The Gunpowder Plot review: Hammy fun with a moral dilemma

But in this boundary-pushing, pulse-quickening immersive experience, which combines such cutting edge tech as virtual reality and projection mapping and melds it with an entertainment method of yore called live performance, such death-defying feats are all part of the rollicking plot.

And by plot we’re not only talking about the one written here by Danny Robins (author also of the current West End hit 2:22 A Ghost Story) but also the mother of all conspiracies – the Gunpowder Plot to blow up parliament in 1605.

London’s newest attraction is located in labyrinthine vaults not a stone’s through from the actual Tower, where under the reign of James I Catholics were imprisoned, tortured and executed.

Once inside this show’s version of the prison your small group is hurried through its dank, dark interiors, through cells occupied by the persecuted, and eventually to a safe house where you hide from the authorities in priest holes behind wall panelling.

But by the time you are being rowed down the Thames with firebrand Guy Fawkes himself (played by a digitised Tom Felton) you have already been made to weigh the moral dilemma at the heart of this show, whether to help the plot or betray it.

It is this predicament that elevates this show above that of a mere theme park experience.

True, set pieces can feel a bit hammy when actors bark orders at a show’s paying punters. But choosing sides is a genuine ethical dilemma.

Well, which are you for – Crown or Plot?

The Gunpowder Plot is at Tower Vaults until September 4.

Got a story?