On December 7, my Fulbright friend, Selina, and I ventured to the Tower of London Vaults on a chilly, windy day to attend “The Gunpowder Plot,” an immersive theatrical experience that retells the events of November 5, 1605. I had never participated in immersive theater before and was a bit nervous about the audience participation aspect, but going with Selina eased my anxieties! It didn’t hurt that Tom Felton starred as a digital cast member, playing the infamous Guy Fawkes.
A brief history of The Gunpowder Plot/Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night for our American readers:
In 1605, England was ruled by King James IV and I of Scotland and England, who inherited his thrones from his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I, Mary’s cousin and rival. Following Mary I’s bloody persecution of protestants and Elizabeth’s subsequent establishment of the Act of Uniformity, requiring attendance at Protestant churches, James inherited a divided nation. Some hoped that being his Catholic mother’s son, he would be more tolerant, but his personal Protestant beliefs and anti-Catholic House of Commons resulted in further Catholic persecution. The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to blow up the King, his Parliament, and much of central London and replace James with a Catholic leader. The plot failed when Lord Monteagle received a warning note the night before the attack, and Fawkes was discovered guarding the gunpowder in the cellars below. He and his co-conspirators were brutally tortured and sentenced to traitors’ deaths: being hanged, drawn, and quartered.
We entered through a themed pub, decorated for the holidays with a Christmas tree and floating candles. We checked in at the front desk, put our coats and bags away in the free lockers, and sat in the smoky room with very moody, dim lighting. The play runs in 90-minute cycles, so after a few minutes, our group was finally called to the entrance. The maximum occupancy for each group is 16, so ours was relatively small at just 6 participants.
We went into a small room with a large map of London on a table and watched the wall-mounted screen for instructions. It reminded me of the preview videos before playing laser tag, where all the rules were explained. Instead of laser tag guns, we were taught how to put on VR headsets and encouraged to respectfully interact with the actors to whatever degree we felt comfortable. The play was both live, with actors and sets throughout the vaults, and virtual, with digital cast members and VR scenes emphasizing the immersion even more. Finally, we shuffled to the next room through a glowing door and traveled back in time to 418 years ago.
We were immediately faced with a man hunched in a corner, wearing tattered clothes and bleeding. The door closed behind us, and we were in the Tower of London: the sound of clattering chains and wails in the distance, the dripping of water from a ceiling crack, and the misty moonlight streaming through the window made it feel very real. He looked us all over and said, “Since you are all here, I assume you all must be Catholics too. Is that right?” We looked at each other, having just met a few minutes before, and slowly nodded. From there, we witnessed the man, William, being chained up and led to his death, then we stood silent in the cell listening to the dripping water and distant screams, wondering what to do.
Suddenly, a man unlocked the door, said his name was Thomas, called us all a bunch of bastards, and told us to follow him if we wanted to live. We ran through dark corridors as he told us to hide, listen for footsteps, and duck through doorways. I was terrified that we would be jump-scared or attacked from behind, even though a rule was that we would neither touch nor be touched by the actors. Thomas introduced us to Lady Cecil, who informed us that we had been spared from execution under the condition that we served her and the Crown as Catholic spies. Thomas tested our cypher decoding skills, led us to don hooded brown cloaks, and sent us on our quest to infiltrate the Catholic safe house and find a man named “John Johnson.”
Throughout the experience, we met several different characters, some fictional (like Lady Cecil, a female version of the King’s minister Robert Cecil, who discovered the plot) and some historical (King James, who made a formidable virtual appearance). We heard from Catholics and Protestants alike, expressing their opinions, grievances, and goals for the monarch and government. During the intermission, we were led to the Duck and Drake pub, a moody, dimly lit area where we discussed as a group and decided whether to support the plotters or the Crown. One of my fellow group members felt very rebellious and opinionated, saying, “Well, we already know what happens if we don’t support them, right?” The rest of us eventually agreed, although my fear of authority worried me, especially since Thomas had threatened us with a traitor’s death and I wasn’t sure how far the interactive part of the show would go…
We finally met Tom Felton aka John Johnson aka Guy Fawkes on a thrilling VR boat ride down the Thames. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go back in time and see the city, and this was the closest I’d get. While Guy was trying to convince the night watchmen that we were doctors and totally not sneaking gunpowder to Parliament, I was busy turning all around in my seat to look at the buildings on the shore and the boats dotting the Thames with lanterns. When we took our headsets off, the set had changed, making it feel like we actually traveled somewhere.
The play ended in a dramatic gunfight in the cellar below Parliament. We hid behind gunpowder crates as Thomas and Guy (now played by a strategically masked actor) taunted each other. Finally, we found an escape and were confronted by Lady Cecil, who was not pleased with our betrayal. The play ended in VR, where King James explained the creation of Bonfire Night to celebrate Guy’s failed gunpowder plot. Then, Guy took us through time, showing us how generations of British people either saw Guy as a hero or a villain, and a bloody image of Tom Felton implored us to remember him when we remember the 5th of November.
As a new celebrant of Bonfire Night, I really loved this immersive history lesson and feel like I understand the origins and nuances of the holiday so much better now. Selina and I left the show discussing our own opinions of the man behind the plot. As we debriefed our experience, we were led to the gift shop, where I picked up a copy of Tom Felton’s memoir as a Hanukkah gift for Zoe and perused the postcards for my collection. I saw one card that showed Guy Fawkes’ signature before and after torture. I stared at it for several minutes. The plotters were extreme in thinking that a massive explosion in central London killing civilians, politicians, and monarchs alike was the smartest or most humane decision, even given the Catholic persecution, but thinking of someone undergoing the infamous torture procedure at the Tower of London is horrific.
If you like audience participation, time travel, and historical political intrigue, this is definitely the event for you. The acting was fantastic, and no one broke character even when I was in a silly goofy mood responding to some actors.
This sounds SO COOL!! Thanks for sharing ❤️