Hallowed Peak

Three years on and Phantom Peak is still an utter blast. Where else in London can you go on absorbing adventures in an open-world steampunk-Western-themed town with a cocktail in one hand and a child in the other?

Since the Covid-era lockdowns ended, no art form has taken off quite like immersive theatre. Pre-pandemic giants like Secret Cinema, Punchdrunk and Layered Reality (the company behind the long-running War Of The Worlds show) have all presented new works in the last few years to varying levels of disappointment and disdain.

Their loss is Phantom Peak’s gain. SInce opening in 2022, the Canada Water-based show has rapidly become London's favourite slab of immersive theatre, partly through its never-ending cycle of invention. Built on an impressive bank of original content, it holds four distinct events each year. Each seasonal run further develops long-running storylines while providing ten engaging missions (or, in their parlance, trails) for punters to complete via mobile phone prompts. With trails taking one hour at a gallop (two at a more relaxed pace) and a souvenir playing card on completion, return visits are almost guaranteed.

Pacing is a key part of Phantom Peak’s success. By all means, feel free to run around the large venue interrogating the dozen or so actors, seeking clues from a series of tongue-in-cheek videos or working your way through a devilish obstacle course. Or throw yourself into one of the various side quests like fishing for platypi in the lake or other pursuits far too athletic for yours truly to even consider. Or grab a drink and a burger and watch the world (and more eager participants) scurry by. Or a mix of all of this between the ensemble opening and closing ceremonies.

Each season is curated and updated to emphasise its themes. This time around, visitors to Phantom Peak will find themselves locked down alongside the town’s decidedly strange denizens. The reason? The JIA have announced that their top ten fugitives are all hiding out here and we have been all recruited to hunt down as many as we can through the new trails.

Along the way, we’ll be sometimes helped (but mostly playfully hindered) by the usual coterie of fan-favourite copyright-skirting characters, not least time-traveller Professor When and the Barker St trio of Sherlock Bones, Dogtor Watson and Professor Meowiarty. New cocktail options in the The Thirsty Frontier Saloon include the Midnight Engine (Kraken vanilla cherry rum. Baileys, coffee concentrate and amaretto syrup finished off with a slurp of Canadian stout) and Harvest Plasma (Bacardi, tomato juice, pumpkin spice syrup, midori and lemon soda). The robochef has some seasonal treats too with Spectre's Smoky Mac & Cheese Bites, Freaky Fajita Fries and Halloway's Coffin Deluxe.

For some, theatre will always boil down to a drama rolled out over three acts, viewed from the comfort of a padded seat and with an interval opportunity to purchase a small tub of over-priced ice-cream; for the rest of us, immersive theatre is a way to get deeper into a story and this superbly fun show currently stands as one of the capital’s finest examples.

One final thought. Despite being a global centre of excellence, the UK immersive theatre industry is in a curious position. A staggering array of productions are planned for everywhere from the NT down yet it is almost completely absent from the higher echelons of this country's theatre industry, not least the Oliviers and the Critics’ Circle. Maybe this lopsided situation marks it out as the biggest underground art form around: move aside Banksy, Phantom Peak is coming through.

Hallowed Peak continues until 9 November before the Wintermas festival opens on 20 November.


Photo credit: Alistair Veryard