Secret Cinema has announced its long-awaited return today, with a new production based on the 1978 film 'Grease'. The show will run at Evolution London in Battersea Park from 1st August until 7th September 2025. It's the company's first London production adapting a film since 2022's Guardians of the Galaxy in Wembley Park. The two-and-a-half-hour experience will have over 30 performers amidst giant multi-screen platforms in an immersive theatrical setting, and will be directed by Olivier Award-winning actor, Aerialist and Creative Director Matt Costain, whose previous productions for Secret Cinema include Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Dirty Dancing. Director Matt Costain said: Secret Cinema returns bigger and better than ever, offering an experience like never before. We’ve always pioneered spectacular immersive worlds that culminated in an epic film screening. Now, in this new production of Grease, you’ll live the film from start to finish, fully absorbed in its heart. With the movie playing all around you and performances at every turn, you’ll really become part of the action. Secret Cinema Producer, Merritt Baer, said in a statement: I am thrilled that Secret Cinema is returning home to London for the first time since 2022, and what could be more electrifying than spending those summer nights with Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical. The move to Evolution London in Battersea Park marks both Secret Cinema’s most central location yet and the start of a three-year partnership that will see our world-class creative team present an iconic production each summer. Prepare to step back into your favourite movies with a dose of cinematic immersive flair that only Secret Cinema can deliver. The show is the first in a multi-year deal with Evolution London, which will also host Secret Cinema experiences in the summer of 2026 and 2027. Secret Cinema last staged an immersive version of Grease in Summer 2023 at Birmingham NEC with Grease: The Live Experience. Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical will run from 1st August to 7th September 2025 at Evolution London in Battersea Park. For more info and to sign up for pre-sale access, visit greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com

Image: Peppa Pig: Surprise Party PEPPA PIG: Surprise Party, a groundbreaking immersive experience for preschool-aged children presented by Immersive Everywhere, and developed in collaboration with Hasbro, the leading games, IP and toy company, will open at Metrocentre Gateshead in spring 2026, Promising an oink-tastic adventure, PEPPA PIG: Surprise Party invites little ones and their families to step inside the beloved animated series where they’ll explore Peppatown, meet Peppa’s friends and help plan the ultimate surprise celebration for Peppa herself. Blending live puppetry and theatrical performance with digital storytelling and sensory play, visitors are invited to explore at their own pace and engage with the experience however they like, meaning no two visits will ever be the same. Hopping aboard ‘The Big Train’ to enter the experience, guests will meet plenty of Peppa’s friends along the way while helping with everything from choosing the perfect gift with Miss Rabbit and, of course, making sure the party cake is ready on time! Families can freely explore recognisable locations from the globally successful animated television series – including Peppa’s House and The Aquarium - each packed with exciting hands-on activities before ending with a very special surprise party. The 115-minute-long adventure will culminate in a showstopping celebration with Peppa’s family at Peppa’s House, complete with party hats, giggles and maybe even a few muddy puddles. Adding to the fun, PEPPA PIG: Surprise Party will also be home to Party Rooms for private birthday celebrations, set to open shortly after launch. PEPPA PIG: Surprise Party brings Peppa’s world to life in a way families have never seen before - giving children the opportunity to interact directly with their favourite characters. Filled with playful hands-on activities that spark imagination, creativity and joyful learning, the experience is set to create lasting memories - and take its place as a much-loved addition to Newcastle’s family entertainment space. Ahead of the full attraction launch next spring, on 28th November 2025, ‘PEPPA PIG Market’ will open at Metrocentre, offering families an early glimpse into the experience. Drawing inspiration from Peppa’s ‘Shopping’ episode, the interactive retail space combines exclusive merchandise with playful experiences, inviting young visitors to grab a trolley, explore the aisles, and head to the checkout just like Peppa and her family. Image: Peppa Pig: Surprise Party Tickets to PEPPA PIG: Surprise Party will be priced from £15.00 per adult and £20.00 per child. To find out more and sign up for the exclusive pre-sale from 18th November 2025, visit peppapigsurpriseparty.co.uk Tickets will go on general sale on 20th November and will be available to purchase online and in PEPPA PIG Market when it opens its doors on 28th November.

