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Image: Creature/Peter Broughton This review contains descriptions of some events within Creature. For more reviews of immersive productions like Creature, check out our recent Immersive Reviews .

Photo: Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition This review is from the London run of Tutankhamum: The Immersive To find out more and book tickets, visit feverup.com For more coverage and reviews of experiences like Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, check out our recent Reviews .

Backyard Cinema's festive film season near London Bridge invites audiences to step into a wonderfully themed winter wonderland before screenings of Christmas classics. Photo: Grant Walker Christmas at Backyard Cinema is the latest festive offering from long-running 'alternative cinema experience' company Backyard Cinema. Previous events from Backyard Cinema have seen them take over spaces within venues such as Mercato Metropolitano, Winter Wonderland and Camden Market, but they're perhaps best known for their much-loved Romeo + Juliet live cinema experience, which sees Baz Luhrmann's 1996 cult classic screened alongside performances from a live choir and band. For this Christmas season, they've taken over the ground floor of 49 Tanner Street (a venue which is also home to The Magician's Table ) for a month-long residency of enhanced festive film screenings with five showings a day, running until 31st December. As a company, Backyard Cinema has always included light immersive elements in its pre-shows, with everything from Miami Beach hotels and intergalactic starships to remote abandoned churches previously featuring in seasons of years gone by. This festive run has scaled up its immersive offerings into a fully-fledged experience in its own right. Lasting roughly one hour, Christmas at Backyard Cinema's pre-show gives guests the freedom to explore the venue at their leisure, discover hidden areas and enjoy live performances from a troupe of talented musicians and several routines from an aerialist before heading into a screening of festive favourites complemented by a flurry of indoor snow as the opening titles begin. Photo: Grant Walker Entering via the Christmas Cabaret Room, guests are immediately greeted by live performances from The Mistletoes (AJ Jenks, Madeline Wilshire and Matthew Kent) on a circular stage adorned with mistletoe and wrapped presents in the middle of the space. The room, while large enough to accommodate a good percentage of each screening's audience, maintains an intimate and cosy feel thanks to the cabaret-style seating and clear sightlines throughout. The trio performs an impressive number of classic Christmas songs accompanied by acoustic guitar, piano and saxophone across the hour, skilfully covering everything from Fairytale of New York and Feliz Navidad to Driving Home for Christmas. While their opening songs have a fairly laid-back feel as people still arrive and settle in, the energy of their performance ramps up throughout, culminating in a medley of Christmas songs that has The Mistletoes doing a lap of the space with the bar staff in tow, clapping and cheering just ahead of audiences being ushered into the screening. Thanks to strong performances across the board, the upbeat atmosphere and table service being available through the Christmas Cabaret Room, there's a case to be made for settling down and staying put for the entire pre-show, but there's far more to discover deeper inside the venue... Photo: Grant Walker Hiding between two fairly nondescript doors in the corners of the Christmas Cabaret Room lies The Enchanted Forest, which is home to the most 'immersive' parts of Christmas at Backyard Cinema's pre-show. After passing through a tunnel of fir trees, guests emerge into a wintry woodland-themed space. With a thick layer of bark scattered on the floor and moody, blue lighting throughout, it's the far more atmospheric and Instagrammable of the pre-show's two spaces and benefits from some excellent theming, with cherub statues and several cosy nooks hidden amongst the space's towering foliage. In the centre of the forest sits a free-standing aerial hoop, which plays home to several impressive performances from an aerialist (Jessica Catherine/Ellen James) that see them contort and balance on the hoop as it spins, as well as routines with hula hoops on a smaller stage elsewhere in the main space. Nestled amongst the trees that line The Enchanted Forest is also a second (much quieter) bar, a two-tier seating area with heaters that overlooks the aerialist's performance area, and a recreation of a homely, decorated living room, which hosts members of The Mistletoes for intimate solo performances. With the pre-show's four-strong cast all working pretty flat out throughout the hour-long experience, there's rarely a moment when there isn't something going on somewhere inside the venue, but as is often the case with family-focused experiences, it's a dice roll as to whether or not the pre-show will offer enough to keep younger visitors enthralled for its duration. Photo: Grant Walker While there's certainly no shortage of places across the capital screening films like Home Alone, Love Actually, and The Grinch throughout December, this run of screenings at Backyard Cinema goes some way to elevating the movie-going experience into something more engaging, elaborate, and most importantly of all, more festive. Those hoping for Backyard Cinema's festive offering to have a storyline or proper interactions between the show's performers and audience may find themselves disappointed, with the pre-show focusing purely on creating a Christmassy atmosphere. With that goal in mind, however, it achieves what it set out to do in spades and offers an experience far more festive than turning up at your local Cineworld and sitting through 30 minutes of adverts before the film even begins. Given the kind of experiences we typically cover on Immersive Rumours, we'd love to see Backyard Cinema build upon its tried-and-tested format more in the future and create an experience with a proper narrative and deeper audience interaction, but as a light-touch, family-focused experience for the holiday season, it ticks enough boxes to make it a worthwhile visit if you're looking to enjoy a Christmas film away from the comfort of your sofa this festive season. ★★★ Christmas at Backyard Cinema runs until 31st December 2025 (Closed on 25th and 26th December) at 49 Tanner Street near London Bridge. Tickets are priced from £26.50 and can be booked via backyardcinema.co.uk

