In a recent conversation about online dating my big boss and I decided we needed to urgently go to the theatre, not on a date you understand but because we both have theatre as an interest on our profiles, and while we both like the theatre, it seems we don’t actually go. So while it’s been a long time since I sat in a theatre I have been to a couple of immersive or interactive plays.  
Last year I went to Punch Drunk for the first time, and it just blew my mind. Punch Drunk are an amazing theatre company where you just become so immersed into the story it becomes real, the scale of their productions is mind blowing. If you ever get the chance to see them I urge you to do it. Anyway, back to the Heartbreak Hotel, which is on the jetty at Greenwhich, I did warn you about the tangents. 

We arrives early for our 7.30 slot so we could have a drink and something to eat. It was a beautiful night and the city looked pretty special in the golden hour. The food was pretty tasty, definitely better than I expected and the bar staff were cheerful and fast, always a good combination. 

The show is set in a down at heel seaside hotel whose glory days are long behind it, and as you journey through a number of different rooms and met the occupants of these and hear their stories, often finding them overlapping. The Heartbreak Hotel really is full of lost and lonely souls. Some of the stories you encountered behind the doors of the slightly shabby, hotel rooms are full of genuine loss and sadness. The show was great, if a little confused at times moving from human tragedy to the lovable B, who injects so much fun and joy into his room (helped by disco lights and a sing-a-long) you don’t want to leave. I don’t see this as a criticism just perhaps a warning that the emotion in some of the rooms is genuinely quite raw.

I would absolutely recommend this show, my only criticism would be that it’s over too fast and I think they could develop it further, perhaps add more rooms and characters, it has the possibility, given the right space to end in a party that everyone could join regardless of the time they finish. 

We stayed on for more drinks and listened to the singer who was a great end to the night before we made our way back home.