Immersive theatre experiences have become an increasingly popular form of entertainment amongst hotels, F&B establishments and art spaces over the last decade or so. What is the magic of their appeal?
As we pulled back the red velvet curtains of K11 Musea’s Yè Shanghai restaurant, we were instantly transported to the heyday of the now-defunct State Theatre in North Point. Here in this movie and live entertainment palace that opened in 1952, spinning disco balls cast dazzling colours onto guests’ glamourous suits, gowns and qipaos. The smell of barbecued squid drew visitors to the restaurant’s balcony, where they could also snack on egg waffles and sip sugarcane-juice-infused cocktails before showtime.
Then the lights dimmed and guests took their seats in front of exquisitely presented seafood dishes. Dancers in sparkly tuxedos, floaty ballroom dance dresses and samba costumes adorned with bright orange feathers stepped out from backstage, and showed off their best swing, Latin and ballroomdance moves right next to the tables, as guests cheered and clapped along to Elvis Presley and Beatles songs, upbeat Canto-pop numbers by Leslie Cheung, and iconic wuxia film theme tunes.
The occasion was Dreamstate, an immersive theatre experience which took place at the K11 venue from November to December 2022, one of several similar events in the city in recent memory. In the past few years, hotels, restaurants, art spaces and theatre groups have been offering and hosting these shows in various formats: musicals, dance shows or plays that surround the audience; detective games where the audience plays a part in solving the crime; and themed fine dining in a fanciful or vintage setup. In a city where theatre arts development has a relatively short history and cultural nurturing is only slowly picking up pace, the boom of local immersive, often original productions begs the question why this genre has suddenly become a trend in Hong Kong, and if it will be the answer to bringing arts closer to the public.
Don't miss: The Peninsula Brings New York’s Glamorous Studio 54 to Hong Kong This Autumn
While interactive dinner theatre has been a thing in town for years, the first large-scale, fully immersive experience only took place in 2016. Secret Theatre, a company founded in New York by British actor Richard Crawford, specialises in staging such events in unconventional settings where, he explains, “the audience has a direct impact on the story”. Decades ago, before his relocation to Hong Kong, the 41-year-old actor studied theatre at New York City’s Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. What first drew him to the idea of immersive theatre was a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert in Brooklyn in 2007, where singer Karen O jumped into the audience. “It was super immersive, cool and dangerous, and people loved it,” he recalls. “I wanted to do that with theatre.”
In 2008, Crawford founded Secret Theatre and staged Edward Scissorhands in an abandoned factory building in New York, a production that put his group on the theatrical map. But the competitive scene in London and New York, both of which have a long history in the theatre arts, proved tough.
Crawford remembers opening in London and asking the PR team why there were only five or six members of the media present. “They were like, ‘Cate Blanchett is opening at the National Theatre tonight. Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman are opening another play in the West End’,” he recalls. With his producer Matthew Tworney, Crawford decided that Hong Kong, where “‘immersive’ wasn’t really a word that people knew in their vocabulary”, would be his next destination.