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Argentinian performance troupe Fuerza Bruta return to Camden's Roundhouse after a decade-long absence for the European premiere of their latest show, AVEN. Photo: Johan Persson Fuerza Bruta, the Argentinian institution that has performed in upwards of 37 countries for more than 6 million people since its inception, has a long-running history with Roundhouse. Following a refurbishment to the iconic North London venue in 2006, their debut show (which at the time shared a name with the company but has since been renamed Wayra) re-opened the venue. At the time, it also held Roundhouse's record for fastest-selling performance. 2013 saw the show return for a month-long residency, where it continued to enjoy sold-out dates and strong word of mouth. It continued to tour internationally for years afterwards, but Fuerza Bruta knew a new show was on the horizon. Following the pandemic, the company's plans for that new show saw them "abandon any note of darkness and strife" to instead "create the happiest show we have ever done” according to director Diqui James. This is the European premiere of AVEN, a high-energy show that bills itself as a "celebration of adventure and paradise". Photo: Johan Persson After a pre-show DJ set from BRESH's Luz Rodriguez, the immersive club-theatre experience begins with a huge inflatable globe zipping above the standing-room-only audience. Performers in pastel-coloured suits run across the surface as if their lives depend on it, causing it to rapidly spin on its axis. A water tank suspended in mid-air sees a woman slide and crash against the sides while their partner dangles below its glass floor, desperate to connect. Later, a performer hangs from a crane in the centre of the room and is pulled through the air at breakneck speed to ear-piercing whistles and cheers from the crowd. The show's finale sees a life-sized inflatable whale glide over the audience as it oscillates back and forth within touching distance of the outstretched arms below. While every scene of the show is radically different from the last, those who have seen their previous work will notice there are some ideas that the Fuerza Bruta team found too tempting not to revisit. Wayra's most iconic scene, in which a man sprinting on a treadmill crashes through walls and is riddled with bullets, gets an update here that's far more optimistic and joyful. Photo: Johan Persson Those attending will be craning their necks throughout the show's 70-minute duration as performers fly overhead, constantly shifting their attention from one side of the venue to the other as the action unfolds all around them. Anyone who finds themselves in the centre of the Roundhouse crowd for the conclusion of the show will likely leave soaked as water violently sprays from the ceiling, and being covered in confetti is practically guaranteed for everyone in the room. By design, the audience is in the midst of the action and as much a part of the show as the 14-strong pack of performers above them. For a lot of people, the closest comparison they'll have to a show like AVEN is Cirque du Soleil, with their annual Royal Albert Hall residencies. This, however is an entirely different beast - from the pounding bass and gig-like atmosphere to the constantly shifting audience positions as set-pieces are wheeled out into the thick of the crowd, Fuerza Bruta's offering feels more like an over-the-top warehouse rave than a night at the theatre. Photo: Johan Persson There's nothing subtle or understated in AVEN; every moment is about being as big and bold as possible, which comes as little surprise considering the company's name translates to 'brute force'. An exercise in maximalist joy, attending AVEN is to be swept up in an uplifting experience unlike anything else playing in London this summer. Photos: Johan Persson ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Fuerza Bruta - AVEN runs at the Roundhouse in Camden from 9th July to 1st September 2024. Tickets start at £25 and can be purchased via roundhouse.org.uk For more reviews and coverage of immersive shows like Fuerza Bruta's AVEN, see below...

Immersive newcomers Muddled Marauders will forever change how you look at carrots and parsnips with their surreal debut show, Vegetables. Photo: Muddled Marauders Clerkenwell Bio Botanics has opened the doors of its underground research centre to the public for the first time. They're hosting a product showcase of their groundbreaking biophysical work, and are looking for trialists. That's about as much information as was public about Vegetables, the debut immersive theatrical show from Muddled Marauders, until last week when it opened. Wrapped in secrecy since it was first announced in May, the producers have been tight-lipped about exactly what to expect, and for good reason. It's a show with an absolutely absurd premise that is best enjoyed with no prior knowledge of what is to come. Directed by Nathan Ess, the show has received backing from Arts Council England and is inspired by the likes of Julia Davis (creator and star of BBC's Nighty Night and Sky/HBO's Sally4Eva), Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror and writer/director Charlie Kaufman. While this is Muddled Marauders' first immersive theatrical show, they've been operating since 2016 in the underground rave scene and are best known for creating elaborate immersive parties in disused spaces. Photo: Muddled Marauders The show's story revolves around Dr. Angela Hass (Adie Mueller), a scientist whose recent breakthrough promises to 'fix you in ways you didn't know you could be fixed'. It's little surprise given the show's title, but it involves vegetables and in the best way possible, is absolutely ludicrous. Audiences are eased into the show first with welcome drinks provided by Dr. Hass' lab assistant Veronica (Michelle Roberston) and a peek behind the plastic curtains that are scattered throughout their underground research centre. There's dozens of carrots, onions and parsnips floating in jars all over the sprawling hallways of their laboratory, and stems of broccoli hooked up to enough wires and sensors that Hass could probably trace which field they were grown in if desired. Photo: Muddled Marauders Over the show's 90-minute duration, the absurdity of the story ramps up to a comical degree. A scene midway through in which all of the trialists are offered a slice of carrot to eat leads to a moment so surreal we were in danger of choking from how funny it was. Later moments touch upon more serious topics surrounding consent and sexual assault, but they're not the main focus of the show's narrative and are only alluded to briefly. While it's light on the kind of immersive elements that some audience members might expect, there are opportunities for those willing to get involved - though it doesn't lead to much more than some brief improv between the cast and audience. Set across two main rooms, those who attend will also find themselves seated for much of the show's duration. For a first outing into immersive theatre, Muddled Marauders have produced a show that's unique and different to everything else currently playing. They're a company to watch out for in the future and if you're willing to follow them into an undisclosed basement in Clerkenwell, it makes for a hell of a story to tell friends and colleagues about the following day. Photos: Muddled Mauraders ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Vegetables runs until 23rd June in a secret location in Clerkenwell. To find out more and apply for tickets, visit https://www.clerkenwell-bio-botanics.co.uk

