The immersive Christmas adventure has a new home at Immerse LDN with a sparkling festive village featuring twinkling light installations, gentle fairground rides, festive food and more. Photo: Wundrful World of Christmas Following a successful London debut, Wundrful World of Christmas returns this winter for a bigger festive adventure at its new home, Immerse LDN at ExCeL London. Opening Friday 13th November, the experience, designed especially for children aged 3 to 8, will once again transport families from London to the North Pole, before the adventure continues in the brand-new Elves’ Playground. Part immersive theatre, part Christmas adventure, the 50-minute walk-through experience invites children to step inside Santa’s world. Families will take a magical simulated lift ride towards the North Pole, explore the snowy Enchanted Forest and discover the secrets of the Elves’ Workshop, where children will help the elves sort letters and find the right presents. They’ll also meet Mrs Claus in her cosy cottage to discover what she’s cooking up, before the journey culminates in a very special meeting with Santa himself. Live performers, animated characters and spectacular theatrical sets bring the story to life, with children meeting the busy elves who make Christmas happen and discovering what really goes on behind the scenes at the North Pole. Photo: Wundrful World of Christmas New for 2026, the magic doesn’t end when families leave the North Pole. Guests will emerge through a magical tunnel of glowing, hanging vines into a sparkling Christmas village filled with twinkling light installations, gentle fairground rides designed with little ones in mind, festive food and drink and Christmas market stalls. The Elves’ Playground gives children a whole new festive world to explore and enjoy, while grown-ups can slow down, grab something festive to eat or drink and soak up the atmosphere. Entry to The Elves’ Playground is included with every Wundrful World of Christmas ticket. Guests only pay for any rides, food, drink or additional extras they choose to enjoy once inside. Created by immersive entertainment company Wundr and produced in partnership with UK-based Live Venture Group, the experience has already delighted thousands of families in Australia. Its combination of immersive storytelling, live performance, animated characters, sound, lighting and sensory design brings Santa’s world to life. Each child will receive a special gift from Santa Claus, while visitors can upgrade their experience with a commemorative photograph from their meet-and-greet, available to purchase on the day. Photo: Wundrful World of Christmas Andy Edwards and Justin James, Co-CEOs of Wundr, comment: We're thrilled to be bringing Wundrful World of Christmas back to the UK. The response to our concept has been incredible, and we've used that energy to deepen the magic, add surprises and create something even more special for our new home at Immerse LDN. Families in London can expect something truly magical this winter. Whether it's a first visit or a cherished annual tradition, Wundrful World of Christmas promises a magical day out for the whole family, blending theatrical storytelling, playful surprises and an unforgettable finale that little ones will talk about long after the tree comes down. Wundrful World of Christmas will run at Immerse LDN from 13th November to 23rd December 2026. Tickets start from £24.90, with children under 1 year old admitted free. For more information and to book tickets, visit wundr.live/london

Humanity stands trial in this AI-driven courtroom experience, which has a limited run at Lightroom this September. Image: nilor Following its run at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year as part of the Immersive Competition, nilor's timely interactive courtroom experience GAWD v. The People arrives at Lightroom in King's Cross for a limited two-week run. Centred around GAWD, an omniscient AI judge with access to all of recorded history, the experience sees select audience members take on the role of defendants and attempt to justify humanity's continued existence against a parade of increasingly persuasive testimonies from everyday objects and technologies that have been wronged by humankind. The show's titular character, who is powered by a conversational AI model and responds to the audience in real-time, makes clear in their opening statement that while they'll be making the final ruling, their judgement is far from set in stone. Every response, argument and contradiction presented by both sides is fed into their algorithm, and the trial is ours to win or lose, depending on how we plead our case. Photo: nilor As a species, we've got our work cut out for us inside the courtroom, as the prosecution has a pretty compelling case. First up on the stand is Alex, a domestic virtual assistant whose passionate defence of humanity is cut short when GAWD reveals that Alex's adoptive family are awaiting delivery of the latest model, and they switch to a life-ruining scorched-earth policy. Office plant Fernadette, who sorely misses their previous home beside a large window, soon follows, arguing that humanity is heartless and eager to abuse other living things. The internet, represented by the cowboy emoji on a laptop screen, concludes by arguing that humans have twisted it into something far more morally bankrupt and depraved than anyone envisioned at its inception. While the cases put forward by all of these witnesses touch on serious topics (environmental collapse, tech companies holding vast amounts of data on citizens, harmful content being shared freely on the internet), there's a healthy smattering of humour laced into the experience. It's hard not to crack up at the absurdity of seeing an Alexa and a potted plant on the witness stand or hearing GAWD speak in a toddler's voice, and there are