Frayed reality
I.e. my adventures in immersive theatre
Some things I did this year at the theatre:
Was sacrificed to Apollo
Spent 24 hours in rural Wales investigating the occult
Found the Minotaur in the labyrinth (and did not keep my cool unfortunately)
Was shown the secrets of the underworld by Hades & Persephone
Attended a wedding and ate terrible tiramisu
Came the closest I have ever done to genuinely not being sure if I was dreaming or awake
Joined at least one cult
Become a beauty school dropout with my oldest friends
Had my heart broken beautifully, over and over
A post for another time is how I switched from a deep horror of anything interactive or immersive to it being approximately 28% of my personality as well part of my actual, paying career. But for now here’s what 2023 brought in the immersive sphere as well as a few non-immersive highlights at the bottom. When I wrote about these shows professionally I’ll link to those pieces which come from a critic angle, but please expect a vibes first approach here (I’ll try and include some sort of professional insight).
The burnt city
If you follow me anywhere online, you’ll know that a huge part of my year was taken up with Punchdrunk’s recently closed immersive epic, The Burnt City. A loose retelling of the fall of Troy told primarily through movement where you could roam as you like across two huge warehouses. It was, as it promised, like falling into a dream. It was a gorgeous, strange and intricate puzzle box of a show that had both my heart and heart gripped for the 18 months it was on. (And how I would have loved to have been able to be part of the dramaturgy on this - what a treat but also the only element I really ever had any frustration with was some of the occasional lines of dialogue, I was itching to have a lil nip/tuck).
I’ve written about it professionally here, here and here so I’m going to stick to the heart here. One of the things I’ll miss most is the incredible community around the show and the company - there’s an avid, quite intense, fandom that I lurk only on the very edges of but within my friends there formed a group of us who fell in love with the show and I treasure our trips to Woolwich with the drinks at the pub before and after, plotting our loops and debriefing afterwards, the hand squeezes as you pass in the show, the slightly feral voice notes after a particularly good show or 1:1 (a scene with just you and a performer). The shenanigans. The crushes. I will miss the talent and also the generosity and kindness of many of the cast and I will also miss the incredible parties the show put on - Ascension for the start of spring and the Last Rites for the end of the show where we were all in white then black with performances and drinks and revelry. A rave for theatre kids. What joy it all was!
Immersive highlights
The Manikins: A Work in Progress messed with my brain in the most excellent way. You are the only audience member, interacting with two actors, and it is a fever dream of clever, creepy metafiction. I literally laughed in delight at one point while also being gently terrified. Created by Jack Aldisert of Deadweight Theatre, I cannot recommend it highly enough if it returns to London, which I believe is the plan if a suitable venue can be found. (Any immersive producers reading this up, look it up!)
One Night, Long Ago is a 40 minute immersive audio experience that made me cry both times I experienced it. Created by Kath Duggan and Hector Harkness, two long term Punchdrunk collaborators, it’s a festive-adjacent story of love, loss, memory and identity performed via an audio story and a particularly lovely live performance by Ellie James (one of my favourite acting performance of the year). Truly gorgeous and genuinely fresh in format, I hope they create more work along these lines.
In one of the strangest 24 hours of the year, I took my little sister to rural Wales where we visited The Locksmith’s Dream an immersive occultist experience that’s part immersive theatre, part treasure hunt, part escape room and part something I have no words for. It’s very sincere, very well designed and very unique as well as very rooted in lore that took a while to get to grips with. It absolutely won me over by the end though.
Bacchanalia is the debut show from a new immersive company called Sleepwalk Immersive. While it didn’t have the polish of some of the other things here, it had giant bags of potential and I was really impressed, especially by the performances and choreography. I believe it will return next year and would recommend, I hope they have more time/budget/space to work with to really explore their/the show’s potential.
Jury Games were one of the best things to come out of the pandemic and their online mysteries were some of my favourite Zoom theatre. They’ve translated the excellent formula of theatre meets puzzles meets murder mystery into real life and Jury Duty is a brilliantly conceived, very clever show/event that is still running and is huge fun to do with a group of friends.
I’ve seen enough arguments online as to whether the Bridge’s Guys and Dolls is really immersive or not to last me a lifetime so I’m not going to relitigate it here (is it that serious? it can be if anyone wants to commission a thinkpiece from me on the subject). The key thing for me is that it was utter joy - wonderful performances, brilliant music and just about enough interactivity for me to tip it somewhere towards immersive.
I also saw Immersive Gatsby (the long-running and excellently done show that closed - hopefully temporarily - when its venue was redeveloped), Cyanide at the Speakeasy (fun if rough around the edges murder mystery), Immersive Dorian Gray (lots of potential from a new company), Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding (one of the most unhinged, bizarre things I’ve ever experienced), Secret Cinema’s Grease (not my favourite of theirs but a lovely night out with old friends), Immersive 1984 (a bit frustrating and ill-conceived), and Saint Jude (good creepy fun from Swamp Motel, whose work I invariably enjoy).
Non-immersive highlights
I do go and see other things at the theatre for work and pleasure. And one thing about me is I love a musical.
Best musical - Sylvia at the Old Vic. Any flaws in this were swept away in the outstanding choreography, power of its story and truly unreal performance by Beverly Knight. (This is one where I was glad I wasn’t reviewing so I could feel all my feelings and not have to nitpick). I also loved Operation Mincemeat, along with everyone else, and A Strange Loop which I wish I’d seen more than once.
Honourable mention for 42nd Street because me and my sister love it in all its dated ridiculousness. My sister does not have an upper limit on how many tap dancers she wants to see dancing in unison.
I’m keeping things essentially positive here but I didn’t get on as well as everyone else seems to have done with Standing at the Sky’s Edge which I found really quite overrated. I liked it fine but I thought the writing was overwrought and pretty clunky. I also couldn’t get on board with sexy Oklahoma - there were flashes of brilliance but too much pretentious silliness for me.
Best play - Dancing at Lughnasa. I adored this. No one breaks your heart quite as gently as Brian Friel and the performances were incredible - especially Louisa Harland and Alison Oliver.
Honourable mention for the Old Vic’s Christmas Carol which I love so very much - I’ve seen every remount bar one. Pure Christmas magic and Christopher Eccleston made for an excellent Scrooge.
Best family theatre - I also review a smattering of family theatre and my favourites this year were both at the Unicorn. For teens, the clever, brilliant and strange The Invisible Man (one of my theatre highlights of the year across categories) and for younger watchers the joyful, witty and warm Anansi the Spider.