Deadweight Theatre debuts an immersive show that defies categorisation. Performed for an audience of just one, The Manikins: a work in progress is an extraordinary experience for those lucky enough to attend. Jack Aldisert in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Rebecca J. Windsor. Scene 1. We receive an email with nothing written inside. Attached is a script describing us opening the email. "They open the attachment and begin reading. It is the first page of a play in which they are the protagonist. The stage directions describe the moment they are currently experiencing. They don't know how to feel about this." Scene 2. Weeks later, we are sat in the garden of St. Peter's Church in Bethnal Green. A man in a black turtleneck enters the courtyard and introduces himself. We follow him inside the church and descend into the basement. Two chairs are positioned in the middle of the space, facing each other. We take a seat opposite the man in the black turtleneck and ███ ████ ███████. --- Usually, when reviewing an immersive show, we're very conscious of how much to reveal about the experience. Often, you need to mention certain elements of what happens in order to discuss and dissect it properly. It's a delicate balance between revealing enough to get people's interest, but not so much that there are no surprises left. With The Manikins: a work in progress - which has just started its sold-out six-week run at Crypt in Bethnal Green - explaining anything that happens in the show would ruin it. Even if we were to describe it, it'd make very little sense anyway - you need to experience it first-hand for it to have meaning. What we can say, though, is that The Manikins: a work in progress is a singular experience that defies categorisation and is unlike any other show we've ever attended. Serena Lehman in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Marc Tsang Every performance of The Manikins: a work in progress is for a single audience member, who also serves as its protagonist. There's no hiding for those who attend the show - they're front and centre for the duration - and end up being as much a performer and collaborator in creating the experience as the two cast members (Jack Aldisert and Serena Lehman) alongside them. Knowing that you're the sole focus of the show when you're in it is a daunting prospect. The closest comparison most immersive theatregoers will have to the opportunity The Manikins: a work in progress offers are the 1:1 scenes in Punchdrunk's large-scale shows. While on the surface it's an apt comparison to make, this show is an entirely different beast. For much of its duration, it's unclear where the show ends and the real world begins. It exists in the liminal space between dreams and reality. There are contradictions, improbabilities, and moments so confounding that your understanding of what is and isn't real anymore is destroyed. It’s a disorientating experience that has you questioning everything around you, including the words coming out of your own mouth. The choices thrust upon you hold so much weight that they're almost crippling, and it's hard to remember if the decisions you made were chosen by you or another version of yourself. After a certain point, you're so far down the rabbit hole that it's impossible to see the light at the surface. Serena Lehman and Jack Aldisert in The Manikins: a work in progress. Photo: Marc Tsang In the days since we attended, the show has burrowed itself into our subconscious to a degree we didn't know a piece of theatre could. We'll be processing it for weeks to come, and it's not something that we'll ever forget. In the simplest possible terms, this is the best immersive show of 2024, and it may take many more years for anything else to come close to it. ★★★★★ [Ticket gifted in exchange for an honest review] The Manikins: a work in progress runs at Parabolic Theatre's Crypt in Bethnal Green from 3rd June to 13th July 2024. Tickets are currently sold out, but you can visit themanikins.com to find out more about the show.

The globally acclaimed immersive theatre producer debuts a new, intimate production in their Woolwich home that has no performers, no white masks, and an audience with no shoes. Our review of Viola's Room... Photo: Julian Abrams It's only been nine months since audiences were last invited inside One Cartridge Place in Woolwich to experience a Punchdrunk show. Set across two sprawling buildings at their new London home, The Burnt City dwarfed every other immersive production in the country in both scope and scale. It was a welcome return of the company's flagship white mask shows, with guests free to follow whichever of the twenty-five-plus characters they desired over three hours. In nearly every way possible, their latest show, Viola's Room, rejects the format fans had waited so long for before their return to London. Thematically, it's a show that touches on absence and loss, and it's chosen to make everything the company is best known for - white masks, large casts, looping structures - absent too. Photo: Julian Abrams Based on a gothic short story entitled The Moon Slave by Barry Pain, Viola's Room follows the story of Princess Viola, a teenage girl who finds herself drawn to the centre of a maze one evening and compulsively dances for hours on end after surrendering her free will to the Moon. Adapted by Booker Prize-shortlisted Daisy Johnson, Punchdrunk's version reframes the original story by first welcoming us into the teenage bedroom of a different Viola growing up in the early 1990s. With Massive Attack CDs on her bedside table and posters of The Smashing Pumpkins on her walls, her empty bedroom is revisited several times throughout the show, first falling into disarray and later being packed up entirely. In typical Punchdrunk fashion, there's no clear answer for why she's disappeared from her childhood home, but the clues we do get imply a fate not dissimilar to the Princesses'. Our introduction to Princess Viola is framed as part of a bedtime story. