Peaky Blinders: The Rise review – More club night theme park than theatre-Keith Watson-Entertainment – Metro

It looks the real deal, but Peaky Blinders: The Rise fails to talk the talk (Picture: Mark Senior)

As a big fan of Peaky Blinders, the offer to lose myself in the world of Tommy Shelby and his nefarious associates was surely too good to refuse.

And pitching up at Camden’s Stables Market the signs looked good, with faux Brummie gangsters in flat caps as far as the eye could see, handing out tickets and wads of fake cash and giving it the old conspiratorial whisper.

Once inside the excitement mounted.

The set for Peaky Blinders: The Rise looks the real deal, the Garrison Pub lifted from the show itself, the space divided into cannily designed nooks and crannies each offering snapshots of the Peaky Blinders world – a world that has captured dark imaginations over six series.

So The Rise looked well set to walk the walk.

Kieran Mortell (right) gives the performance of the nigh at Arthur Shelby (Picture: Mark Senior)

The show fails to convincingly suspend the gap between audience and performer (Picture: Mark Senior)

Peaky Blinders: The Rise

But, sadly, it can’t talk the talk. I’m not talking accents, which, to these non-Brummie ears, were sound enough.

Where The Rise falls flat is the failure to convincingly suspend the gap between audience and performer, which is what the best immersive theatre can achieve.

You need to feel an intrinsic part of the action but, despite the best efforts of a fully energised cast, The Rise leaves you feeling like an alienated observer.

Yes you can answer the phone to an associate or place a bet at the bookies or chase after a Shelby into a dark corner, but the story is so loosely stitched together and the set-pieces so sporadic it felt like every time I jumped into the swimming pool of mystery I’d got out and dried myself off again before anything else happened.

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So did I lose myself in Peaky Blinders world? Maybe once, when staring into the intense gaze of Kieran Mortell’s Arthur Shelby, who gives the standout performance of the night as a man in meltdown.

But mostly I was just lost in counting how many in the audience had turned up in fancy dress and finding myself not caring who was shouting at whom about some stitch up or other.

There’s some good music and the costumes are fab, but The Rise is more club night theme park than immersive theatre. I didn’t fall for it.

At the Camden Garrison, London until Feb 12 2023, book via Immersive Everywhere

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