When Night Comes

In an old and abandoned picture theatre there resides a dark and mysterious zone for anyone who dares to enter. When Night Comes is a spectacular immersive theatrical experience created by the Broad Encounters team behind Moho Magic Bar and Love Lust Lost.

There is a waiting time in the foyer, a bar at hand, people milling around and hooded cloaks to wear. The atmosphere is delicious. We the audience are expecting the unexpected, gathered in groups of ten or so at the hidden entrance that will begin our shapeshifting hedonistic journey.

A cornucopia of vignettes are spread across and around the old cinema palace. While we too are requested to don masks and partake in consensual potions (alcoholic or non-alcoholic), we’re navigated by one of the many masked actors, urging us on into the dark, across the creaky floorboards, through enchanted forests, into a hazy perfume den and or to catch a dash of  opera by a ditzy statuesque songstress (Meg Hickey). Everyone is part of the show, artists and audience alike, and this is what makes this quirky show, inclusive-exclusive, unique and very extravagant.

The  show encourages us to yield too our inner temptations and quench those unfulfilled desires as we grasp those pearls of wisdom spoken by the wise bohemian woman (Elizabeth Dawson-Smith) as she initiates the trek towards the menacing satyr (Kristian Santie) and onwards to the rumbunctious imp (Jeremy Lloyd) awaiting in his lair. There are puzzles to collect, sensory and olfactory sensations that will lead us to a haunting lascivious crescendo. If l was to refer to the movie Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick,1999), l might be offering misleading information and concocting my own prism of belief or maybe disbelief.

The creative team behind the show are committed to offering a unique and scintillating experience. Kirsten Siddle, the creative director, together with an ensemble of performance and circus artists engage us with their brazen and alluring talents. The costumes are exquisite, the set designs are superb, and all complement the atmospheric and sensational immersion into the decadent unknown. The soundscape is appropriately variable from haunting ambience, techno beats, dream like rhythms … and the lighting alternates from room to space to accommodate the diverse performances.

A ceaselessly engaging show and a must-see and do experience.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Jeff Busby