Secret Cinema presents Moulin Rouge for Valentine’s Day

It is possible to watch a movie in a hot tub, cosied up in a rooftop deckchair, or on a computer in your pyjamas. But it is also possible to be inside a film: part of the story, part of the action, part of the secrets.

In their first production this year, Secret Cinema will be reimagining Baz Luhrmann’s multi-award-winning Moulin Rouge. Following on from inviting audiences onto Prometheus in 2012, taking them Back to the Future in 2014 and locking them up in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 2010, this latest promises to be an exhilarating and luxurious spectacle. And, appropriately for a film based on truth, beauty, freedom and, above all things, love, the show opens on 14^th February.

The event company prize themselves on keeping all their secrets and for some productions the movie being recreated is not revealed until the end of the interactive show, when everyone sits down to watch it. Audiences are given hints and clues from the moment they book a ticket: indications of what to wear, a prop to bring, the community that they might belong to. But these events go beyond mere replication of the stroyline or characters, the themes or period settings; audiences are given little choice but to interact and to live and breathe the space they’re in. A Secret Cinema show is a fusion of art forms that make up a complete immersive experience.

Often, it is just as exciting to know the film you’ll be in and the Secret Cinema team ensure that knowing will not dampen the experience. For these events, movie fans are given an address; however, getting into a venue is never straightforward. Those who arrived at a location in East London hoping to get in to Fat Sam’s speakeasy were not shown the front door; instead they were waved through secret doors, along corridors and through crusty old 1920s office spaces before they reached the famed Grand Slam.

So who could resist the promise of Bowie-inspired songs, a giant elephant and a singing moon above an infamous cabaret in 1899 Paris? Or the opportunity to be one of the Children of the Revolution, a Creature of the Underworld, or an Aristocrat (or do the Can-Can). Moulin Rouge is one movie that, despite its famous soundtrack, has never been made into a stage musical, so this is possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those who would love to see it live. And, there’s the added bonus of being urged to tango, sob and sing along to everything, which is not usually encouraged at a West End Theatre.

London’s Moulin Rouge is open late Thursday to Sunday, so depending on which evening you choose, there’s the chance to carry on dancing into the night, though we can’t promise Absinthe-inspired dreams of a fairy-sized Kylie Minogue. In their revolutionary way, mobile and photographic devices are forbidden by the company during their events (something more theatres should enforce, perhaps?) so that fans can enjoy the immersive experience as thoroughly as possible.

Anna Sladen

Secret Cinema Presents Moulin Rouge is at a secret London location from 14^th February until 11^th June 2017, for further information or to book visit here.