Bridge Command, 2024
Photo: Alex Brenner | |
Photo: Alex Brenner | |

Immersive theatre in London

Step into immersive theatre worlds with our guide to the best and most boldly interactive London shows

Andrzej Lukowski
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What is immersive theatre? A glib buzzword? A specific description of a specific type of theatre? A thrase thqat has become so diluted that it’s lost all meaning? Whether you call it immersive, interactive or site-specific, London is bursting with plays and experiences which welcome you into a real-life adventure that you can wander around and play the hero in.

I’m Andrzej Łukowski, Time Out’s theatre editor, and let me tell you I have run the immersive gamut, from a show where I had to take my clothes off in a darkened shipping container, to successfully bagging tickets to the six-hour Punchdrunk odyssey there were only ever a couple of hundred tickets released, to quite a lot of theatre productions where the set goes into the audience a bit and apparently that counts as immersive.

There is a lot of immersive work in London, some of which is definitely theatre, some of which definitely isn’t, some of which is borderline, some of which is but doesn’t want to say it is because some some people are just horrified of the word ‘theatre’. 

This page has been around for a while now and gone through various schools of thought, but the one we’ve settled on for now is that the main list compiles every major show in London that could reasonably be described as ‘immersive theatre’, while the bottom list compiles a few of our favouite immersive shows thet you probably wouldn’t describe as theatre though it is, naturally a blurry line.

Whatever the case you can mostly only really decide what most of these shows are if you go and do them… prepare to immerse yourself.

The best new London theatre shows to book for right now.

Immersive theatre shows

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  • Immersive
  • Greenwich Peninsula
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

For the price of a ticket to ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’, an immersive Abba-themed dinner experience set in a ropey taverna on an idyllic Greek island, you could fly out to an actual idyllic Greek island and probably find a ropey taverna playing Abba songs…

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  • Immersive
  • South Bank
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

This lavish new central London immersive experience makes no bones about fact it’s a live extension of the world of the two (soon to be three) StudioCanal movies, but the gentle globe-hopping adventure you experience in it is purely delightful.

  • Theatre & Performance

The Traitors is, of course, the betrayal based reality TV show-slash-gameshow that has gripped the nation via its two Claudia Winkleman-presented series. And now London will be the first city in the world to get an actual live version.

Other immersive shows we rate

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • King’s Cross

What is it? Sister to the Bridge Theatre in London Bridge but a very different prospect, the Lightroom capitalises on the current craze for projection-based work by creating what is effectively a projection-based art gallery.

Why go? Its gargantuan exhibition-slash-documentaries are ravishing one offs and well worth a look above the usual Immersive Van Gogh-style nonsense. In its rep at time of writing is Tom Hanks’s spectacular space doumentary Moonwalkers, and Vogue exhibition Inventing the Runway.

  • Immersive
  • Tottenham Court Road

What is it? Yes, really: it’s a gigantic Monopoly board, allowing you and a group of fellow players to live out your dreams of rampant landlordism in the flesh. 

Why go? Although it’s based on Monopoly, it’s more like particpating in a live gameshow with a monopoly theme. And it’s a slick, enjoyable and good-humoured one that runs throughout the day - perfectly suited to family teams.

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  • Immersive
  • Canada Water

What is it? This ‘fully immersive Western town open-world adventure’ basically sees you free to roam around a 30,000 square foot steampunk-influenced Wild West town, interact with its inhabitants, get involved in its mysteries and sample the food and drink at its various watering holes.

Why go? Closer to a fictionalised version of one of those living museums than a theatre show, Phantom Peak is a grand storytelling experiment with a relaxed pace and plenty of rewatch value.

  • Attractions
  • Arcades and amusements
  • Stratford

What is it? The Eclipso Centre is a virtual reality ‘hub’ at Westfield Stratford City, which plays host to two 45-minute virtual reality experiences: ‘Horizon of Khufu’, in which you journey to Ancient Egypt, and ‘Life Chronicles’, a voyage through the history of life on planet Earth.

Why go? There are a number of VR gaming options in London at the moment – these two headset-based experiences are a bit more passive but for sheer depth of immersion they’re pretty mind-blowing.

London escape rooms

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