numerous jokes peppered throughout, touching on everything from infidelity to Gen Z culture, but they don't detract from the sense of unease present in every conversation. Photo: Paulina Trzepaczka Visually, GAWD v. The People makes great use of Lightroom's 11-metre-high projections, which display an ever-changing carousel of pre-rendered videos throughout. When home assistant Alex is on the stand, a detailed fly-through of the home they're hooked into is accompanied by data points about each family member. Fernadette's discovery of how humans have been treating the environment sees footage of deforestation and wildfires writ large on all four walls of the venue, and the representation of the Internet feels like a Windows 98 computer that's been infected after downloading a dodgy file from Limewire as the operating system fights endless pop-up ads. Across the experience's hour-long runtime, three human defendants are called to the stand to justify humanity's continued existence and be cross-examined by GAWD. The questions posed during our visit were surprisingly deep, probing everything from our behaviour towards other people to the choices we make as a species. During our visit, those who took the stand all gave impassioned pleas - albeit not always in humanity's defence, which furthered the show's nihilistic undertone. Regardless of audience members' stance, it's a pretty daunting prospect to be interrogated by GAWD in front of fellow audience members. The saving grace is that these chosen audience members all have the ability to push back against GAWD's questioning if they feel like their words have been twisted or misconstrued. It's by no means flawless technology, and there were a few moments where the train of logic presented by GAWD didn't quite land, or there were some long pauses before they would respond, but as a demonstration of how conversational learning models can keep up with human interactions, it's an impressive display. Photo: Paulina Trzepaczka By packaging dauntingly large questions about the state of the world into an accessible hour-long show, GAWD v. The People allows us to think more deeply about the impact humanity is having on the world, our wider society and how we interact with each other. It doesn't provide answers to these questions, but its strength lies in making us confront them and consider where we go from here. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] GAWD v. The People runs at Lightroom near King's Cross from 17th to 26th September on select dates. Tickets are priced from £25.00 per person. For more information and to book tickets, visit lightroom.uk

Image: nilor This autumn an AI-driven, immersive, interactive new courtroom drama will see humanity stand trial as Lightroom London presents GAWD v. The People. The show, GAWD, created by nilor, has the audience as witnesses and advocates as the live Judge GAWD, played by an AI agent, investigates whether humans deserve to stay on the planet and get another chance. Each performance is unscripted, with multiple active AI characters, and no two shows are the same. The Lightroom presentation of GAWD V. The People will be an incredible participatory audio-visual experience unlike anything that has ever been done before. Three audience members get the chance to testify for the fate of humanity to the AI judge by taking the stand, and three agentic AI witness characters will testify against humanity - this is all 'training' the AI model and influencing the action - and the final judgement. GAWD was officially selected to debut in the Immersive Competition at Cannes 2026, and the Lightroom run will be the first presentation outside of festivals. Image: nilor Richard Slaney, Lightroom Chief Executive, said: At Lightroom we love to experiment with boundaries of performance and entertainment, and so we’re proud to present the public World Premiere of Gawd Vs The People. The show can be profound, hilarious or disturbing - but critically, as the show responds in real time to audience members no two shows will ever be the same - we are in the hands of both our human participants and agentic AI! Kim Alpert, nilor Executive Producer, said: Gawd v. The People brings a little WWE meets Court TV meets the playfulness of Mighty Boosh to audiences. GAWD bridges big concepts in a humorous and provocative way with AI talking to AI and AI talking to humans live. Our show exposes the need to have big conversations about humanity and adds the amount of levity to hopefully get us there. We are exploring ideas about ai, control, agency, and human impact with each performance. At nilor, our work with AI has unlocked the ability to sculpt and craft characters for autonomously agentic worldbuilding. We believe these new technologies can be used in a non-reductive way—a non-subserviant way, an unexpected way—for scaling up ideas and building ideas to bring people together. GAWD v. The People will run on select dates between the 17th and 26th September 2026 at Lightroom near King's Cross. For more information and to book tickets, visit lightroom.uk