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and delivered via headphones, we hear of the Princess's first interactions with Hugo, the boy she later becomes engaged to, and how she pushed him into the mud while playing. We hear of the day her parents passed away, and the house was covered in black drapes to mourn their loss. We hear of how she would while away the days dancing in the hallways of the mansion. Above us, a swirl of cloud-shaped lights appears before a play tent in the corner of the room is illuminated. Photo: Julian Abrams During the pre-show briefing, it's made clear that we need to always 'follow the light'—while it's an instruction for us, it was a compulsion for Viola. Crawling through the play tent, we enter Princess Viola's world. In Viola's Room, audiences are required to traverse the set without shoes or socks. Walking barefoot for the duration of the hour-long show, the feeling of ever-changing surfaces underfoot is wonderfully tactile - shag carpets soon make way for hard concrete, uneven wooden floorboards, and ankle-deep sand. Having our exposed feet be in contact with all these surfaces throughout the show not only physically connects us to the world, but evokes a feeling of vulnerability in the audience. Photo: Julian Abrams The first half of Viola's Room contains several wonderfully crafted miniatures. Lights in her mansion's windows flicker on and off, charting her movements through the building, and streetlights on the garden path leading down to the hedge maze illuminate her running to heed the Moon's call. As we progress through the story, the tiny objects and spaces we first saw in these early moments as observers become our reality, writ large before us. The most striking, an oak tree at the centre of the maze, seen first in miniature, grows to the height of a house by the show's conclusion. It's little surprise that with no performers, the sound and lighting instead play a huge part in creating the foreboding atmosphere that permeates the show. While scenes in 90s Viola's bedroom are soundtracked by eerie songs from the likes of Soundgarden, Tori Amos and Massive Attack, the standout musical moment is in the show's second half as a crucifix of Jesus emerges from the darkness to O Fortuna. Helena Bonham Carter's narration is the one constant throughout Viola's Room. While it's well delivered, there's always a sense of detachment between us as listeners and the story we're being told. The absence of anyone besides the groups of six that experience the show together furthers this detachment as if we're ghosts walking through a memory. Photo: Julian Abrams While the looping narrative of Punchdrunk's show is absent from Viola's Room, there is one element that seems to repeat over and over again. In a similar way to the black hallways of The Burnt City that sat between Troy and Mycenae - totally devoid of theming - Viola's Room has numerous white corridors with little more than pieces of fabric draped at eye level. When so much of the set has been crafted with painstaking attention to detail, these corridors seem to do nothing but move audiences to another area without doing anything to build out the world further. Viola's Room isn't the first time Punchdrunk have tackled The Moon Slave. In 2000, when the company was still in its infancy, it staged a version for an audience of four people over four nights. Just like Viola's Room, the show had a reliance on darkness and selective lighting, a pre-recorded soundscape delivered via headphones and next to no cast. The success of that show left a lasting impression on Punchdrunk's Creative Director, Felix Barrett, who described it as "the most pure, distilled version of a Punchdrunk show". It's little wonder that 24 years later, they've decided to revisit the idea for a much wider audience to experience for the first time. While it likely won't develop the same devoted following that its large-scale shows have, Punchdrunk has delivered a show that lives up to its usual high standard. While we'd recommend familiarising yourself with the source material first to get the most out of it, Viola's Room is an experience people should dive into (bare) feet first. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Viola's Room will run until 23rd December at One Cartridge Place in Woolwich. Tickets are on sale via punchdrunk.com, priced from £28.50 per person. To keep up to date on the latest immersive experiences in London, follow us on Instagram.

London's top immersive experience returns with another flawless season of mysteries and innovation in Canada Water. We head over the ridge to review Phantom Peak's Festival of Innovation. Photo: Alistair Veryard For London-based immersive theatre fans, it's often easy to take for granted just how good we have it. With an ever-growing list of immersive experiences on our doorstep, there's no better place in the world to experience the most innovative and groundbreaking immersive work. Nothing exemplifies this fact more than Phantom Peak - a mainstay of London's immersive scene since it first opened in 2022, that continues to be the most original and singular immersive experience in town. At this point, we're a broken record when it comes to Phantom Peak - since it first opened, we've been screaming from the rooftops about how good it is with a string of five-star reviews. Their latest season - Festival of Innovation - continues to deliver everything guests have come to expect from Phantom Peak. With some of their strongest storylines yet and a host of new additions to the show's 30,000 sq foot site, it's an experience that continues to innovate and best itself, even after 18 months of constant updates. This season sees JONACO, the powerful organisation that has its fingerprints all over nearly every element of the town, introduce the Festival of Innovation - a World's Fair-style showcase of the latest and greatest inventions from Phantom Peak's townsfolks and tourists. Most of this season's new storylines involve these inventions in one way or another. For instance, the trail ’Nothing But The Truth’ revolves around ProstleBot - a robotic priest with boundless enthusiasm for spreading the gospel of the Cosmic Platypus, who has just found itself accused of murder - something you've asked to get to the bottom of by the town's resident priest, Pius. Photo: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in Phantom Peak, there are storylines involving everything from pets that have escaped into other dimensions, sentient AI assistants, prehistoric creatures on the loose, creepy clowns, and a certain monster-based trading card game that's taken heavy influence from Pokémon. Often, these storylines take inspiration from real-world pop culture. Previous season's trails have referenced everything from Scooby-Doo to Tomb Raider and Five Nights at Freddy's. We're now fast approaching 100 unique trails having been on offer since Phantom Peak first opened in 2022. While they've varied massively in subject matter over the last 18 months, the common thread that has been present throughout is their unpredictable nature. Rarely will you ever be able to accurately predict where any of the trails will lead you, and their constant twists and turns can soon turn a storyline about something as pedestrian as I.T. Support into a battle between humankind and demonic spirits. Photo: Alistair Veryard By design, Phantom Peak lets you take things entirely at your own pace - there are no big set-piece moments you can miss by being in the wrong part of the venue at the wrong time (something that is often the case with free-roaming immersive experiences like Secret Cinema or Punchdrunk's large scale shows), and the storylines are only moved forward by your actions as you interact with Phantom Peak's many townsfolk. If you want to take a break for half an hour to have some food and drink, the trail you'll have been doing is ready for you to pick up again whenever you are. For 2024, Phantom Peak's cocktail experience has been overhauled in the form of The Broken Chalise - a new actor-led experience at a set time during each performance. As part of the experience, guests need to complete a series of group tasks to the satisfaction of Leadbelly, the town's Health and Safety Officer, against the clock. With a mix of physical and mental tasks to complete, it's a fun activity for all group sizes, as well as those keen