By now I’m sure you will have heard of HOME’s first site specific production; Angel Meadow. With the last few remaining shows finishing this week I won’t go into too much detail and ruin it for anyone but I will say that Angel Meadow meadow is quite frankly a fantastic immersive theatre experience.
I’ve been to a few immersive events over the years and the theatre even more so but Angel Meadow surpassed all my expectations. I didn’t read the reviews and I didn’t go to the press launch, I did it how it is intended and it was, I expect, all the better for it.
What Anu Productions have created with this really tight cast is something quite unique, “an adrenaline-fuelled encounter, exhuming an area of Manchester that no longer exists.” Inspired by the 19th century experience of Irish migrants escaping poverty for a better life in industrial Manchester.
A discontinuous story set in a building layered with the lives of people who passed through its doors; lodgers, working men, dead bodies and scuttling gangs. In part we were a group in shock then in a split second we we’re taken off on my own, I was thrown outside, played pool with drunk, put make-up on a lady in the gents and held a puch bag for a boxer. The story was mine to interact with and the questions were there to be asked. Not your average night at the theatre.
Every showing of Angel Meadow has sold out and when we arrived there were people waiting to see if there were any no-shows just to stand a chance of getting onto one of these 8 people experiences. Just 5 minutes in I could see why it’s gained so much traction, the production team and actors deserve every credit.
