Monday, 4 February 2019

Review: Patient 4620 - Horror in Immersive Theatre


I was very lucky to get tickets for the first performance of a new immersive theatre horror production, which is part of the London Lovecraft Festival. It is called Patient 4620.

The premise is that the audience are viewers at an art exhibition showing the work of Gretel Sauerbrot, who was once famous but has not been seen since she was admitted to a psychiatric institution. The exhibition supposedly charts the artist's descent into madness, while an audio guide offers descriptions of her paintings together with an account of her life by her friend and patron.

Yet the audio guide becomes increasingly disturbing while the audience become more and more personally involved - for example, being prompted to start adding to the drawings on display.

I'm not going to give away the twist at the end, but it is suitably horrific.

The production is short - only about half an hour excluding an introduction and instructions on how to use the audio guides - but that's quite enough time to get thoroughly scared. There's also a friendly pub at the end of the road if you feel you need somewhere to steady your nerves before the journey home on a dark night.

Patient 4620 is by Dread Falls Theatre and is directed by Victoria Snaith. It runs until Saturday 9 February at the Royal Museum of Contemporary Art London, in Hoxton. Performances last 45 mins and run at various times each day. Standard tickets are £20. You can find out more and order tickets here: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/London/Royal-Museum-Of-Contemporary-Art/

Links and previous related posts
www.tiny.cc/patientlondonlovecraft
https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/london-lovecraft-festival.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2014/08/review-father-dagon-immersive-theatre.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/blog-post.html

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