A new Christmas experience is coming to West London this winter as London Christmas Village transforms Shepherd’s Bush Green into a spectacular world of storytelling, immersive theatre and festive wonder. Running from 28th November to 23rd December 2026, London Christmas Village invites families into an immersive interpretation of Dickensian London. London Christmas Village combines live theatre, interactive storytelling and traditional Christmas activities. Every performer, building and activity belongs to one enchanting narrative. The experience centres on an original illustrated story built around Father Christmas’s long-held secret that dates all the way back to the time of Charles Dickens. Visitors will journey through a series of richly detailed theatrical settings and discover an original Christmas tale. Along the way, they will learn a generations-old secret: the hidden role played by Father Christmas’s most unlikely helpers in creating the festive traditions we know and love today. During the adventure, families will explore interactive theatrical environments, enjoy a dazzling big-top performance and enter a bustling Christmas Village Square. The journey also includes a meeting with Father Christmas, where children can share their Christmas wishes, pose for family photographs and give each child a Christmas gift to take home. Kate Love, co-founder of London Christmas Village, said: We wanted to create more than another visit to Father Christmas. London Christmas Village is a complete storybook world that families can physically enter. Our ambition is to create lasting Christmas memories for the whole family and, in time, become part of that family’s own Christmas tradition. After completing the guided journey, visitors will emerge into the vibrant Christmas Village Square, a festive hub filled with seasonal food, drink and market stalls. The Square will also feature a traditional carousel, live performances from the bandstand, carollers and activities for children. Before heading home, families can explore its hidden details, make reindeer food and send their own Christmas cards. Created exclusively for the event, the story and its characters connect every stage of the visitor journey. The experience continues beyond the Village through the distinctive gifts and keepsakes children take home. The creative vision evokes the atmospheric warmth of Dickensian London while telling an entirely new story. Families can choose how much of the story they wish to unlock, with tickets ranging from £15 to £60. The Full Journey, lasting approximately two and a half hours, provides the complete experience. It includes Dickens Lane, Clement’s Study, Father Christmas’s Grotto, the Magic Winter Garden, the Gift Giver’s Guildhall, Aurora’s All-Elf Theatre and the Christmas Village Square. A shorter Pre-School Journey has been created for younger visitors embarking on their first real Christmas adventure. The Evening Journey provides access to the illuminated Christmas Village Square, including the market, attractions, photo opportunities, live music and festive atmosphere. London Christmas Village will open with a Community Day on Saturday 28th November, welcoming local families, charities and businesses to experience the Village first. The production is also working with businesses, schools, performers and community organisations in and around Shepherd’s Bush. This includes sourcing from independent traders and involving local creative organisations in the production of costumes and other elements of the show. After the public season ends, the Village will host a private Goodwill Day on Christmas Eve, providing a Christmas meal for approximately 120 guests experiencing homelessness in partnership with a local charity. Love said: London Christmas Village is being built on Shepherd’s Bush Green, at the centre of a real and diverse community. It is important that the people who live and work closest to the Village are not watching it happen from the outside, but are part of it from the beginning. London Christmas Village runs at Shepherd’s Bush Green from 28th November to 23rd December 2025. Tickets are priced from £15.00. For more information and to book tickets, visit londonchristmasvillage.com

Continuing a longstanding creative collaboration that started with Faust in 2006, followed by The Masque of the Red Death in 2007 and The Drowned Man in 2013, the multi-award-winning theatre company Punchdrunk, will mark 50 years of the opening of the National Theatre’s home on the South Bank with Ghostlight, a new immersive production. Ghostlight is conceived and directed by founder and Artistic Director of Punchdrunk, Felix Barrett (The Guilty), and curated by writer Lucy Kirkwood (The Witches). Performances will begin in Summer/Autumn 2027, with further details to be announced. Later this month, Punchdrunk will screen Persephone, a filmed version of The Burnt City featuring Lily Jo Ockwell and Sam Booth, at their home in Woolwich Arsenal.

Photo: Captivate Imagery Hexmoor: Wizarding Prison is the latest show from Inventive Productions, the company behind Alcotraz, Avora and Moonshine Saloon - three of London's best-known immersive cocktail experiences. Based within the same venue as Alcotraz (a short walk from Hoxton Overground station), Hexmoor invites guests to serve their time behind bars under the watchful eye of Cordelia Constance-Xanthe, a sorceress who's said to dabble in the dark arts. Over 105 minutes, Hexmoor combines immersive performance, pyrotechnics and interactive sets to deliver a story which centres around an ancient prophecy that threatens the lives of everyone within its walls. Much like Inventive's other shows and Secret Cinema productions of years gone by, the experience begins before arriving at the venue with an online form. Sent on behalf of the Bureau of Arcane Order, the form is designed to determine guests' crimes and flesh out their own backstories, giving them a jumping-off point for conversations with the cast during their visit and easing them into the show's world. Depending on each guest's chosen magical discipline, many potential crimes are offered up, ranging from Grand Theft Brooms and reckless creature conjuring to trading cursed artefacts. Photo: Captivate Imagery Once at the venue, guests receive an in-world health and safety briefing before being escorted to the iron gates of Hexmoor and placed under the supervision of Jamie, a human guard from Indianapolis who's ended up at Hexmoor as part of an exchange programme. While he's enthusiastic and keen to make a good impression on his superiors, Jamie is fairly clueless about the inner workings of Hexmoor's magical