I’m extremely proud of the 8 years I have spent creating and performing in immersive theatre in London. 

 

I had my first taste of site-specific immersive theatre playing Lady Macbeth at the previously abandoned 1930s art deco Hornsey Town Hall for Macbeth directed by Bryony Shanahan. It was here that I experienced the delight of placing an audience in the action with the performers and drawing them deeper into the story, and how site-specific work can shape a narrative.

 

As immersive experiences began popping up all around London in 2018 I found myself working as an improviser across a variety of events both private and public, I was military leading the audience through a zombie apocalypse with an air-soft rifle one day, a potions master at an immersive cocktail experience another, or a screaming human sacrifice at a halloween event. I performed across both scripted and non-scripted shows playing physically engaging and exciting characters. 

 

While working with Inventive Productions on their immersive cocktail experiences Alcotraz, Moonshine Saloon, and Pirate of the Hidden Spirit I developed an intuitive understanding of how to work with different types of audience, how to set the parameters of play, and invite them to engage with the story. I faced many challenges along the way; working in physically tight environments with unpredictable audience members that at times felt unsafe or risky, and learned on the ground how to improve working conditions and safety measures for both performer and participant at a time where the immersive theatre scene very much felt like the wild west. 

 

I helped create and managed the show Pirates of the Hidden Spirit, an intimate 36 capacity experience aboard the historic Golden Hinde ship in London Bridge, where the audience stepped aboard as the pirate crew in Captain Jack Cassidy’s plot to set sail with the treasure. Enjoying three rounds of themed cocktails and playing dice games with roaming actors, the audience were guided as they participated in the unfolding story in intimate settings across the ship, and then watched as the major scenes played out by the actors around them.

 

In 2021, I began performing with immersive theatre company Layered Reality at Jeff Wayne’s the War of the Worlds Immersive Experience and spent a season managing the show full-time as their Performance Manager 2024/25. Across twenty-two different sets, mixing live theatre with virtual reality, the audience are plunged into the iconic musical album and follow a series of characters and scenes that follow the story inspired by the H. G. Wells novel and Jeff Wayne’s album. Underground in the vaults at the Tower of London, I performed in Layered Reality’s other immersive show The Gunpowder Plot 2022-2025. I continue to perform across multiple characters at The War of the Worlds.