Ink is leaking from the ceilings, books are growing mouldy and covered in strange Rorschach test-like For more information and to book tickets, visit sageandjester.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like STOREHOUSE, check out our recent Reviews .

Read our review of Taskmaster: The Live Experience. Reviewing an experience without revealing a lot of the content is a challenge in itself, but all of the At peak times, individual tickets can cost up to £100, which does feel far too high, despite the experience's purchase up to four £25 tickets, which does alleviate this problem for those lucky enough to win, and off-peak like Taskmaster: The Live Experience, check out other recent immersive reviews here .

Hass' lab assistant Veronica ( Michelle Roberston) and a peek behind the plastic curtains that are scattered

. --- Usually when reviewing an immersive show, we're very conscious of how much to reveal about the

received complimentary tickets to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before  our review 2015 and 2016 at Harmsworth Quays that saw the company at a creative high or the ongoing story within Phantom Peak, Canada Water is a hotspot for great immersive work. on-stage interview, we followed a hint from David Frost we got earlier in the show and we were able to speak

If you have kids who love Minecraft, you probably don't need this review to tell you if they'll enjoy To find out more and book tickets, visit minecraftexperience.com/london For more reviews of immersive experiences like Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, check out our recent reviews .

This revival of Dante or Die's 2013 site-specific piece set within a working hotel is a potent mix of intimacy and drama that you'll want to relive again and again. Photo: Greta Zabulyte Anyone who's ever been married or part of a bridal party can tell you that despite everyone's best efforts, weddings are often messy affairs. Emotions run high, there's a huge amount of pressure on those involved, and even the most angelic couples can't insulate themselves from the potential drama that bubbles under the surface of what's meant to be both the biggest and happiest day of their lives. In Dante or Die's I Do, which first debuted in 2013 and returns now as part of the company's 20th anniversary year, the inherent drama and chaos of a wedding day is dialled up to an extreme and offers audiences the chance to voyeuristically look on at the unfolding chaos surrounding the soon-to-be-wedded Georgina (Carla Langley) and Tunde (Dauda Ladejobi). Directed by Daphna Attias and presented in London as part of Barbican's Scene Change season, this site-specific production takes over six rooms and the adjoining corridor of the Malmaison Hotel near Farringdon until 8th February, before transferring to Malmaison's in Reading and Manchester next month. Photo: Greta Zabulyte Upon arriving at the hotel, audience members are each given a coloured buttonhole and assigned a group, which they remain with throughout the show. Each group of up to 12 rotates through all six hotel rooms over the course of 90 minutes (though the order in which they do so differs for each group) and watches the same ten-minute period unfold from a different perspective each time. In between each room change, the audience all gather in the hallway as the floor’s cleaner (Rowena La Poer Trench) winds back the clock, wiping down surfaces and tidying in reverse. For the best man, Joe (Manish Gandhi), the final run-throughs of their speech couldn't be going much worse. At the eleventh hour, Tunde, who unbeknownst to everyone else is experiencing a severe case of cold feet, has given him a list of anecdotes from their shared past that can't be included, and with very little left beside a handful of empty platitudes, Joe quickly begins to spiral as nerves get the better of them. Equally nervous is bridesmaid Lizzy (Alice Brittain), who's impatiently (and secretly) waiting out the two-minute timer after doing a pregnancy test amidst last-minute preparations with the bride, and Georgina's father, David (Jonathan McGuinness), whose attendance is in doubt as they weigh up bailing on the day altogether and getting on the