Photo: Alex Brenner The Paddington Bear Experience at County Hall on London’s South Bank is to get a festive makeover ahead of the Christmas season. With decorations including a 5.5 metre centrepiece Christmas tree, and festive treats including gingerbread paws, mince pies and orange hot chocolate, guests can celebrate Christmas within Paddington’s world from Saturday 16th November 2024 until Sunday 5th January 2025. Visitors are invited to step into Paddington’s world and embark on an exciting immersive adventure through some of the most memorable locations from the Paddington stories. Starting with the hustle and bustle of Paddington Station, guests are 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. Photos: Alex Brenner 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. Photo: Alex Brenner The Paddington Bear Experience’s festive offering launches ahead of the bear’s latest cinematic outing, Paddington In Peru, which opens in UK cinemas on 8th November. The new film will see Paddington return home to the Peruvian jungle to visit his Aunt Lucy, now a resident at the Home for Retired Bears. With The Brown Family and Mrs Bird in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mysterious disappearance plunges them into an unexpected journey from the Amazon rainforest to the mountain peaks of Peru. Photos: Alex Brenner The Paddington Bear Experience is currently running at County Hall on South Bank. To find out more and book tickets, visit paddingtonbearexperience.com

Image: Punchdrunk UPDATE: Punchdrunk's LANDER 23 has now been delayed to November 2025 Groundbreaking immersive theatre company Punchdrunk have today announced its new project, LANDER 23, will premiere at its home in Woolwich, London, from 17 September 2025. A live action video game, LANDER 23 sees the immersive theatre pioneers collide with the world of gaming as never before, as audiences become players in a multiplayer stealth game. With genuine agency and true video game mechanics, LANDER 23 promises to become the 'next generation of immersive experience' according to the company. LANDER 23 splits players into two squads - Command (Drivers) and Ground Team (Fields). As the Fields navigate the alien landscape, they’ll rely solely on the voice and guidance of their Drivers, stationed aboard the ship. All players will wear a vest and headphones throughout the experience, which will feature pre-recorded performances and no live actors. A radical new format for Punchdrunk, LANDER 23 runs full pelt into the wilds of uncharted territory for them, and will undergo rigorous testing and iteration with live players. To recognise the early access nature of the first weeks of performances, all tickets (which must be purchased in multiples of two) are priced at £23, and those attending previews will be invited to play, provide feedback, and influence the future of the game. Players attending during previews may not experience the fully realised game, but will play a work-in-progress with full gaming and theatrical mechanics. From 7 October, standard pricing will apply. Felix Barrett Photo: Stephen Dobbie Felix Barrett, Artistic Director of Punchdrunk said: To make a video game live - and specifically a AAA adventure game - is the holy grail for me; to take the complete submersion in a world and the endless choice of where you go, who you talk to, how you choose to play the game, and to make that real. The future is inevitably tech-driven - how can we, as a company that is built on the magic of live experiences, create something that is not just as compelling as an evening on Fortnite or Zelda, but that elevates that experience to something more engrossing. Something which fires up both hemispheres of the brain, removes the passivity of sitting in a chair, and has a far longer-lasting impact. That’s our ambition for LANDER 23 - create the ultimate antidote to screens: instead of sitting on the sofa in front of your TV, what would happen if you threw away your controller, stepped inside the game and became your own avatar - relying on your ingenuity, dexterity and courage to survive. In real time. In real life. LANDER 23 will be a genuine live video game with integrated technology that brings video game mechanics to life. All the tropes that players know and love - maps guiding you to your goal, lives that can be lost and regenerated - will exist in LANDER 23. In the spirit of sustainability and accountability, the company will be repurposing the extraordinary world of Troy from The Burnt City - reimagined for a new narrative. LANDER 23's full description is as follows: The Lander Division of the Centre for Astrobiology is responsible for exploring the outer realms of the galaxy. No division goes further or deeper into the unknown. Tasked with discovering uncharted territories, exploring the outermost reaches and bringing back valuable data to the mothership. A week ago, the crew of Lander 23 vanished while harvesting a new and valuable energy source. A distress signal, then silence. You are the next crew in. Your mission is clear – continue their job without the same happening to you. Time is not on your side. The environment is treacherous. There are hidden dangers lurking in the shadows. Do not deviate from the mission. The experience has been conceived, directed & designed by Felix Barrett, with Kath Duggan and Joel Scott co-directing. LANDER 23's game systems have been created by Meaning Machine, who create 'premium, author-driven AI characters that can play meaningful roles in the stories and objectives of their human creators'. LANDER 23 will begin previews on 5th November 2025, and will run until 30th March 2026 at One Cartridge Place, Woolwich. Tickets are priced from £23.00 for preview performances, from £41 for non-preview dates, and can be purchased via punchdrunk.com

