Just who gets to decide on what is (and isn't) the truth is an eternally relevant discussion and a subject at the heart of Storehouse, a new immense immersive theatre production set in a 90,000 square metres warehouse in Deptford.

Starring as the four Founding Members, Toby Jones, Meera Syal, Kathryn Hunter and Billy Howell are part of a voiceover cast joined by a cast of real-life performers leading the audience through this experience. 

Storehouse is the debut production from Sage & Jester, whose collective experience spans the likes of Secret Cinema, Punchdrunk, BBC Studios, and Warner Music.

It promises to be one of the most artistically ambitious, large-scale immersive theatre events to be staged in the UK, delivering a cutting-edge and thought-provoking journey.

We spoke to Storehouse's creative director Sophie Larsmon about just what audiences can expect from this new show. 

From the beginning of this process, I wanted Storehouse to be truly immersive: physically, psychologically and ontologically. Alice Helps’ stunning design, enhanced by BEN DONOGHUE’s lighting and James Bulley’s sound, creates a multi-sensory playground. From the start of this process, I knew audiences would be physically immersed.

Psychological immersion requires story. Characters you care about. Twists and turns.  Relevance. For Storehouse, the fictional world needs to be wedded to the real. That’s why Rosalyn Newbery [Lead Producer] and I built a Writers’ Room—six writers, multiple layers, diverse perspectives, one cohesive story.

And then there’s ontological immersion—engaging audiences not just in what they see, but in how they think. As an impact-led arts production company, Sage & Jester’s mission is to empower people to be more informed, more critically engaged. Years of research, expert input, and deep dives into human psychology shaped every layer of this production.

Of the two, I guess it does have similarities with War of the Worlds, yes. You’re on a linear journey rather than a free-roam set like Punchdrunk’s traditional shows. Where it differs though is that there’s different content every night because we’re talking about the information ecosystem.

We can’t do that without reflecting what’s happening in the world each day. We’ve also worked hard in rehearsal to create moments for genuine audience connection and discussion points. Holding space for dialogue is a skill that needs honing. The answers the actors receive aren’t always for plot points; they’re there to get you really thinking about your relationship with the subject matter. At Sage & Jester, we want to create impact. We can’t do that if we’re just telling you a story. We have to fully immerse you: body, mind and spirit.

It’s exciting to see the sector explode in the way it has done in recent years. Organisations such as the Independent Experience Network (IEN) and the World Experience Organisation (WXO) are supporting those who are crafting the industry - there’s a lot of cross-pollination occurring and various art forms learning from each other. With so many live experiences marketing themselves as “immersive” these days, however, the term itself has become a tad muddied. It’s in danger of being overused.

And it goes back much further than that. The impulse to deceive or mislead - what we now call disinformation - is as old as human communication itself; it’s since time immemorial.  Storehouse addresses the subject in two ways. Firstly, it tells a story of a group of people who gave up 42 years of their lives for the pursuit of Truth.

Each of them has a personal reason for being there, each having been subjected to a piece of disinformation that has caused them or those they love harm. Secondly, it places  the audience in the centre of different narratives.

Why do we trust who we trust? Why do we get sucked in by dominant narratives? Within  this show, we’re exploring the individual's role within the information ecosystem. Future projects may well focus on more systemic problems.

Gosh - so many influences! Rather than being influenced by other immersive shows
per se, the team and I have been inspired by a lot of different genres and forms of
work. Literature such as Borges’ Library of Babel placed us in a world of Magical
Realism; Sound Sculptors like Harry Bertoia got us thinking about elemental sounds;
James Graham’s Ink inspired us, as did King Lear, Stranger Things and Severance
in their own special ways. Another big influence has been Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus.

Design wise, Mother Nature was our biggest inspiration. Alice explored various natural materials; we even foraged in the forests of a remote Scottish Island and built the first model box out of our discoveries.

I’d love to tell you everything, but I don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll restrain myself!
What I can tell you is that it’s a ninety-minute promenade theatrical production where as an audience member you have a very specific role - that of Trustee - and a specific mission - to save Storehouse.