to dive a bit deeper into the ever-expanding lore of Phantom Peak. Photo: Alistair Veryard Considering the cocktails at Phantom Peak will run you anywhere from £9.50 to £11 each, and with an exclusive cocktail menu available only to those who participate in the experience, it's good value if you want to indulge in one of them anyway. For the avid Phantom Peak card collectors, there's also an exclusive trail card for those who take part in The Broken Chalice on top of the 10 regular trail cards handed out through the main storylines. Photo: Alistair Veryard The show's overarching story, which continues to develop season on season, sees some new developments also. The long-rumoured return of Phantom Peak's former Mayor Furbish is inching ever closer as they work behind the scenes to gain influence and control of the town against JONACO, while Jonas' long-term plans for the town see one of the townsfolk soon venturing into space as part of a classified, top-secret Operation. Photo: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's ability to continually deliver 10+ hours of new storylines every few months is nothing short of miraculous, and it's made all the more impressive by the fact that every season's trails somehow improve on the last. There isn't another immersive experience operating at the level that Phantom Peak is right now, and it's without a doubt the best experience on offer in a city that's already home to the best immersive work in the world. ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Photos: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's Festival of Innovation currently runs until 12th May 2024, though a closing date for this season has yet to be confirmed. You can book via phantompeak.com

Phantom Peak concludes the 2023 season with an exceptionally fun set of festive trails in this top-tier Christmas offering. Photo: Alistair Veryard Returning for its fourth and final season of 2023, Phantom Peak continues to stand head and shoulders above every other immersive experience in London. Simply put, if you've never visited the platypus-loving mining town located in Canada Water, you're missing out on a truly special one-of-a-kind show. Our love for this experience is well documented - our initial Phantom Peak review back in August 2022 was glowing. With 16 interconnected storylines that saw guests exploring every corner of the town over five hours, it delivered an experience that had so much to do that it was impossible to complete in one visit. Fifteen months on, Phantom Peak has continued to reinvent itself and grow season after season. There have now been 87 different story trails available across its seven seasons, and the continued evolution of the town has created a loyal fanbase and a huge number of repeat visitors. With a whole host of changes around the town with every season, as well as hours' worth of new storylines to experience, Phantom Peak changes at a pace that makes every other immersive show's growth seem glacial. Photo: Alistair Veryard The townsfolk of Phantom Peak are on edge this Wintermas season. Demigod Father Platmas has returned and vowed to take down JONACO - the mysterious organisation that controls much of the town's operation. Last year, the purple-suited bringer of festive cheer was imprisoned by JONACO in a make-shift jail and is certainly holding a grudge against their previous captures. Mayor Pocket, fresh off being re-elected during the Lunar Festival, has cordoned off a large part of town around Father Platmas' Grotto, and a Defence Centre has been erected to keep him at bay. Elsewhere in town, the usual mix of unexplained goings-on that are part and parcel of Phantom Peak is keeping everyone busy. This season's many storylines include everything from a group of missing teens who were last seen investigating some monstrous sightings (a pitch-perfect parody of Scooby-Doo!), a race against the clock to prevent the town's shopkeeper from spontaneously exploding, and the arrival of an anonymously sent puppet to Mayor Pocket that has minds racing. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those unfamiliar with how it works, upon arrival, groups load up the JonAssist website on their phones. Acting as a handheld guide to the town, visitors are assigned one of ten trails to start. Taking anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes to complete if you're dedicated, a typical trail will see you solving puzzles, interacting with numerous townsfolk and learning information from any of the numerous machines scattered around the town - including RoboDoc (a sarcastic digital doctor), Jonavisions (TVs that need to be tuned to a specific channel), Videomatics (keypad operated video players) and Jonagraphs (telegram machines to contact people out of town). You progress through these stories at your own pace, which allows you to get distracted by any of the numerous other things going on around the town at any one time without losing your place in that storyline. Upon completion of a storyline, you're rewarded with a collectable trail card, which also serves as a memento of your visit. It combines elements of immersive theatre, escape rooms and video games to form an experience that's completely unique and not being done anywhere else. Photo: Alistair Veryard Every trail this season continues to meet the high standard set by past iterations, and the fact that the writers don't appear to be anywhere close to running out of ideas after creating close to 90 individual storylines for Phantom Peak is a testament to how deep and detailed the overall world in which the towns exist is. Alongside the 10 main storylines on offer, there's plenty else to occupy your time - from the trio of carnival games to the Miramaze (a lengthy obstacle course complete with tunnels, a ball pit, dark corridors and several hundred bungee cords to navigate) and the wide range of food and drinks options, which includes some excellent festive cocktails and mulled wine. Photo: Alistair Veryard An optional add-on experience for the Wintermas season this year is a meet-and-greet with Father Platmas in their grotto. Entering in small groups, guests first have their auras read and are then deemed to be either Naughty or Nice. To break the ice, there are several rounds of festive charades, and each visitor is gifted a Polaroid photo of themselves with Father Platmas and a unique trail card. While it may not be an essential experience for newer visitors to Phantom Peak, having some one-on-one time with arguably the season's most important character will be of particular enjoyment to regular visitors who are clued up on the lore of the town. Photos: Alistair Veryard With the overarching story of Phantom Peak set to continue into 2024, and no end date in sight for its ongoing season updates, it's a show that rewards regular and repeated visits. If you've not yet set foot into this immersive open world, you're missing out. Phantom Peak has delivered the best immersive Christmas experience on offer in London yet again, and we can't recommend it highly enough. ★★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Christmas at the Peak: The Beast of Winter runs at Phantom Peak in Canada Water until 30th December. Tickets start at £39.99 for adults, and can be booked via phantompeak.com. Check out our other reviews from Phantom Peak here.

