen for the 24 hours in which The Key of Dreams exists there, there’s certainly magic at play. It's one of the best immersive experiences on offer anywhere in the world today, and those who attend can’t help but fall under its spell. ★★★★★ The Key of Dreams runs at Treowen, just outside of Monmouth, Wales, on selected dates across 2025. Tickets are priced from £450.00 per person, excluding accommodation. For more info and to book tickets, visit thekeyofdreams.co.uk For more reviews of immersive experiences like The Key of Dreams, check out our recent Reviews.

Photo: Ludens Theatre Company Danny Romeo (Experience Director at Phantom Peak and Founding Director of Ludens Theatre Company) is set to host an immersive theatre intensive workshop this summer, designed to teach aspiring immersive creators, designers, directors, and performers how to create their own work and carve a path for themselves within the immersive industry. Across 10 weeks, students will learn foundational immersive theory, devising and writing techniques, improvisational acting, community development, writing and structure techniques, facilitation, and introductory business strategies for launching their own productions. The class will culminate in a showcase, where students will perform a work-in-progress showing of an original immersive production they've designed from conceptualisation to execution for a public audience. The course will take place at Theatre Deli near Liverpool Street/Aldgate every Monday evening between 7-9pm from 14th July, and conclude on 15th September. While the course is open to students of all skill levels, some experience of attending or participating in immersive theatre is recommended. Photo: Ludens Theatre Company A leader in the global immersive industry, Danny has created and worked with award-winning immersive productions around the world. He began his immersive career working with Punchdrunk's industry-defining Sleep No More in New York, and has since gone on to become the Experience Designer and Experience Director for The League of Adventure's Phantom Peak for eight seasons of the show, and is also the Founding Director of Ludens Theatre Company, which won the AGITATE! Grant for Terraforming Mars. Photo: Ludens Theatre Company Alongside this, Danny is also a higher education instructor, developing and teaching immersive and interactive theatre workshops and modules at universities across the UK. He has taught at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Norwich University of the Arts, University for the Creative Arts, and the Institute for Contemporary Theatre. Speaking to Immersive Rumours about the immersive theatre intensive workshop, Danny Romeo had the following to say: The idea behind this intensive course is to offer an access point for newcomers to the industry. The immersive industry is expanding, and there's currently a gap between highly-funded blockbuster productions and scrappy start-ups with big ideas. I feel like we need more diversity of work across the industry to keep pushing the boundaries of the art form, keep audiences interested, engaged with the industry, and provide more access for underrepresented community members. My hope for this course is to empower new creators to carve out a path for themselves in this burgeoning industry and provide them with the tools to tell their own stories. Photo: Ludens Theatre Company The course is priced at £350 for 10 weeks (£35 per week) and includes access to a performance venue at Theatre Deli during the final showcase. To find out more and apply, visit ludenstheatrecompany.com