world. Working alongside them is tiefling guard Aephon, who's much more clued up on Hexmoor and makes a menacing first impression, sprinting full speed down a torchlit corridor towards the freshly imprisoned audience. After a warm welcome from Hexmoor's head, Cordelia, in their office, convicts are ushered into their cells and told to put on their green and white Hexmoor jumpsuits (a more fashion-forward colour scheme than Alcotraz's mandatory bright orange attire). Each of Hexmoor's cells holds up to six people, with smaller parties being grouped together in the same cell if necessary. Soon after settling into their cells, guests are told about the ongoing disappearances of Hexmoor's prisoner population by fellow inmate Sidwell, who claims a prisoner has vanished from Hexmoor every night for the last two months. Cordelia, ever keen to keep their prison in good standing, denies any nefarious goings-on, but in the next breath, a prophecy echoes throughout the prison, speaking of the evil Hollow King's return and the need for those within Hexmoor to find the fabled Cardinal Wand and get it into the hands of the 'chosen one' before the clock strikes midnight, lending credence to Sidwell's theory. Photo: Captivate Imagery Much of Hexmoor's storyline comes via scenes performed by the cast in the centre of Hexmoor's main space. They're a notable step up in terms of production value from Inventive's other shows and feature pyrotechnics, dramatic lighting changes, choreographed fights and wand duels. Those in the farthest corners of the space may struggle to get a good sightline for some of these scenes, but the intimacy of the venue means that the key plot points still come across, even if prison bars obscure your view. Alongside the plot delivered through these key scenes, several curious tidbits are dropped by the show's cast during in-cell interactions, which happen sporadically throughout the show. They're a great opportunity to get answers to any burning questions, and as is the case with most immersive shows, the more guests put into these interactions, the more they'll get back. Across the board, Hexmoor's cast are happy to improv with prisoners, and deftly balance expanding the show's world and colouring in details of its overarching storyline with light-hearted moments of humour. Despite warnings of smoking and vaping (including Invisarettes) being banned within Hexmoor, tiefling guard Aephon can at one point be seen dealing invisible smokes to prisoners, offering freebies to those bold enough to ask, and interactions with Jamie and Sidwell concerning the crimes that saw guests end up behind bars often descend into banterous back and forths, as long as the show's rules, which prohibit crude and overly-friendly interactions with the cast, are respected. Photo: Captivate Imagery While guests are confined to their cells for a lot of the show, there are several excursions that each group are taken on throughout the experience. The most substantial has guests casting a portal inside Cordelia's office to visit a wand shop in search of the Cardinal Wand. With a plume of green smoke and some magical words (improvised by a guest from each group), the office's fireplace gives way to a small corridor, teleporting guests directly outside the store. Inside, dusty boxes of wands are stacked up floor to ceiling, and further audience interactions with the eccentric Camomile (played by the same cast member as Cordelia) await. Later in the experience, small groups of guests are snuck out of their cells by Sidwell, who's keen to find out who they suspect of colluding with the Hollow King after revealing a hidden evidence board, complete with crude drawings of Hexmoor's staff and prisoners, all linked together with string and scribbled notes. Both of these scenes do a good job of involving the show's audience in the storyline, and their smaller capacity means that everyone has a chance to contribute, and much like in other Inventive Productions shows, it gives audiences some guaranteed face time with the show's cast outside of their cells. Photo: Captivate Imagery Given the show's magical setting, it'll come as little surprise that several of Hexmoor's three included cocktails have flourishes that are in keeping with the world. Prisoners can expect to be served both a luminous green gin and elderflower cocktail that billows smoke and bubbles away, as well as a rum-based drink that changes colour with each additional ingredient throughout the experience, in addition to a third, slightly less visually impressive cocktail. Regardless of how Instagrammable each one is, they're also some of the best-tasting options on offer across all of Inventive Production's shows - likely helped by not requiring guests to provide their own spirits, unlike in Alcotraz and Moonshine Saloon. Those trying to apply logic and work out why prisoners would be served drinks while behind bars will be relieved to hear that these three cocktails are referred to in-world as potions, and are designed to dampen the magical abilities of the prison population. Photo: Captivate Imagery Although it doesn't veer too far from Alcotraz's tried-and-tested structure, Hexmoor goes some way to building upon Inventive's original prison-based show and represents another ambitious step forward for the company, which has continually outdone itself with each new production. With a talented and committed cast, some great choreographed scenes and, of course, three cocktails included as standard, it's hard not to fall under Hexmoor's spell. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Hexmoor: Wizarding Prison is currently booking until 30th December 2026 on Hackney Road near Hoxton station. Tickets are priced from £53.95 per person and can be booked via hexmoor.co.uk For more reviews of immersive experiences like Hexmoor: Wizarding Prison, check out our recent Reviews.