Four and a half years in the making, wunderkind producers Sleepwalk Immersive debut an outstanding adaptation of The Bacchae that shows off only a fraction of their full potential. Photo: Sleepwalk Immersive Initially conceived as a one-man show designed for a single audience member, the development of Bacchanalia has spanned a period of four and a half years. Expanding and growing with each new iteration, it took form last year in a series of R&D performances in Central London. Off the back of those shows, Bacchanalia has now taken over Crypt in Bethnal Green for a two-week, sold-out run. Based on The Bacchae by Euripides, Bacchanalia tells the story of the Greek god Dionysus as they seek revenge on the family members who have denied their divinity. It's an intense and intimate immersive production, welcoming just 40 audience members per performance. Photos: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) Set in 1960's Thebes, Bacchanalia ties the Greek tragedies' themes of rebellion and societal resistance to change to the moral panic and hysteria that surrounded hippie counter-culture that came to define the era. Bridging the gap between these ancient narratives and more contemporary events, it's a thoughtful and innovative approach to storytelling that pays off in spades. With a cast made up of Jordan Ajadi, Ruth Howard, Christian Loveless, Fionn Cox-Davies, Peter Broughton, Fania Grigoriou and Maya McQueen, it's a show full of exceptionally talented performers. The quality of this cast is a testament to the ambition of Sleepwalk Immersive, who have produced a show that stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best immersive stagings London has seen in recent memory. Photo: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) Peter Broughton's portrayal of Dionysus - the God of wine and pleasure - is equal parts cult leader and dazzling showman, carrying themselves with all the bravado and self-assuredness of a God returning to claim what is theirs. While their push and pull with Christian Loveless' buttoned-up Mayor Pentheus is the driving force for the story as the two vie for control of Thebes, ultimately it's a futile effort for Pentheus - who all but lost the war the moment their cousin Dionysus arrived. Photos: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) Broughton spends much of the show flanked by Jordan Ajadi and Ruth Howard - the chorus of Bacchae who hang on Dionysus' every word. With their pedigree as performers well established, it's no surprise that Ruth Howard's work as Movement Director is excellent, with their choreography and movement on display throughout the show a great reflection of the uninhibited, free-spirited feel of 1960's counter-culture. Rounding off the cast are Fania Grigoriou as Agave and Fionn Cox-Davies as Tiresias, who both portray their roles with a weight worthy of the source material. Notably, Grigoriou's portrayal of Agave undergoes a poignant transformation throughout the show, reaching a powerful climax as she descends into madness, convinced that Pentheus is a lion whom she then fiercely attacks. Photo: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) Inevitably, Bacchanalia is going to be compared to Punchdrunk's work. With a cast made up largely of the immersive juggernauts alumni, and with a Greek tragedy as the source material it's an easy leap to make. The show wears its influence on its sleeves - anyone who experienced The Burnt City will be able to draw numerous parallels between the style of Punchdrunk's work and Bacchanalia. From the choreographed dance sequences to the strategic lighting cues and use of music, Sleepwalk's show feels like a concentrated embodiment of everything people have come to love about Punchdrunk's work. Photo: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) It'd be dismissive to say that this is little more than imitation though - Bacchanalia builds upon the inspiration taken from Punchdrunk and combines it with a lot of the most compelling elements of the immersive medium. Upon entering guests are offered outfits, as well as food and drink. Scattered throughout the space are dozens of documents and photos - including references to other immersive shows and mementos from audience members who backed the show on Kickstarter. All of this not only builds out the world further, helping the walls of the venue fade away, but demonstrates Sleepwalk Immersive's commitment to prioritising the audience's experience in every aspect of the show's creation. There are also moments of real humour throughout - including the use of a puppet bearing a striking resemblance to Grigoriou that was one of the funniest and most unexpected moments we can recall having seen in an immersive production. Photo: Ivy Corbin (@ivy_corbs) Artistic Director Sebastian Huang commented during our recent interview that this version of the show is only around 1/4 of what Sleepwalk has already envisioned and written for Bacchanalia. Given the success and response to this short run, it will no doubt return in the future at a grander scale. In its current form, this is one of the best new immersive shows of the year, so those yet to visit Thebes can rest assured that when the show does return, it'll be a sight to behold. Sleepwalk Immersive has captured lightning in a bottle with Bacchanalia. The fact that this version of the show is only a fraction of their overall ambition for the story is a marvel, and we can't wait to see where it goes from here. ★★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Bacchanalia runs at Crypt in Bethnal Green until Saturday 25th November 2023. You can stay up to date with Sleepwalk Immersive via their mailing list or Instagram.

Santa is posted up in his favourite watering hole, and is lacking in Christmas spirit. Can we save Christmas and get him back on his sleigh, or has he hung up his boots for good? Immersive Rumours received complimentary tickets to this show and as such, are disclosing this information before our review. They have had no input in the below and all thoughts are our own. Photo: Grant Walker Humbug - a brand-new immersive Christmas dive bar, has just opened its door beneath Waterloo Station for the festive season. Running until 6th January 2024, the experience is a booze-fuelled evening of festive cheer, sing-a-longs and immersive elements. If you're looking for a Christmas-themed night out with friends or colleagues, or are sick of visiting Winter Wonderland for the umpteenth time, this is a great alternative. We were recently invited down to opening night to check out the experience and share our thoughts - a huge thank you to Hero Social for the invitation. Photos: Grant Walker Humbug lies behind an unassuming door at the end of Leake Street - an area of London known for its elaborate graffiti-covered walls. It's a venue so well hidden that we overheard the leader of a walking tour passing by remark they 'had no idea there was even a door there' while queuing to enter. Behind the spray-painted mural of Santa lies an elaborately decorated hallway covered in wrapping paper and presents - it's a wonderful introduction to the maximalist design of the venue, which is covered head to toe in what feels like every single bit of Christmas memorabilia ever made, with sections themed around Mariah Carey, Home Alone and Wham! to name just a few. We're welcomed into Humbug by Rudy - the owner of the year-round Christmas-themed watering hole. They explain that Santa has been propping up the bar for several weeks now. Refusing to pay his bar tab, and without any of their usual Christmas spirit, it's crucial that we try and help Santa find their mojo again in order to save Christmas. Once escorted to our table and given a complimentary welcome drink (part of a VIP upgrade available when purchasing tickets), we're soon introduced to a few other patrons of the bar. Photo: Grant Walker There's Daphne - the disgruntled waitress who's long since mentally checked out of the job. With their dreams of singing for a living hampered by a fear of performing in front of an audience, they've little choice but to keep serving drinks and cleaning tables, and Howard - the bumbling mailman who has lost all the letters meant to be delivered to Santa after a few too many post-work drinks in Humbug This trio of characters make up a large part of the immersive interactions on offer throughout the evening. With guests being largely confined to their seating area for the evening, Rudy, Daphne and Howard will drop in sporadically to interact with the larger group surrounding your table. Rudy has a crush on Daphne but is