So, London boutique immersive theatre now has a second space to join the much-loved Colab Tavern: the Parabolic Crypt.
Both are amazing (I was lucky and got tickets for the first night of performance in the Crypts), but a thought today is this:
Any permanent immersive venue must be in a space that can travel through time (assuming naturalistic immersion).
More prosaically, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both spaces are ones that can more or less exist across centuries.
Colab Tavern: a pub. Comfortably can exist any time from the Victorian era to the modern day, with a bit of set dressing for flavour. With a bit of squeezing, could become a futuristic nostalgia site, or a more Ye Olde Worlde Medievale Inne.
Parabolic Crypt: a crypt. Can comfortably exist any time from the middle ages to the present day, and into a variety of futuristic worlds. Church architecture purists might complain, but for most people, a crypt is a crypt is a crypt.
In both cases, I imagine that pre-electricity eras lit by candlelight might be an issue. Fire safety is important, especially since both are underground. I assume a lack of windows helps immersion by blocking out cars.
But let’s call this quality of ‘how many time periods can it exist in?’ wibbly-wobblyness.
I would really like to see more such permanent-immersive venues, so here’s a few ideas of wibbly-wobbly places to test the idea.
1. A Wild West-style saloon town. Almost no wibbly-wobblyness beyond ‘Wild West’ and ‘a film studio.’
2. A castle. Wibbly-wobbly between the medieval era and the future. Requires extensive set-dressing.
3. An office space. Wibbly-wobbly between about 1960 and the future, though admittedly requires expensive dressing (either typewriters or computers).
4. A wooden village. Wibbly-wobbly for anything from pre-Roman to a post-apocalyptic setting. But also likely to be remote and difficult to access for anything other than long-duration shows like Nordic Larp.
5. An eggshell-white suite of corridors. Wibbly-wobbly as a hospital, a starship, or any other futuristic/high-tech space. Potentially higher start-up costs, but a lot of fun once it’s going.
What are some other wibbly-wobbly spaces you’d like to see?