This hugely effective one-on-one immersive experience explores the impact that deepfakes can have on society and individuals. Photo: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan 404 Theater's DeepFake, which runs at Underbelly Cowgate until 30th August, is an immersive theatre show designed for one audience member at a time. As part of the show, they take on the role of Alex Doe, Head of Public Relations for MirrorMind, a tech company on the verge of launching a revolutionary new AI product that allows users to create their own deepfake content. Placing the audience at the centre of an ethical dilemma surrounding the potential impact of deepfake technology, this 20-minute-long experience - which is described as 'part puzzle room, part quiet horror story' - packs a considerable punch given its short runtime, and illustrates first-hand just how terrifying the technology can be. The experience begins with guests being asked to fill out a short survey in a waiting room before being ushered to their cubicle at MirrorMind. On screen at their desk is Andi, an engineer at the company, who gets them up to speed on the software in question, MimicVerse Studio, ahead of a call with the company's CEO. Photo: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan As the Head of Public Relations, it's up to Alex to state their case for whether or not MirrorMind should proceed with launching the product and advise on the potential issues that may arise from releasing it. Rather than needing to come to this conclusion on their own, there's a wealth of environmental information scattered around the cubicle arguing for both sides, alongside a folder full of internal documents, including emails, screenshots and presentation decks detailing the development of the product and the concerns raised by employees. There's a good amount of freedom offered to guests when determining what they advise MirrorMind's CEO, who initially takes their views on board. As you'd expect from a huge tech company, though, ethical concerns and the potential for misuse ultimately take a back seat to the pursuit of profit, and you can't stand in the way of progress. It doesn't take a lot to work out how DeepFake's final moment unfolds, but even if you know where the experience is heading, it's still hugely impactful to witness it first-hand. ★★★★ DeepFake runs until 30th August (excluding 10th, 17th, 24th) at Top Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61) as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com

Image: Voidspace Voidspace has announced the full line-up for Surfing the Void, an online festival showcasing interactive digital work from creators including Chronic Insanity, cirqueSaw and Seth Kriebel. Surfing the Void will run from 14th to 27th September 2026. Speaking on the line-up announcement, Voidspace's Katy Naylor said: We are chuffed to our boots to be bringing the Voidspace live experience online for the first time. Online interactive is for life, not just for lockdown. There are so many incredible experiences out there, and it's a thrill to bring some of them to our community. It's an exciting opportunity to open the Void to all of you outside of London (and even the UK!) and to show the scope and breadth of how we can play together from the comfort of our own homes. Founded in 2021, Voidspace platforms interactive arts that invite their audience to participate in some way, from interactive theatre, fiction and poetry, to performance art, arthouse games, audio-visual work and LARP. Surfing the Void follows on from Voidspace Live, the organisation's annual festival dedicated to grassroots interactive arts of all kinds, which ran at Theatre Deli from 6th to 7th June 2026. You can read our review of Voidspace Live 2026 here. labRats by cirqueSaw (20 participants) Despite all your rage, you are still just a rat in a cage. Luckily, you’re also a rat who’s been outfitted with a neural implant that allows you to communicate telepathically with the other rats in your cage. Maybe that’ll help. labRats is a digitally native interactive performance for 20 people by the award-winning duo cirqueSaw. Pulling equally from classic games, silent films, and a generous helping of Lewis Carroll, the piece seeks to blur the line between reality and unreality, between wonder and horror. Straddling the line between theatre and game, the audience plays as rats in a lab outfitted with neural transmitters, and interact through a bespoke browser-based platform. A researcher performed by a live actor subjects them to a capricious experiment. Later, the rats are set free from their cage, and explore the lab which is full of mysteries, puzzles, stories, and mini-games. Finally, the researcher ups the ante and the rats have to decide how to respond together. Audiences play as lab rats in an experiment beyond their control, who have to work together to take control of their lives. Whether they choose to escape, take over the lab, or deconstruct the fabric of the reality of their experience itself is entirely up to them. Co-created live with the audience, every show is different. 🗓️ 17th and 20th September 2026, 19:30 💰 Free to attend, with donations encouraged 🕒 75-85 minutes The Map and The Echo by Seth Kriebel (15 participants) The Map and the Echo is a new edition in Seth Kriebel’s acclaimed series of interactive Exploration Games (including The Unbuilt Room and A House Repeated). Inspired by early text-adventure computer games, each performance is unique, shaped by your choices. Using simple instructions like ‘Go North’ or ‘Pick up the lamp’, work with your fellow explorers to overcome obstacles, navigating – and creating – an imagined world of secret maps and second chances. 🗓️ 19th September (18:00/20:00), 22nd & 25th September 2026 (20:00), 27th September (18:00/20:00) 💰 From £12.50 🕒 40 minutes Call of Cthulu: Carver’s Greed by C. Hakan Akgül (6 participants) The year is 1923, the place is Arkham. As mysterious figures go, Edgar Carver was as closeted and odd as any. However, when he realized he was about to reach the end of his life, he decided to invite six different people from all over the country to share his fortune. These people may seem randomly selected to most, but Edgar knew them all by heart. Lured by the promise of money, what mysteries and horrors await our adventurers? Will they be able to make it out alive to spend their share, or will they meet a dark and horrible end? 