unsure how to express it - at one point they workshop ideas from the crowd on how to best share their feelings. Howard will ask us to write some new letters to Santa to replenish their mailbag, and Daphne undertakes her waitressing duties with the enthusiasm of someone who's at the tail-end of a double shift. Photo: Grant Walker Every visit includes a meeting with Santa, who is holed up in a private room at the back of the venue for the first half of the evening. With a peace offering of a present, our larger group of 15 or so are invited to go and meet the main man midway through our visit. Inside, Santa shares that they're lacking in Christmas spirit this year. The workload is immense, a lot of the toys they've delivered over the years are rubbish, and everyone keeps leaving out sugary treats for him. With cries of 'Is it too much to ask for a complex carbohydrate?! Why does no one ever leave me Twiglets?!', Santa denounces the holiday season and insists on staying put. Despite the group recounting tales of their favourite childhood gifts and how much Christmas means to everyone, we're soon ejected by Santa after failing to renew their Christmas spirit. It's all pretty light-hearted fare, and all four cast members do a good job of drawing in the audience to their storylines - even if overall it's not quite enough to keep you engaged and doing things the entire time. If you go in with the understanding that it's a bar first and foremost, with a sprinkling of immersive elements on top, you'll likely walk away more satisfied. Photo: Grant Walker There's a large selection of drinks on offer for guests - from mulled wine to cocktails including The Grinch - a tropical mix of peach schnapps, blue curacao, rum and pineapple juice and Bah F***ing Humbug - oat milk, vodka, chocolate liqueur, amaretto and whipped cream topped with a mince pie. With table service throughout, you are stung with a 12.5% service charge on top of every drink order, which quickly pushes the price of a pint above £7. In the way of food offerings, there are Christmas dinner wraps (Pulled turkey, bacon, cranberry sauce, veg and gravy), loaded fries and cheesecake as well as a selection of bar snacks including pretzels, candy canes, mince pies and nuts. Photo: Grant Walker As the evening progresses, it turns out to be a group sing-a-long to Last Christmas that finally brings Santa back around. With the crowd being ushered into a main performance space, we're treated to a conclusion of the various storylines established earlier in the evening. Part cabaret, part karaoke, Santa plays the role of MC as each of the bar's patrons gets their moment in the spotlight. The letters we wrote to Santa earlier in the evening are put to good use as Santa and Howard read out some of the naughtiest and nicest things guests wrote down. While we won't be repeating it here, our answer won us some free shots at the bar and a large round of applause, amid the groans of disgust. Photo: Grant Walker Despite being light on the proper immersive elements that you might expect, Humbug is still an enjoyable evening out. It's a great activity for those looking to do something different this Christmas, especially if the entry prices of certain other food and drink-focused immersive experiences on offer in London are too eye-watering. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Humbug runs in Waterloo until 6th January 2024. For more information, and to book visit humbugchristmas.co.uk. Tickets start from £29.50, with VIP upgrades and add-ons available.

Phantom Peak's new Halloween offering gives us an opportunity to speak to the dead alongside Vesper - the town's newest character. We ventured over the Ridge to try it out... Photo: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak is an immersive experience we've spoken at length about before (see our recent five-star review here). It continues to be one of our favourite events in London - a big part of that is the regular seasonal updates. With a fresh load of trails recently unleashed for Halloween, we've already visited several times to explore the town and see how Phantom Peak's overarching story continues. This year, on top of the ten Hallowed Peak trails available, there's a new add-on for those who want an extra dose of spooks during their visit. For an additional charge, you can take part in Phantom Peak's Spooky Séance behind closed doors with Vesper - one of the show's newer characters. Earlier this week, we travelled over the Ridge to try out this brand-new experience and see what it's all about.... Our séance experience began with Vesper welcoming us in a dimly lit corner of the town's closed-off JonaLabs facility. With only a single lantern to illuminate the space, Vesper asks if we've ever spoken to the dead before. When our group of five all say that we haven't, it's revealed by Vesper that it's also their first time hosting one. They're confident that collectively we can manage it without any hiccups, but to be safe, they're going to cast a protection spell on us - just in case... The cast of characters included in each of Phantom Peak's seasons varies based on the main storylines. It's not uncommon for characters to be absent for entire seasons and later return. For this year's Hallowed Peak, we've been introduced to Vesper - an aspiring medium who has arrived in town seemingly due to the increased paranormal activity that's been reported as of late. With a strong dislike for Spectre - the town's de facto paranormal investigator who's been a mainstay of the show for the last few seasons, they seem determined to prove themselves and out Spectre as being little more than an overpriced racketeer. Those who are up-to-date on their Phantom Peak lore may remember that the JonaLabs facility was added earlier in the year during the Platypus Parade season. It's an impressively themed space that we're glad to see is getting some use again. Upon entering, Vesper comments that there was an incident that took place previously involving a JonaLabs employee that ended horribly. During Platypus Parade, Dr Autumn had their consciousness uploaded into one of the town's robotic inhabitants - something that seems to have happened in Phantom Peak at least a couple of times now. Photo: Alistair Veryard We're invited to take a seat around the ouija table in the middle of the space and talk to some spirits. Guided by Vesper, we managed to connect with a number of ghosts during the experience. With each interaction, our group is invited to place a small wooden trinket we were given at the start on one of three response options - we can either confront, console or condescend the spirits. Each option leads to a different reaction from the spirit, and while it's largely inconsequential which one we picked, there was still a feeling of wanting to pick the 'best' option amongst the group. As we've come to expect in Phantom Peak, these interactions with both Vesper and the ghosts we contacted all have the familiar wit and humour you see in every other bit of the show. One of the spirits is after some dating advice (is it okay to go on a date with the zombie version of your own body?), another feels some guilt towards scaring a child - the tone is very much in keeping with what you'd see doing any of the show's ten main trails. As the experience progresses, and with this being Vesper's first séance, it's no surprise that things don't quite go according to plan by the end. The conclusion of the show sees us fleeing JonaLabs and facing some peril at the hands of a spirit. It's an engaging and intense ending that sees us in another area previously unseen since Platypus Parade, racing against the clock to escape to safety. Within giving the ending away, the séance is another example of Phantom Peak's commitment to long-form storytelling and directly ties into events of the show's past. While the experience is light on anything resembling proper scares or spooks, overall it's a fun addition to the Hallowed Peak season. Within a show that is built around one-on-one interactions with the townsfolk, getting 20 uninterrupted minutes with a character is great and well worth your time if your favourite part of Phantom Peak is these personal moments. Additionally, for those who are avid trail card collectors, there's a unique card for the séance, which isn't available otherwise. ★★★★ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Hallowed Peak runs until Saturday, 5th November. Tickets are priced from £39.99, with the Spooky Séance an additional £18.99. Tickets can be booked via phantompeak.com. Check out our other reviews from Phantom Peak here.

