The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition is the venue, our small group gets ushered in for a sneak preview of a show that hasn’t yet opened, and then the journey proper begins as headphones are placed on our heads, followed by blindfolds which don’t quite block out everything, and we’re lead on a fantastically, wonderfully disorienting experience, the like of which I don’t think I’ve quite ever had before. Seeing as much theatre as I do, it’s a remarkable thing to be so transported by something, especially in the overcrowded and often underwhelming immersive market.
Hands as light as feathers guide us around, voices as soft as gossamer wings usher in instructions, as we travel along, well, who knows where. Somehow we seem to cover all sorts as the terrain underfoot changes in texture, we end up outside, in lifts, in tunnels, in vaults, temperatures alter dramatically and sound effects add their own confusion as it becomes near-impossible to work out where we’ve gone, where we are, where we’re going.