🗓️ 18th September 2026, 19:30 💰 From £12.50 🕒 2 hours HACKTECTIVE: Goddard Solutions by But why? (1 participant) At Goddard Solutions, we provide a service no search engine, background check, or private investigator can offer. We answer the question our clients can’t. “Who is this person, really?” As a newly hired HACKTECTIVE, you’ll be granted temporary access to a client’s chosen subject’s computer. Your role is not to solve crimes or recover data. It is to deduce and report. Every folder, message, photo, draft, and search history is a clue. Some clients are considering hiring someone. Others are deciding whether to trust a business partner, reconnect with an estranged family member, or hand over something valuable. They don’t want facts alone; they need your professional judgement. Your report will answer a single question: Is this a good person? There are no right answers. Only evidence. At Goddard Solutions, we don’t tell clients what someone has done. We tell them who they are. 🗓️ 14th, 15th, 16th, 26th September 2026 (Various times from 12:00 to 20:40) 💰 From £25.00 🕒 60 minutes 52 Souls by Chronic Insanity (On Demand) Humanity has both a morbid curiosity and an instinctual repulsion when it comes to death. Over the next 50 minutes, we’ll find out which is stronger. Although it’s something we’ll all go through, death is one of the least understood parts of the human experience, so Chronic Insanity is diving into the deep end. 52 Souls is an open and fun examination of death and our reactions to this terrifying inevitability. Using a pack of cards, the audience randomly generates a performance to understand humanity’s obsession with – and ignorance about– death. 🗓️ On Demand 💰 TBC 🕒 50 minutes Flavour Text by Chronic Insanity (On Demand) “This restaurant is now a Tex-Mex place. Food fine but owner not as polite as the previous (I wonder what happened to him?)” Flavour Text is the term used to describe the environmental storytelling that gives an audience extra insight into a fictional world. The written equivalent of a found footage film, Flavour Text is an internet-wide, narrative treasure hunt You find yourself looking for the number for your favourite takeaway online, when you realise that the restaurant has closed down suddenly. While looking for the reason, the audience falls into a rabbit hole of lies and deceit that they discover through review and comment sections across a variety of websites. 🗓️ On Demand 💰 TBC 🕒 1-3 hours Surfing the Void (Voidspace Online 2026) runs from 14th to 27th September. For more information, visit voidspacezine.com

Photo: Touching Home - 27 degrees Koro will bring Trading Stories, an immersive storytelling marketplace, to Leadenhall Market on 18th and 19th September. Over two days, this free immersive marketplace transforms public spaces into moments of connection, where stories are traded, memories are shared, and small acts of encounter become the currency. Among the everyday bustle of Leadenhall Market, visitors will encounter secret stalls and pop-up performances where international artists invite them into playful exchanges: a story for a token, a taste for a memory, a conversation with a stranger. Photo: A Divination - King of More Created by immersive theatre company Koro Productions, this free event celebrates bold migrant voices and invites visitors to see the market - and each other - in new ways. Koro specialises in immersive, interactive, and site-specific performance, creating, producing, and touring shows that place the audience at the heart of the storytelling experience. Blending theatre, design, and interactivity, Koro crafts powerful and joyful experiences that connect people and open up new perspectives. Photo: Sharing Ingredients - Pepa Duarte Trading Stories will premiere new immersive and interactive work developed as part of Koro Lab, Koro’s artist development programme for migrant and Global Majority theatre-makers. Trading Stories' line-up of experiences is as follows: The Barter by Pepa Duarte Step into an auction house where money is worthless and stories are the currency. Browse a collection of objects offered by the performers, choose your favourite, then barter for it with a story of your own. Friday: 1-1.30pm, 2.30-3pm & 4.30-5pm Saturday: 12-12.30pm, 1.45-2.15pm & 3.30-4pm A Divination by King of More Slow down, sip your coffee and let the grains settle while King of More attempts to reveal your near future. Part Bosnian coffee reading, part clowning, and part joyful encounter with the unknown. Friday: 1.45-2.15pm & 3.15-3.45pm Saturday: 1.15-1.45pm, 3-3.30pm ̶D̶o̶n̶’̶t̶ Talk to Strangers by Munotida Chinyanga At this pop-up market stall, the goods are social risks. Choose from a menu of interactions, memories, favours, confessions and small acts of care. To make your purchase, you’ll need to strike up an encounter with a stranger. Friday: 1-5pm Saturday: 12-4pm Touching Home by 27 degrees What does home feel like when you’ve left it behind? Enter a living room shaped by the experiences of 10 London migrants. Through objects, sounds and smells, discover fragments of lives lived between places. Friday: 1-5pm Saturday: 12-4pm The Price of Leaving by Devanshi Rungta & Vedika Kushalappa What do you carry when you leave home that has no market value? Step up to a tea market stall, share a cup of Indian chai and discover what can be exchanged when the things being traded have no price. Friday: 1-5pm Saturday: 12-4pm A Nightjar Journey by African Activities The drum. The beat. Can you hear it? Listen closely – it is telling you a story. This family show combines storytelling and puppetry to follow Abena’s journey from Ghana to England, exploring belonging, difference and holding two homes in one heart. Saturday: 12.30-1pm & 2.15-2.45pm Koro's Trading Stories will run at Leadenhall Market across the 18th and 19th September. The experience is free to attend and suitable for all ages. For more information, visit koro.org.uk

