You’re getting what is says on the tin with this fun, immersive, and giggly recreation of a well known story
Gunpowder Plot: The Immersive Experience is a production which seeks to recreate the events surrounding the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Taking place in the vaults of the Tower of London, we are brought, in groups, into an underground maze of dark, damp rooms where the story plays out.
The story is one we all know, on some sort of level. It’s 1605, London, and Guy Fawkes has conspired with a group of fellow Catholics to blow up the English Parliament and King James I, aiming to replace Protestant rule with Catholicism. As Fawkes was underneath Parliament, ready to light the gunpowder, he was arrested, tortured and executed. However during Gunpowder Plot, this basic storyline is fleshed out a bit more, with the addition of real/fictional characters, played by live actors. The actors take us on a journey through the vaults and through different scenes relating to ‘the plot’. For instance, we watch as secret meetings between conspirators happen, we hide in priest holes, we take part in smuggling through barrels of gunpowder. The actors were great, interacting with us naturally and in a relaxed way, allowing for general chit-chat and giggles. Working as a team with the rest of your group, you choose if you are either ‘for the crown’ or ‘for the plot’, and the story and scenes unfold accordingly.
The best bit about this experience was the use of VR headsets which we were told to put on at various points. Allowing for slight glitches, it was a really fun additional element to the storytelling. We rowed across the Thames with Guy Fawkes, the boat moving and swaying to the waves, for example, which did highlight certain aspects of the plot I was unaware of.
Overall, it isn’t necessarily a super refined piece of immersive theatre, however it does not claim to be that. Gunpowder Plot: The Immersive Experience is a funny and entertaining way to spend an evening, and a different way to get a bit closer to history.