Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia bills itself as ‘A Waking Dream of Mexico’, and I might have thought that the ‘waking’ part comes from knowing I’m at the theatre and watching a performance. But there were moments in the show where I simply could not believe what I was seeing, and if someone told me I was dreaming I’d have been hard pressed to deny it. It’s not just down … [Read more...]
Vox Vanguard’s immersive performance of The Nutcracker
There are staples of Christmas theatre: pantomimes, Dickens, picture book adaptations and, of course, The Nutcracker. There's joy in the familiar, but also a sense of stasis - cycles repeating and not moving forward. Vox Vanguard's production revels in the former while firmly rejecting the latter: this is The Nutcracker reimagined. Firstly - the setting. It’s not … [Read more...]
A Christmas Carol at Scrooge’s Parlour, Immersive | LDN
Fitting neatly into the Christmas work party space, the immersive A Christmas Carol is a good excuse for a meal, with a cheerful dollop of Dickens on top. Jack Witham's Jacob Marley introduces us to the affair. We're cast as spirits hired to spook the miserly Scrooge (Alexander Barclay) into changing his bah-humbug attitude to Xmas. You know the drill. It's a fun, … [Read more...]
Foxtale Ensemble presents SHIFTY at the Rich Mix Theatre | Review
The term ‘Immersive Theatre’ isn’t well-defined, but, despite some efforts, SHIFTY by Foxtale Ensemble isn’t it. Let’s start with the good: five female actors from across Europe (Greece, Lithuania, Norway, UK) meditate upon city life through movement, monologue and marbles. They evoke characters who notice, forget, search and find. The script is at times poetic, at … [Read more...]
West End Wilma Awards 2019 at the Café de Paris
Now in its sixth year, the Wilma Awards celebrate the best that West End musicals (and other plays) have to offer - both in terms of productions and performances. All the winners are voted on by the theatre-going public, and what is particularly gratifying to see is a focus not just on the biggest Theatreland hits but also, for example, Off-West End Performers (Luke … [Read more...]
The Great Gatsby – Immersive London – Review
To me, it seems the core theme of The Great Gatsby is complicity. It asks, relentlessly, how far you would go to get something you want or need, and what you would turn a blind eye to. It’s this subject that makes the story so potent for an immersive experience: Alexander Wright’s production invites theatregoers / Gatsby-party-attendees to become complicit in the … [Read more...]
CULT at the Pleasance Theatre | Review
It is a cheap trick for a stand-up comic to tell the audience that they are great, but of course it works every time. Cheaper still for an audience member to declare this. But at CULT at the Pleasance Theatre we were a great audience. The secret, of course, to a successful immersive, interactive show like this one is that it's down to the clever work of the cast to … [Read more...]
Interview with Leo Kesner – Unstuck Presents
Unstuck Presents is putting together immersive club nights, where a dance music party includes an interactive walkthrough immersive element. The Heist is their first show, opening its doors for the first time on 4th October, into the early hours of Saturday morning. Visitors enter the King of Thieves club, where they’re invited to take part in a high stakes plot to … [Read more...]
House of Kittens – Amatory Asylum – Immersive Theatre Erotica
It’s not often as a critic that you find yourself wondering if you’re at the theatre or in a strip club. That’s the game that House of Kittens’ Amatory Asylum plays with you. For one thing, we are after all in an underground club - albeit a swanky private members’ club in Mayfair. For another thing, there are quite a lot of women taking their clothes off. It’s a … [Read more...]