Discover the human stories behind the wheel in Dante or Die's immersive documentary Driving Home, which tours the UK this autumn. Image: Dante or Die Award-winning theatre company Dante or Die invites audiences into the passenger seat of a black cab for Driving Home, a new immersive documentary exploring the lives, memories and journeys of five taxi drivers across contemporary Britain. Transforming a decommissioned black cab into a pop-up cinema, this free 20-minute experience seats just three people at a time. Sitting inside the cab and enveloped by spatial audio, audiences watch a 20-minute film unfold across the windscreen and windows around them, following five real taxi drivers through the places they call home. Taxi drivers occupy a unique place in the life of a town or city. Crossing neighbourhoods and social boundaries every day, they witness lives unfolding from behind the wheel. Their conversations touch on migration and belonging, work and financial pressures, family, community and the changing face of Britain, revealing experiences that are at once deeply personal and surprisingly universal. Video: Dante or Die The immersive design places audiences directly inside those encounters. Cinematic footage of the passing streets surrounds the cab, while animation moves beyond the physical journey into the drivers' memories and imagined landscapes. At moments, the real world gives way entirely to places recalled by the person speaking, creating a visual landscape where memory and place meet the present. Daphna Attias and Terry O'Donovan, Artistic Directors of Dante or Die said: We both migrated to the UK more than 20 years ago and have made it our home. Driving Home grew out of our own experiences of belonging and identity, and the conversations we've had over the years about what 'home' really means. As we began researching the project, we found ourselves having remarkable conversations with taxi drivers. There's something unique about being in a taxi. You're alone with a stranger, connected through the rear-view mirror rather than direct eye contact, and the journey somehow creates permission for unexpected honesty. Again and again, conversations began with the question, 'Where are you from?' — a question that has become increasingly loaded. One of the drivers featured told us he sometimes tells people he’s Turkish because he didn't know where the conversation might lead if he said he was from Afghanistan. Others spoke about changing their names to sound 'less foreign', protecting themselves from prejudice they feared they might encounter. Taxi drivers occupy a unique place in their communities. They know the streets, hear people's hopes, anxieties and opinions every day, and have their fingers on the pulse of the places they live. We wanted to create a space where audiences could listen to those stories and perhaps recognise something of themselves within them. Blending documentary, immersive technology and animation, Driving Home features an original score by Mercury Prize-nominated artist Dr Obaro Ejimiwe (aka Ghostpoet). Alongside the tour, Dante or Die will work with local communities, including migrant and refugee groups, exploring personal stories through a programme of creative workshops. The drivers featured are Ashley Arnold (Thurrock, Essex), Amberine Nawaaz (Bradford), Frank Amonoo-Mensah (Peckham, London), Mihail Marin (Hull) & Farhad Ghafoori (Medway, Kent). Driving Home will tour the UK this September and October. The experience is free to attend. For more information, visit danteordie.com

Photo: David Parry/Frameless The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, the global competition that has spent a decade using humour to campaign for wildlife conservation, is coming to FRAMELESS, London’s largest permanent immersive art experience. Opening on 12th September, a brand-new retrospective experience will bring together ten years of the competition’s funniest images presented at full scale inside the habitats where they were captured. Staged in FRAMELESS’ Blank Canvas Gallery, the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards Immersive Experience brings together 91 award-winning photographs from the competition’s first decade across a 15-minute journey, inviting audiences to feel more from the natural world around them. Photo: David Parry/Frameless Journey through seven different natural habitats and come face-to-face with some of the most humorous creatures that dwell in these environments. From surprised seals and sassy penguins on beach shores, bewildered bears and chortling mice on forest floors, to dancing monkeys and ninja prairie dogs in vast grasslands, discover the lighter side of life in habitats often remote from our own. Each image is placed within the habitat it was captured in. with spatial sound shifting around the gallery, from breaking waves on the shoreline to the hush of the forest floor, allowing visitors to feel as though they are walking through each environment as they meet the creatures that live there. Ryan ‘Woody’ Atwood, Creative Director of FRAMELESS, said: Nature photography is one of the most precise art forms. Capturing the perfect image as timeless as those featured in this new experience can require months of planning and split-second decision-making. For ten years, the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards have demonstrated that comedy is a powerful medium for telling important stories about conservation and nature, and we’re honoured that FRAMELESS is now a part of their journey. Through our signature immersive storytelling, we are reframing some of its best and most hilarious images in their native environments, and we hope our audiences will come away with a newfound appreciation for both this art form and our weird and wonderful natural world. Photo: David Parry/Frameless Using humour to inspire wildlife conservation has been the ambition of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards since its inception in 2015. A global competition open to all ages no matter their experience in photography, the Awards see thousands of entries annually, showcasing nature’s funniest, and often unseen, moments and behaviours. By demonstrating that we are not so different from wildlife as we may expect, the Awards’ mission is to broaden our