This November, get ready for cosmic adventure and unexpected surprise as Riverside Studios plays host to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Live Show. From 15th November 2025 to 15th February 2026, join Arthur Dent, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Fenchurch and the most unlikely crew in the history of galactic adventure as they escape the destruction of Earth and set out on a quest to uncover the mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything, armed with little more than a towel and one VERY depressed robot. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Live Show features a mix of pre-recorded celebrity voices and live performers, including well-loved British talent actor and comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar as the voice of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, the infamous alien bureaucrat with a mission to destroy the Earth. Lenora Crichlow will voice Tricia McMillian, also known as Trillian, while journalist Samira Ahmed will appear as a newsreader reporting on the planet’s impending doom. BAFTA nominee Tamsin Greig will be the voice of The Guide, the ever-present source of wisdom and guidance throughout the story. Photos: Tamsin Greig, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Samira Ahmed Accompanying the line-up of celebrity voices in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live Show is a stellar cast of live actors including Benjamin Durham (101 Dalmatians, UK Tour) and Robert Thompson (Unforgivable, ITV) as Arthur Dent, Oliver Britten (Down Cemetery Road, Apple TV+) and Matt Colyer (Phantom Peak) as Ford Prefect, Kat Johns-Burke (Peaky Blinders: The Rise) as Fenchurch, Andrew Evans (The Polar Express) as Marvin the Paranoid Android, Lee VG (Only Fools and Horses: The Musical, Theatre Royal Haymarket) as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Richard Costello (Death of England, National Theatre) as Slartibartfast, Angelis Hunt (TINA: The Tina Turner Musical, Aldwych) and Aya Elmansouri (Cinderella, Gatehouse) as Humma Kavula, Briony Scarlett as Eccentrica Gallumbits and Tom Bowen as Wowbagger, with Alex Anthony Fevrier (Jesus Christ Superstar, Watermill) and Tamara Saffir (Grease, Secret Cinema). Co-Created by Arvind Ethan David, protégé of Douglas Adams, this immersive experience invites audiences into a brilliantly imaginative universe unfolding across a series of interconnected spaces. Moving from pub to spaceships to alien planets across the whole of Riverside Studios, room to room, participants encounter paranoid androids, all-knowing AIs, exotic aliens and are offered the chance to find their own ultimate meaning (which may or may not be 42..). Image: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy A story infused with Adams’ razor-sharp wit and surprising emotional depth, paired with music and dance, the experience delivers laughter, connection and an unforgettable adventure for longtime admirers of Douglas Adams and newcomers alike. The evening begins in a rather unusual pub, where guests can settle in with a drink before being swept into a story filled with spectacle and cosmic mischief. From there, the adventure takes flight as participants hitch a ride on a passing spaceship, encounter interdimensional mice, and uncover the secrets of the universe in the most absurd and entertaining ways imaginable. Speaking ahead of the show's opening, co-creator Arvind Ethan David commented: I first met Douglas when I was 18 years old, and he changed my life by inviting me into his orbit. 30 years later, it’s a singular honour to bring his masterwork, absurd and profound in equal measure, to new audiences, in a partnership with a world-class group of artists With its combination of sharp comedy, big ideas and immersive storytelling, this is a production that will appeal to long-time fans of Adams’ work as well as those discovering its joyful madness for the very first time. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Live Show will run from 15th November 2025 to 15th February 2026 at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Standard tickets are priced from £42.00, and VIP tickets are priced from £72.00. For more information and to book tickets, visit hitchhikerslive.com Warning: Side effects may include sudden existential dread, unexpected hyperspatial detours and a burning desire for a really good cup of tea.