Midnight Circle Productions return with an intimate portrayal of obsession and grief . Image: Midnight Circle Productions Following the success of Midnight Circle Productions' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Grey earlier this year, this new immersive theatre company have seemingly found themselves right at home adapting classic works of fiction into promenade theatre. Taking over the basement level of a Bethnal Green church, this production of Frankenstein is as dark and gothic as one would expect. Midnight Circle’s version reworks Mary Shelley's original text to succeed as an immersive show - the book's original opening, set in the Arctic ice, is substituted for the warmth of a tavern as Robert Walton (Benjamin Nicholas) seeks out determined crewmates for his soon-to-be departing voyage. Drowning his sorrows at the back of the tavern is Frankenstein, who is encouraged by Walton to recount the tale of how he lost everything he held dear over a stiff drink. Photo: Midnight Circle Productions With a cast of seven portraying both the Frankenstein family and their inner circle, the character list has been cut down to the essentials, and the book's setting gets the same treatment - with all of the action now taking place in and around the family home in Geneva. The biggest change, however, is undoubtedly reworking the creature to no longer be an assortment of body parts and chemicals, but instead as a reanimated Caroline Frankenstein, mother to Victor, who now passes away shortly after his return from university to be married. While the limit of the show's cast size would be more than enough justification for allowing the roles of Caroline and the Creature to be portrayed by the same actor, we suspect it had more to do with them knowing they had someone within the company who would bring something unique to the role.. Nadia Lamin, who is the piece's stand-out performer, has the enviable job of portraying the creature. She brilliantly metamorphosises throughout the duration of the show from something that can only express itself through convulsions and screams of anguish into the voice of reason to Miles Blanch’s tormented Victor. Photo: Midnight Circle Productions A pivotal scene partway through the show, where Victor successfully reanimates his dead mother's corpse, highlights Lamin's physicality and range. Choreographed by Chris Evans, we witness Caroline's lifeless body - initially being held up by the rest of the cast like a marionette on strings, return to life. Collapsing onto the floor in shock, slowly coming to terms with this second chance at living, her violent screams as she writhes with pain in and amongst the audience are harrowing and affecting. The same fate befalls Harry Harding's Alfonso later in the show, which further cements that scenes of Victor playing God are amongst the show's most engaging. Photos: Roj Whitelock Elsewhere in the venue, there are small character moments on offer - early on in the show, we witness a very much still-alive Caroline helping soon-to-be daughter-in-law Elizabeth (Niamh Handley-Vaughan) prepare to be reunited with Victor after his extended absence. Alfonso Frankenstein (Harry Harding) delivers a heartwarming speech about his love and admiration for his family, and the pairing of William Frankenstein (Pierce Mackenzie) and Henry Clerval (Michael McGarry) had a moment involving a plate of grapes that got good laughs from our audience. Photo: Midnight Circle Productions As with most immersive theatre, you're free to follow the actors as they split off into separate rooms around the venue. Often, you've got to quickly decide who to follow as the cast transitions from one space to another, and in an intimate setting like The Crypt - which is made up of five rooms of various sizes, you unfortunately have to take your proximity to the nearest doorway into account. There was more than one occasion where we simply couldn't get into the space a scene was taking place in as we were last out of the previous room, so we had to settle for exploring elsewhere. The largest of the venue's rooms - which is the setting for all of the show's key scenes, just about held all 25 or so visitors, along with the cast. The show is designed in a way that means you can't miss these scenes, but even then, we found ourselves very aware that we were potentially blocking either someone else's view or standing in front of a door that might open any second. Photo: Midnight Circle Productions If you're looking for an immersive experience in London this October, Frankenstein: An Immersive Show is a great choice - with a strong cast and interesting creative choices that reframes the original book, it's an experience that offers something different to the norm. We'll no doubt be hearing more from Midnight Circle Production in the near future as they no doubt still have plenty of classic novels left to adapt - regardless of what it may be, we'll be eagerly awaiting our next visit to The Crypt. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Frankenstein: An Immersive Show runs until Saturday 14th October. Tickets are priced at £27.80 and can be booked via eventbrite. Find out more about Midnight Circle Productions via their Instagram.