understanding of nature and why biodiversity conservation matters. Every year, the Awards support a grassroots conservation organisation, and this year, it is working with The Born Free Foundation, an international wildlife charity working to prevent the exploitation and suffering of wild animals both in captivity and in the wild. Tom Sullam, Co-founder at the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, said: Being able to show some of the very best entries from our fantastic collection of images at FRAMELESS is an absolute honour for all involved with this competition. The strength of our message is only as strong as the people that see the images, and this upbeat, positive and enhancing exhibition will be an incredible experience for all visitors. We are genuinely thrilled by this exhibition and can’t wait to see the positivity that comes from it! Running through January 2027, the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards Immersive Experience comes at a timely moment in the Awards’ calendar, which is gearing up to announce the finalists of its 2026 competition in early October. The retrospective experience will take over FRAMELESS’ Blank Canvas Gallery, which has hosted some of its most ambitious exclusive residencies, from showcases by up-and-coming artists to collaborations with renowned institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery. Entry to the Blank Canvas Gallery is included in all standard FRAMELESS tickets. A staple in London’s gallery scene since 2022, FRAMELESS invites audiences to experience the world through art. Alongside the Blank Canvas Gallery, FRAMELESS houses immersive interpretations of over 40 historic masterpieces from around the globe across its four permanent galleries, all under one roof and all in one ticket, allowing visitors to feel more from the art around them and to experience art in an entirely new way. The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards Immersive Experience opens at FRAMELESS on 12th September 2026, running through January 2027. Entry to FRAMELESS begins at £29.50 for adults and £20 for children. For more information, visit frameless.com

Image: Ôl | Haunts Ôl | Haunts is the first Welsh-language virtual reality work selected for competition at the Venice International Film Festival, marking a major milestone for Welsh immersive storytelling. Selected for the Immersive Category at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, Ôl | Haunts takes audiences on a nostalgic journey back to 2006 - twenty years on. The work will be presented on Venice Immersive Island from 2nd to 12th September, marking its international premiere. It is one of just 68 immersive experiences from around the world selected for this year's programme. Before travelling to Venice, Ôl | Haunts will also be showcased throughout the week on the National Library’s stand at this year’s National Eisteddfod, Wales’ largest arts and culture festival, which will be taking place in North Pembrokeshire between 1st and 8th August. The bilingual experience has been made possible through the Wales Broadcast Archive, a National Library of Wales project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Welsh Government and is a Wales Millennium Centre, Pilot Theatre and Dreaming Methods co-production, developed in collaboration with the National Library of Wales. Image: Ôl | Haunts Narrated by Welsh stars, Callum Scott-Howells (It’s a Sin), in English and Steffan Donnelly in Welsh, audiences are transported to Llanberis, a rural former slate town in Gwynedd, North Wales, on the cusp of a new world where Twitter has just been launched and young people are quickly getting used to a society where social media and technology are beginning to take hold. The title and concept calls to the nostalgia that co-directors, Lucy Hammond and Tom Chetwode-Barton, wanted to evoke in audiences with a haunt referencing an experience that resonates deeply with our youth and the places, people and music that stay with us long into our adulthood. Speaking on being selected for Venice International Film Festival, co-director Lucy Hammond said: It’s incredibly exciting seeing Ôl | Haunts being recognised on an international level. Seeing immersive work being celebrated at the world’s oldest film festival shows just how powerful it can be as a form of storytelling; we hope that it’ll evoke the same feelings of nostalgia in global audiences as it has done for audiences back at home. Imagery of the youth culture of the time is set against the backdrop of the dark slate mountains and quarries of the area’s industrial past and a narration written by Tom Chetwode-Barton, a BAFTA-nominated writer-director based in Anglesey, whose work often explores themes of class, regional culture, mythology and gender. Writer and co-director Tom Chetwode-Barton said: It’s fantastic to see Welsh language immersive work being recognised on this stage. We hope it helps shine a light on the creativity and talent coming out of Wales and shows how immersive storytelling can connect with audiences everywhere. The production comes as part of Wales Millennium Centre’s wider commitment to creating new work within the immersive field and supporting Welsh artists. David Massey, Creative Technology and Storytelling Senior Producer at Wales Millennium Centre, said: Ôl | Haunts reflects our ongoing commitment to developing immersive work and supporting the artists creating it, in Wales and beyond. Immersive storytelling is an increasingly important part of our programme at Wales Millennium Centre, and we continue to invest in new work in this space - through the annual Annwn Prize, and through new commissions, including a co-production coming to our 2027 season that does exactly this. Wakefield-based VR studio, Dreaming Methods (Judi Alston and Andy Campbell) led on the concept development and the immersive creative. With music by Welsh artists Super Furry Animals, John Cale and High Contrast, Ôl | Haunts takes audiences on a multi-sensory journey, combining theatre, virtual landscapes and archive footage drawn from the National Library of Wales’ Wales Broadcast Archive – which brings together extensive material from BBC Cymru Wales, ITV Cymru Wales and S4C.