A former industrial jetty on the banks of the Thames is to be transformed into a hotel on a pleasure pier as part of a new immersive theatre experience.
The Jetty in North Greenwich, which will also have a bar and restaurant, was originally designed as a coaling jetty to receive and unload coal for Blackwall Point power station in the 1900s.
As part of the production, called Heartbreak Hotel, audience members will “check in” at the concierge desk opposite North Greenwich tube station where they will be given a “room key” before heading towards the jetty where they will come across the structure built to look like a hotel on a former pleasure pier.
They will be guided around various rooms and corridors by cast members as the drama unfolds with seven actors telling different stories.
Organisers promise that the show, which opens on June 2 and is produced by Managing Mayhem and Zebedee Productions, will be different every time with audience members for each performance taken round in two groups of 35.
The theatre venue will also double up as a riverside venue open to the public with a bar and restaurant serving local produce.
Last year the venue was home to Shunt’s production The Boy Who Climbed Out of His Face, but organisers hope this year will be “bigger and better”.
Lee Batty, a producer for Managing Mayhem, said he hopes the temporary venue, which has been in construction for around six weeks so far, will remain “into the autumn”.
He said of the production: “There isn’t a set route. Every time a new set of people come in they get a different experience. We’ve got seven actors who tell different stories then we have a number of ensemble actors who appear in the hotel. No two journeys will be the same.”
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