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Internationally touring immersive exhibitions – offering teched-up, often fairly lurid accounts of key episodes in history – are becoming a bigger and bigger thing in London. In large part the astonishing recent volume of them is because there are two new-ish spaces in London – Dock X and ImmerseLDN – that are big enough to house shows that have been touring Europe and the US for a while but have lacked an obvious London home.
It was announced a couple of weeks ago that Dock X’s Titanic exhibition would be replaced by a new one one about the Vikings. And now it’s been announced that The Last Days of Pompeii at ImmerseLDN will be replaced by Cleopatra: The Experience.
It does, of course, pertain to the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, whose name still rings through history thanks to extremely enthusiastic reports of her beauty, her interactions with the Roman Empire, and of course Shakespeare’s immortal play Antony and Cleopatra.
In fact, while Cleo is the star, it’s perhaps best to view the show as a sort of sequel to last year’s Tutankhamun exhibition (which is by the same people) that generally focusses on the late days of Ancient Egypt (rather than the zenith shown in Tutankhamun). Spanning nine galleries and 3,000 square metres, the show is was developed in collaboration with historical curators and Egyptologists, and endorsed by British Cleopatra expert, Dr Chris Naunton.
It will trace the Alexander the Great-begat Ptolemic Dynasty – of whom Cleopatra was the last monarch – via period artefacts and various bits of technical wizardry including a giant immersive film, AR and VR. Witness Cleopatra’s coronation, enter the Temple of Isis and explore the queen’s private chamber… and more!
Needless to say that while Cleopatra’s story may be a slightly more ‘adult’ part of history than some of these affairs, the show is thoroughly child friendly and the oft-lurid techy stuff is ideally suited to kids who might find the British Museum a little on the dry side.
Cleopatra: The Experience is at ImmerseLDN, from Mar 26. Tickets go on sale Feb 17.
The best immersive theatre in London.
Plus: Disney’s Hercules musical has announced a closing date.
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