Since 1 January 2025, things have been going seriously wrong in the
Archive, and the final Founding Father has recently died. He’s no longer around to fix it and so his daughter has recruited you to try and save the place from destruction.

For a show that explores the digital information ecosystem, we’re pretty low-tech by design. Of course there are things to interact with, and tech does play some element in that, but one of the starting blocks for Storehouse was thinking about why we don’t have the same respect for digital items in the way we do for physical ones.

Whereas archivists and librarians now spend a lot of their time digitising analogue information for wider readership, I wanted us to invert this - what happens when we try and make the digital tangible? Will it give it more reverence? Will we respect it more? Will we be more careful with what we create and share if it takes up physical shelf space?

We have, however, utilised AI in the creation of certain visual and audio aspects of the piece. I’ve wanted to blur the boundaries of our fictional universe with people’s everyday real world, and leaking ink is the physical glue that ties these worlds together. AI software has been used by our animator to bring ink into the real world.

We have also adapted software that the sound duo Jones/Bulley have used in their sound installation Maelstrom (which itself features as a stand alone installation in our Post-Show bar Smoke & Mirrors). This software uses AI to scour the internet for particular data tags which means we can have daily news integrated into the sound design. We’re also using AI to integrate words expressed by the audience into the final sound design sequence so this too can differ every show. 

It's bloody huge! What we’ve tried to do, however, is take people on a journey that oscillates between small intimate spaces, and larger more epic ones. Because we’re wanting to encourage people to think about their own role within the information ecosystem, we want everyone to feel very seen and heard in some moments, and then make them feel like a small dot within a vast system at others. We want people to experientially zoom in and zoom out, experience introspection as well as invite extroversion.

This is reflected in the physical design. It’s probably also worth stating that we’re not hiding the fact that we’re in a massive warehouse in Deptford. We’re leaning into it. This site, rather wonderfully, used to store the newsprint for News International. 

Many immersive experiences are about pure escapism - they might take an empty shell of a building, but they then spend a lot of money turning it into a fantasy land often inspired by existing IP. Not Storehouse. It was important to me and the team that we found ways to make the piece highly relevant to the real world - that we took audiences on a journey that flirted with awe, plunged into moments of absurdity, but also felt grounded in day to day reality. Storehouse is an underground Archive that has been forced above ground by pipe ruptures, a bit like how a Volcano emerges when Tectonic Plates shift. But we’re very much in a massive warehouse, and we’re not hiding that fact.

Yes, I was delighted that Toby, Meera, Kathryn (Hunter) and Billy (Howell) signed up to be our Founding Fathers and Mothers of Storehouse.

When we first started thinking about the cast for the production, Kathryn was top of my wish-list! She’s obviously very busy - as are Toby, Meera and Billy - but with some scheduling magic, we managed to make two days of recording in the studio and a photoshoot happen. 

Each of our live characters in our fictional world all signed up to Storehouse - to 42 years of hard graft away from their lives in ‘The Above’ - because they were inspired by the Founders’ Vision that ‘The Truth Will Set Us Free’. This and the Core Values that drive towards this Vision are voiced by these four and are repeated throughout the experience, a consistent reminder of what Staff signed up for. The Founders heavily feature in one part in particular - ‘The Affirmation’ - where Staff must gather for thrice daily Worship, but they’re also peppered throughout.

‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ is actually the sentence associated with the Sage archetype. At Sage & Jester, the Sage informs the Jester as much as the Jester informs the Sage. The wise Sage uses the Jester’s playfulness to convey deeper truths; the humorous Jester uses the Sage’s intellect to enrich their humour. Toby, Meera, Kathryn and Billy all encapsulate this brilliantly. Each of them can deliver deep substance, but they all have a firm grasp on the absurdity underlying it all too. We’re talking about big important topics, but we mustn’t take ourselves too seriously!

Storehouse is currently in previews and opens on 11 June. 

Main Photo credit: Sage & Jester

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