2021 extension announced for CROOKS 1926 at the Colab Tavern

Immersive experience CROOKS 1926 will be the first of its kind to re-open in London after the national lockdown and has announced an extension of performances into 2021.

Planned to reopen on 10 December at the COLAB Tavern in South East London and now booking until 27 March 2021, CROOKS 1926 allows the audience to have total control over the shape of their adventure.

Plunge deep into the cockney criminal underworld of Elephant and Castle as you are immersed in one family’s brutal battle for supremacy. Nothing is certain, violence is rampant, and bargains are made to be broken. Fix a horse-race, hire thugs and plan the grand territorial takeover of London. But keep an open ear and a sharp mind for not all is as it seems… Become the Blinder as you rub shoulders with the likes of Alfie White and The Cortesi Brothers. Dress to impress in your best 1920’s gear. The gritty world of the 1920’s has never been closer.

With direction by Ben Chamberlain and design by Lucy Ashmore, the production stars Angus Woodward as ‘Wag MacDonald’, Simon Pothecary as ‘Wal MacDonald’, Holli Dillon as ‘Alice Diamond’ and Josh Harvey as ‘Sabini’.

Artistic Director of COLAB Theatre, Bertie Watkins, said: "As with all organisations in the arts industry, we were hit hard at COLAB, It has been a long, 6 month process and getting COLAB Tavern back on its feet again made us think creatively and flexibly about how CROOKS 1926 would look. The key was reversing the audience/actor movement. Originally the actors stayed in their rooms and the audience came to them, now the audience stay fixed in bubbles and the actors move rooms. Immersive we found, lends itself to the kind of distancing that is required for COVID measures.

“Our audience is already in non-traditional seating which means capacity reduction was less than those in proscenium seating. The various games and activities lend themselves to bubbles working together whilst still using the actors to bridge the gap of communication between socially distanced groups. Live theatre has undoubtedly struggled and will continue to struggle whilst we are under COVID measures, but as a number of immersive theatre productions are proving; it is our kind of work that adapts best to the new constraints that have been put on us."

To book tickets, please click here.