Punchdrunk Enrichment + Punchdrunk in one weekend

For a completely random coincidence, the first weekend of December was dedicated to two immersive shows, produced by ‘sister’ companies Punchdrunk Enrichment and Punchdrunk. On the Saturday I joined 3 friends for Lander 23, Punchdrunk’s latest immersive experience in their Woolwich headquarters. The Sunday I made my way to Wembley for Punchdrunk Enrichment’s new immersive family festive production, Fireside Tales.

Lander 23: fun but is this really PunchDrunk?

Let’s start with Lander 23. First of all, you can only – and I stress this – only buy tickets as a group of 4 and if one of your party doesn’t show you, you won’t be able to take part and will be rebooked. So that is one thing to bear in mind.

Second, we got tickets ages ago, and paid full price of around £50, which has had an effect on my review as it is a fairly significant price tag and almost as much as the immersive Burnt City used to cost.

So what is Lander 23? I am not sure exactly. I would say it’s part escape room, part immersive team game. It is not a show (there are no actors). The set is what used to be Troy in the Burn City. Partly dismantled, you can still recognize the vestigia of the time gone: the sushi bar, the florist shop, the bedroom, the clothes store.. yet it does have a feel of derelict, abandoned, which may or may not even be intentionally part of the experience.

When you arrive at the PunchDrunk headquarters you do wait quite a bit in the bar area, and have access to a sort of brochure which in theory is meant to explain what your ‘mission’ is about. In reality, it made barely any sense at all. After a while we were escorted to another holding room where each team of 4 wore a vest with numbers and headsets (mine were not working properly and were not fixed; many have complained of technical issues).

You then move to another room which resembled some sort of space craft command room (think Thunderbirds style) with 1980s cassette recorders. Here each team is sub split into pairs, with one pair staying in the control room and the other being sent into the ‘radiation zone’ (whatever that means), and then at half time, the pairs swap. Instructions are played again in your headset, and yet again, frankly, they made hardly any sense.

When you’re in the ‘radiation zone’ (the Burn City’s Troy) you need to ‘collect radiance energy’, and to do so, your controllers will guide you (left, no no no, right, turn, make a right, back again, stop!) … all the while there are ‘guards’ who, dressed in white boiler suit and wearing some sort of odd bird marks, might shine a torch on you in which case your team loses a life. You lose 3, you’re out. Let’s just say these guards aren’t really effective and unless you are bang in front of them, you’re fine. No stress here.

It seems that you could find hidden gold tokens and hidden cassettes which would give you more points; we found none, because it all happens so fast, and it’s frankly chaotic. Who knows.

In conclusion…

The whole experience was over quite quickly; we placed 7th out of 15 teams so not bad. I had fun, it was a laugh but… it really was not worth £50 I paid, sorry PunchDrunk! In comparison, COLAB’s tower recent production ‘Control Tower’ was way more creative, engaging, fun and a bargain at £20. Overall, I expected more from the incredible PunchDrunk.

Fireside Tales : another beautiful story by PunchDrunk Enrichment

The next day I made my way to Wembley with my 9yo for this year’s production by PunchDrunk Enrichment called Fireside Tales. Last year we loved Enitan’s Game, held in the now stable headquarters of the educational arm of PunchDrunk, minutes away from Wembley Park tube. The set is the same, but they have really enhanced the waiting room which delighted kids and parents too. Lots to touch and listen to, from 1980s walkmen to radios and dial phones, it already set the tone.

While I felt Enitan’s Game story was a bit more thought-through and interesting, I still loved the experience, and the cast members are great, especially acting while also dealing with some unruly kids (parents!). My son loved it, he even wanted to be filmed in the feedback reels at the end:

It is on until early January and couldn’t recommend it more, plus PunchDrunk Enrichment are a charity and their work with schools is fantastic, so really worth attending. You can get tickets from the official website.