Image: Inventive Productions This September, London opens the iron gates to Hexmoor, an immersive cocktail adventure like no other - where dark magic runs deep, potions flow freely, and you become part of the story. From the minds behind viral sensations Alcotraz, Moonshine Saloon, and Avora, comes a thrilling new theatrical experience set inside a wizarding prison and cell block for sorcerers, where potions are your only way out. Alongside our world exists an unknown and unseen magic world. Those who commit crimes of dark arts within this world get sentenced to Hexmoor, a hidden penitentiary for rogue sorcerers. You will start your experience by being pulled out of the ordinary world into a secret passageway that leads to the large iron gates of Hexmoor. You will be met by Cordelia Constance-Xanthe, a powerful sorceress and the Head of Hexmoor Penitentiary, who will introduce the inmates to their new life behind bars - a life complete with the consumption of ‘potions’ that work to dampen the magical abilities of the prisoners. Image: Inventive Productions The day that you are convicted is of great importance, as it is the day on which a prophecy talks of the rise of an evil dark wizard and a team of prisoners who will defeat them. During your time at the ‘magical bar behind bars’, you can expect to cross paths and collude with the wizard prisoners of Hexmoor and the guards who contain them, discover secret areas and even travel through an ethereal portal, hidden within a fireplace in Hexmoor, to a real working Wand Shop. Visiting inmates will don their official jumpsuits and rub shoulders with the notorious dark arts wizards who call Hexmoor home. Combining immersive theatre, film-like set design, magical special effects and world-class cocktails, Hexmoor will transport you to a world you can only imagine. Whilst the immersive experience unfolds, guests will enjoy three magical cocktails crafted by a team of mixologists, or more appropriately, hexologists. Intended to dampen abilities, with the right hex, these potions will enhance your time behind bars. Image: Inventive Productions Created by Inventive Productions, the team behind the world-famous prison cocktail experience Alcotraz, the Wild-West world of Moonshine Saloon and the out-of-this-world Avora, Hexmoor is the world’s first immersive, wizarding prison experience and promises guests the experience of mysticism and alchemy. Sam Shearman, creator of Hexmoor and founder of Inventive Productions, comments: Having successfully launched various experiences that cross multiple genres and themes, we can’t wait to take the best bits of them all and combine them into the hugely exciting wizarding world of Hexmoor. Our hope is to bring something entirely new to the interactive and immersive space, offering a little bit of escapism and fun to our audience. Hexmoor runs from 19th September 2025 near Hoxton station. Tickets are priced from £44.50 per person, and include three cocktails. For more information, and to book tickets, visit hexmoor.co.uk

Image: Peter Broughton Immersive Rumours: Hi Peter, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about where people would know you from? Peter Broughton: I'm Peter Broughton. I'm an actor, puppeteer, and immersive theatre maker. People probably best know me from Bacchanalia, which I co-created and assistant-directed, and also performed in as Dionysus. I’ve also been in shows like Phantom Peak and The West with COLAB Theatre, and last year I was Paddington Bear in Paddington Lo-Comotion in Oxford. IR: How long have you been working in the immersive world for? PB: At the tail end of the pandemic, I got a job at Doctor Who: Time Fracture and moved to London. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, so I was stoked to be involved in any way. Soon after, I also started working at The Great Gatsby immersive show, which was upstairs in the same building, so I’d be running up and down between the two, meeting people and networking as I went. It was a really magical time, and I developed a nose for who was interested in making work and who I could collaborate with. In traditional theatre, if you’re at the box office, you can’t stop a huge TV executive who happens to be passing through and say, 'Hi, here’s why I’m perfect for your next project', but in immersive, you’re already within the performative space. Photo supplied by Peter Broughton IR: At the end of September, you’re debuting Creature as part of COLAB Invitational Theatre Festival. Can you tell us a bit about the show and what people can expect? PB: Absolutely. Creature is a one-audience-member experience. In the show, you’re Victor Frankenstein, kidnapped on your wedding night, and physically moved through the space in a wheelchair. The story is told by the creature, who keeps reminding you, 'I told you I’d be here. You knew this was coming.' It’s about rejection and abandonment, told through immersive techniques, puppetry, and binaural audio. It’s intense but relatively short. IR: As you just mentioned, Creature is only for one audience member at a time. What is it about that format that’s so interesting to you as a creator? PB: With large-scale, free-roaming immersive shows, storytelling can get lost. Scaling everything down and making it clearer is the way to go. With my work as part of Sleepwalk, I was adamant that all the key bits of plot were visible and that all the key story moments happened when everyone came together. Seeing The Manikins: a work in progress made me realise that creating a one-audience-member show was achievable for me. I also noticed just how popular one-on-ones are