Over the last few years, only partly interrupted by the pandemic, there has been something of a major increase in what is called immersive theatre. Theatrical productions where you are a direct participant in the events and can, in a way, influence them. The pioneers in this world are Punchdrunk, a British theatre company, while Secret Cinema have also made a name for themselves.
So, anyway, I've been to a couple of these experiences. The live-action Crystal Maze Experience that I managed to get my team at work to do as an away day went down very well, even if I ended up getting "volunteered" as Team Captain. The Stranger Things Experience in 2022 also proved to be a lot of fun, even if the ice-cream was more expensive than Karen Wheeler's perms...
On Saturday, I went to Phantom Peak, located in the Canada Water neighbourhood of SE London. I mainly know this place as somewhere I change trains when I have to go somewhere else in South London, so I'd not really seen it above the surface. It's definitely a pretty nice neighbourhood.
I feel I should probably get to the point or Jonas is not going to be impressed.
Phantom Peak describes itself as an "Open World Immersive Adventure". Describing it is fairly hard without going into spoilers, but here we go...
It's a steampunk-esque "town", like a themed area at Disneyland, only a fair bit smaller than the likes of Galaxy's Edge. Run by the mysterious Jonaco and the unseen Jonas, there are a variety of quirky characters, strange events and strange new technology developments. They are also really like platypuses.
The show lasts four hours (four and a half on weekends), where after a health and safety introduction in-character, along with an opening "ceremony", you are free to wander around the area and interact with the various townspeople, see all the different buildings and things like that. There are also places to buy food and drink too; quite expensive stuff, but the water doesn't cost anything. Even though the plastic cups have frankly seen better days.
Dressing up is optional, but encouraged.
There is an awful lot to do and you aren't going to do anywhere near all of it in the time. The experience is designed for multiple visits, with an ongoing background plot that advances as the place goes through four "seasons" a year. Starlit Summer is the current season, involving the Cabin Games - you are allocated a team via a coloured wristband on arrival and can earn tokens for that team via completing various tasks or giving an impressive answer to a question.
One of the main things you can do are the "trails", of which the current season has ten. Using their Jonassist website, you log in and can pick a trail that suits you, going around the town and following the various clues. This will involve interacting with the various audio-visual props to watch relevant, very well-done videos and talking to the townspeople to progress. Once you complete the trail, you're given a little card as a souvenir. I managed to do two in my session.
This is where the LucasArts reference comes in. They were responsible for a lot of very well-remembered and very hard point-and-click games in the 1990s; they mostly had a lot of irreverent and quirky humour in there. This is what Phantom Peak reminded me of most; the various posters, information boards and plots have a massive wackiness to them that works perfectly. Even in the toilets, which are all unisex, BTW.
The various townspeople do a great job, being particularly memorable - I'd have to give particular shoutouts to Perigate and Littlefield, who formed key parts of my trails. The actors do a good job for being "NPCs" who have to repeat the same lines quite a lot of times. I did find myself in queues on a few occasions waiting for the townsperson to become available, so generally tuned out as best I could to avoid hearing my clue 'early'. As a note, the people you see on the website might not be the ones you see on the day; the characters have single main names and can be played by people of any gender.
One big drawback is that the maps aren't really that clear at times. There are also need to be bins or locations where you can drop off no longer required trail items.
Things end with a closing ceremony, which includes some songs that are memorably bizarre and then you go home, with some great memories.
Conclusion
A great deal of fun for not a huge amount of cash - £40 for 4.5 hours.
9/10
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