first flight back to Menorca. Elsewhere in the hotel, Georgina's grandparents, Eileen and Gordon (played beautifully by Fiona Watson and Geof Atwell), both find themselves increasingly frustrated by Gordon's physical limitations; mother of the bride Helen (Johanne Murdock) has a surprise knock at the door from an old flame; and best friend-cum-bridesmaid Abigail (Tessie Orange-Turner) grapples with the fallout of opening up her marriage. Photo: Greta Zabulyte While none of the characters or individual plotlines found within Chlöe Moss' script would feel out of place in an episode of EastEnders or Coronation Street, the real magic of I Do lies in how tightly all of its characters' stories are interwoven together. Members of the wedding party will enter and exit each other's rooms without a moment's notice, inserting themselves into other people's storylines, and regular texts/phone calls/voice notes between guests offer up only one side of each conversation. Regardless of whether the payoff to what a character said or got up to outside of any given room takes 10 minutes or an hour to come around, there's a real joy to seeing how every piece of I Do's carefully constructed narrative slots together as each subsequent room is experienced and the full picture comes into view. With the audience’s presence never acknowledged by any of the wedding guests, they’re given free rein to position themselves wherever they’d like in each room. For the most part, this results in audience members relegating themselves to the corners, perching on windowsills and leaning against wardrobes, but they're encouraged to sit or stand anywhere there's available space, even if it seems to be encroaching on where the cast will soon be. Photo: Greta Zabulyte The audience can also freely rummage around each room, opening drawers and picking up items from desks and bedside tables to learn more about the show’s characters and their relationships to one another. Those feeling extra nosy can also take a look at characters' phone screens as the wedding party anxiously texts and voice notes each other and read any of the numerous handwritten notes that change hands around the hotel, which offer further context to their inner thoughts and feelings. The concept of an audience silently watching on as scenes unfold across multiple spaces certainly isn't a new one for immersive theatre fans, but the intimacy on offer in I Do proves to be far more potent than in any of Punchdrunk's masked offerings, in large part due to just how closely the performers and audience are to each other for sustained periods. In quiet moments, you can hear a pin drop, and every one of the bridal party's confessions, whether screamed into a pillow or whispered under their breath, can be heard by everyone present. Photo: Greta Zabulyte When I Do first debuted back in 2013, it marked a turning point for Dante or Die, as they began to shift away from movement-based work into narrative-driven theatre. Some 13 years on, that decision is still bearing fruit, and the work they've produced since has continued to push the boundaries of site-specific theatre. While we eagerly await their next project , which is due to launch in the second half of 2026, this rare chance to revisit one of the company's best-loved pieces is an opportunity worth taking full advantage of. ★★★★ Dante or Die's I Do runs at London Malmaison near Barbican station until 8th February 2026. Tickets are priced from £35.00. To find out more and book tickets, visit barbican.org.uk .

earth and water stories arrive at regular intervals, accompanied by gusts of wind and the occasional leak Cosima and Ali speak to them one-on-one, prompt them to answer a ringing rotary phone (which is unknowingly While it's no doubt a cautionary tale, speaking to the danger of untruthfulness and how lies can quickly

We're not going to give away any of the key moments from Undersigned in this review. During the onboarding, it's agreed that the attendee must speak honestly. underbellyedinburgh.co.uk You can join the publist waitlist for future appointments via yannickto.com/undersigned For more reviews of experiences like Yannick Trapman-O'Brien's Undersigned, check out our recent Reviews