at Punchdrunk, when fans rush to get into them. They really want that exclusive private moment, and it showed me the level of demand for this kind of experience. IR: What drew you to Frankenstein as the source material for the show? PB: This show is a very unfaithful adaptation. It's not so much about a man playing god; it’s about the creature itself. It explores how it feels to be created only to be discarded. My biological father left when I was very young. That raw feeling of 'You brought me into the world - step up!' is huge for me. In the show, the creature feels the same sense of abandonment. He’s one of a kind, completely alone, needing his creator’s support, and he’s not shy about letting you know when he’s angry, confused, or about to do something really unpleasant. I resonate with that energy, and it’s at the heart of the piece. Photo: Alex Walton IR: And where did the decision to have the audience sit in a wheelchair for the duration of the show come from? PB: Accessibility. Too often, shows advertise wheelchair access, then surprise you with stairs. Here, the wheelchair is built into the show. My parents have mobility issues and struggled to see past shows, so it made sense to design it this way. I’ve also found the movement of the chair a useful creative tool: in this show, the set, the lights, the characters, and even your seat are puppeteered. IR: Speaking of puppets, within the show, you’re going to be puppeting the creature. Who else is involved in this run at COLAB Tower? PB: I’ve been working on the audio with Hanna Gardner, my best mate from university. She’s an amazing musician, and the binaural audio is one of the most important elements of the show and really shapes the audience’s experience. My other pals, Jessica Southwood plays Igor, Elena Sirett is handling lighting and stage management, and Alice Thomas has a secret role. The show’s textile and graphic design is by my beautiful partner, Audrey Rodriguez. We recently recorded some of the audio at Hanna’s flat, and I was screaming into a mic while her cats looked at me like, 'What is happening?' Moments like that are why I love immersive theatre: it’s unpredictable and a bit weird. IR: You’ve had opportunities to do puppetry previously, most notably in Bacchanalia and Paddington Lo-Comotion, but is Creature the first time you’ve had total control over the use of puppetry? PB: Yeah. Thanks to the Kickstarter, I’ve been full-time on this project for a couple of months. It’s a huge privilege. Stressful? Absolutely. But creatively, it’s been incredible. I’ve learned new skills and had the chance to make something with friends I trust. I'm excited to be able to work on my craft in both puppetry and immersive theatre. Peter Broughton in Bacchanalia (2023) Photo: Ivy Corbin IR: How have you found designing and creating the life-size puppet for the show? That must be quite the task. PB: Yeah, it’s a challenge. I had to find the right level of creepiness. Inspired by Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, we're mixing familiar children’s TV aesthetics with horror. It’s a full-body puppet designed to be operated the same way as Big Bird from Sesame Street. I love making puppetry for adults: people often assume it’s kids’ stuff, but after a little while, the audience starts connecting with the puppet and forgetting about the puppeteer. Big puppets like in [the West End version of] Totoro or the ones in Spirited Away help immerse you in the world, and kids do it naturally because they’ve not been told to stop imagining yet. IR: And where do you think your love of puppetry came from? PB: VHS tapes of the old Muppet movies. Jim Henson’s work is magical: his characters balanced chaos and gentleness, like Gonzo firing himself out of a cannon one second and singing a heartfelt song the next. I recently saw some of Henson’s puppets in New York, and it was a very emotional experience for me (ask my girlfriend). Seeing his full-body puppets in the same room, like Big Bird from Sesame Street, helped me understand how it functions. I also saw Kermit and completely lost it. My girlfriend was like, 'Aw, honey, why are you crying over these puppets?' IR: I think I would have the same reaction to be fair… PB: I was like, 'It’s Kermit! What do you want me to do?!' Growing up with that, it really shaped how I think about puppetry, and now working in immersive theatre, it seemed like a no-brainer to merge my passions and create something for people like me - who cry at puppets. Photos supplied by Peter Broughton IR: What do you think is next for Creature after the performances at COLAB Invitational Theatre? PB: Hopefully, festivals or wherever there are available spaces around London. I’ve been in talks to stage it at Vaulty Towers’ basement, or maybe even in the Vaults in Waterloo. Camden Fringe? The show can scale up or down depending on the space and opportunity. That’s the way I designed it. I’ll take anywhere that will have me. IR: Finally, where is the puppet going to go after this? PB: Honestly, I've got no idea. Right now, my flat has been taken over by the bloody thing. Hopefully, it’ll be brought out again, but in the meantime, it might have to live in my grandma’s garage. She’ll be really happy about that, I’m sure. Peter Broughton's Creature is at COLAB Invitational Theatre Festival at COLAB Tower on the 26th and 27th September 2025. Tickets are sold out. To stay up to date on Creature, follow @creature.immersive on Instagram. You can also follow Peter's work at @peterbroughtonactor on Instagram, and via peterbroughtoncreative.com

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.