Photo: ScreamWorks Bloodbath is an immersive horror experience located in a secret location in Bethnal Green. It's been produced by ScreamWorks - a brand new name on the immersive theatre scene, and one we suspect we'll hear a lot more of in the near future. If this show is anything to go by, and their future plans are as ambitious as this show is, they'll soon hold the crown for having the most intense immersive shows in the city. Bloodbath was an overwhelming, boundary-pushing, scary and intense experience, which goes far beyond anything else currently on offer in London. For some time, the capital has lacked any truly scary things to do (for theatre anyway...), so it's great to see that change with the arrival of Bloodbath. Prepare to have your personal space invaded, the limits of taste and decency pushed, and all of your possessions taken from you and literally thrown in a bin (but of course, you'll get everything back at the end!). The show's story is a relatively simple one - you've been invited to visit the home of a real-life serial killer, and over the course of an hour, you're piecing together the story of how he became who he is today and discovering what became of his numerous victims. We learn all this from chilling audio and video recordings, rummaging through the remains of his dilapidated home, and of course, hearing directly from the killer himself. Upon arrival at the secret East London location, you're greeted with Missing posters for his latest victim, Jenny McPhearson. Last seen mere metres from where you're standing, her whereabouts have been unknown to the authorities for several weeks. Jack, our host for the evening, is keen to avoid prying eyes - earlier in the day, we received an email from him with meeting instructions that made clear that he's trying to avoid 'those in positions of power' from getting in the way of his 'great plan'. After checking in and signing the waiver that grants the organisers permission to verbally abuse, touch, shock, force feed and restrain us, we have sheets thrown over our heads and are escorted inside. The reactions of those in the nearby petrol station forecourt are unknown to us, but it's no doubt quite the sight for passers-by. Unsurprisingly for an immersive horror show, the experience is linear and sees us moving from room to room over the course of the next hour. At first, it's a gentle easing into the story as we're free to explore several rooms of Jack's house without interruption - learning more about the family history and the current state of affairs for Jack, his brother Abel and their mother, Grace. Through the walls, we repeatedly hear loud banging and screaming - muffled voices and shrieks that leave us unsure if it's other guests genuinely fearing for their lives, or just the actors trying to scare the life out of them. Bloodbath is a show that seems to revel in taboo and voyeurism. With the whole world seemingly obsessed with true crime and real-life murders, the show feels like a natural progression of our collective fascination with the grizzly stories you can hear on any of the hundreds of true crime podcasts available online. The show is inviting us to see what being in one of those stories would be like, and at points makes us complicit in what's happening to those around us. Photo: ScreamWorks A sequence mid-way through the show allows the audience to engage directly with the idea of pain as entertainment, inviting us to directly inflict it upon a helpless woman behind a glass screen. There's an anonymity afforded to audience members by the white cloth masks they wear for large parts of the experience. It encourages us to be worse versions of ourselves when given the chance. The small cast of actors we meet throughout all manage to perfectly flip between being darkly comic and genuinely scary. Abel, whom we meet early on in the show, is a warm and welcoming psychopath who later turns into a terrifying Leatherface-esque figure, causing us to literally climb and crawl for our lives. There are personal touches throughout the experience that made us truly feel like guests of a serial killer, rather than just a visitor to a show. These included photos of our party lifted from our social media accounts defaced and pinned to the walls, our names scrawled in blood on the bathroom mirror, and consistently being referred to by name, despite never having introduced ourselves. Nearly every one of the points raised in the waiver before we entered happened to our group. Your comfort level with these kinds of things is going to vary from group to group, but we feel it's worth noting that if your group is a mix of genders, the female guests may be on the receiving end of the most uncomfortable interactions - or at least that was our experience when we visited. Photo: Screamworks While this might all sound quite heavy, overall, Bloodbath is as much a psychological thriller as it is a traditional horror experience. It's not 60 minutes of jump scares and being grabbed, and you'll likely come out having had as many fun moments as scary. Our group all walked away saying we had an amazing time, and we'd definitely be back for whatever ScreamWorks have cooking up next. We would highly recommend reading the Consent page on the ScreamWorks website before booking, so you're able to get a better understanding of what you're letting yourself in for. You can, of course, revoke your consent for any of these things to happen to you at any time by using the safe word or action. Not for the faint of heart, Bloodbath is a killer night out for those looking to push themselves outside of their comfort zones. ★★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Screamwork's Bloodbath is located at a secret location in Bethnal Green, East London. The show is currently running until the end of May 2023. Tickets are available through screamworks.co.uk, with prices starting at £45 per person.

We jump aboard the Wishmas Train to review Secret Cinema's latest immersive production at The Old Bauble Factory beneath Waterloo Station. Photo: Matt Crockett Wishmas - an original immersive production from the Secret Cinema team - has opened at The Old Bauble Factory in Waterloo. Tailored for families and younger audiences, this 60-minute walkthrough experience promises a 'fully immersive festive realm, featuring live actors and enchanting storytelling'. Located beneath Waterloo Station on Launcelot Street, it takes place within The Vaults - a venue well known for having hosted a string of immersive theatre shows in the past. Our Wishmas journey begins in the Sorting Office with one of the Wishkeepers - the elf-like assistants whose mission is to ensure every Christmas wish makes it safely to Father Christmas. With the walls of the room adorned with dozens of small birdhouses, we're told all about the journey wishes make, the important role Robins play in delivering said wishes, and a bit about the world of Wishmas. It's an extended scene in which guests sit and listen to a Wishkeeper deliver a monologue - something that occurs several times throughout the show. Whether that is a blessing or a curse likely has to do with how engaged your little ones are if you're visiting as a family... Photos: Matt Crockett One of Wishmas' strongest elements is undoubtedly the set design by Julie Landau. The Wishmas Train, with its candy-striped poles and festive dividers, feels like stepping into an alternate universe where TfL have extended the Northern Line to Lapland. The Merry Maps of Everywhere Room - where reindeer's movements are tracked across the globe - is a festive twist on a military command centre, and small details such as the individually labelled doorways in the themed hallways of the venue sell the idea that we're only seeing a small part of a much larger festive operation. Photo: Matt Crockett The latter half of the experience allows the audience to interact with the world in a tangible way - tasked with using Wishmas' reindeer trackers to locate missing puzzle pieces, and turning large cogs to reverse time with the Clock of Now. These activities, all thoughtfully designed with children in mind, provide rewarding ways to involve every guest in the narrative. It's a welcome shift from the opening half-hour, which lacked any hands-on activity. Photo: Matt Crockett The experience concludes with a face-to-face with Father Christmas. Always teed up to be the highlight of any festive experience, the show's ending delivers a series of wholesome moments. There are some fun sleight-of-hand tricks on display from both Father Christmas and his Wishkeeper assistant, and a short sing-along section in which we're all encouraged to take part. While we visited without any children, the reactions and looks of wonder from those in our larger group seemed to confirm that it's a heart-warming end to our time in Wishmas. On top of the standard tickets that give you access to the full 60-minute walkthrough experience, there are a couple of other ticket options available for those looking to extend their visit. These include a meet and greet with Father Christmas (which includes a gift and souvenir photo), as well as a visit to the craft workshop where you can make your own bauble to take home. Photo: Matt Crockett Following Secret Cinema being bought out by TodayTix in 2022 for around $100 million, the company seem to now be entering a new phase. Reports of them taking over a venue in Camden Town for future productions have alluded to them moving away from the large-scale, free-roaming experiences that helped them become so well known and instead pivoting to timed-entry walkthrough experiences more akin to Wishmas. While this show works overall given its target audience, the potential retirement of the format that served them so well up until now would be a loss for both audiences and the immersive industry as a whole. It's hard to imagine an adaptation of something like Stranger Things or Guardians of the Galaxy working as well as a walk-through experience. ★★★½ Wishmas runs until 7th January near Waterloo Station. Tickets start at £29 and can be booked via wishmas.co.uk