You have been requested and invited to come bargain with Uncanny Things. This is a world much like ours, with one exception. Those creatures in old stories and legends: the fey in the shadow of ancient trees, the hellkin lingering in bloody cellars, the bastions chanting at the edge of hearing: they are real. That flicker of movement in the corner of your eye, the faint laugh heard in an empty house – those were Uncanny Things. So too the unexpected gift, or inexplicable sickness. You will decide who to help and how as you master rituals, make offerings, craft powerful invocations, and above all, negotiate with the strange and powerful Uncanny Thing. As the wyrd rises, what will you do?
Date Played: March 2025
Time Taken: ~180 minutes
Number of Players: 3
Difficulty: N/A
A Hard Bargain
I don’t like doing new things.
Well, that’s not exactly true, I actually really like doing new things, but I really, really like doing things I already like, and so that often leaves the new things with little chance to be done…
What I really, really, really like, though, is being given an opportunity to try something new that I simply can’t refuse. That’s why, when Mairi asked if I’d review Uncanny Things – an immersive, interactive opera-lite experience – I jumped at the chance.
(Note: Sadly, when this article goes out, the show will have finished its current short run, but expect a return in the near future.)
“You are invited into a wyrd world of bargains, community, and magic in a trilogy of interactive immersive operas,” the description begins, making reference to the fact that Uncanny Things is not one, but three different shows, all set within the same eldritch-flavoured universe: Come Bargain (With Uncanny Things), Come Worship (Our Uncanny Thing), and Come Murder an Uncanny Thing, each pegged as a ‘ritual’, a ‘comedy’ and a ‘tragedy’ respectively. They each offer attendees a distinct type of experience. When running, most of the showings take place on different days, but for the hardcore wyrdoes, it is possible to enjoy all three on the same day (day-dependent). Failing to achieve said hardcore status, I opted to attend Come Bargain, having been promised that it was the most ‘escape-room-like’ of the three.
Photo by Uncanny Things Trilogy
Let’s get wyrd
Myself, DKB from Unboxd, and Escape Room legend Minkette met one Thursday night in the bar of COLAB Tower, where we – along with around 10 others – were soon ushered by Carol ‘The Coordinator’ into the archways beneath Southwark Bridge, where the foreboding experience began.
After a short introduction from our hosts, Guildmaster McCall and the Wyrd Gazer, it was down to action. Over the next 3-ish hours, we were presented with various ‘requests’ from locals of the Southwark district. You’ll have to forgive my ineptitude at recalling specifics, but I think one of them involved helping a guy contact his mother from beyond, and another involved vanquishing a hellkin from an oven at the aid of a local restaurant owner… or something like that. The initial foreboding tone was vanquished when juxtaposed with the whimsical requests.
In order to help the residents, we were given a number of different tasks, which we had to offer up to the Uncanny Thing (played by creator and director Leo Doulton) in a ritual-esque presentation. These tasks involved making material offerings, drafting invocations to be read out, and solving puzzles to make potions (puzzles! We got there in the end!). If all went well, the Uncanny Thing would grant us our wish, and by extension, the Southwark-dweller would have their dilemma ‘solved.’
In total, we decided upon and presented three requests, with an interval happening between the second and third. For each request, we could choose a different task to tackle, and despite the urge to go full-on puzzle-solve, I forced myself to indulge in the variety on offer; opting to solve puzzles once, but aid in the invocation for the remaining two. Ultimately, we were successful in persuading the Uncanny Thing to help with all three requests (I’m not actually sure what a ‘fail’ state looks like – I was secretly hoping we would for at least one, but that’s because I’m a horrible person). Time-wise, I think we ran over by about 30 minutes from the advertised time of 2.5 hours. I have to admit that even at the correct duration, the show felt like it dragged a bit – I was definitely less enthused when we returned from our break (which also went on longer than stated).
Photo by Uncanny Things Trilogy
Uncanny Valley
Our two main hosts gave an impressive performance – singing recitative for the full duration of the performance (although, in truth, it did start to make me tweak out a little toward the end). Leo, as the Uncanny Thing, was, however, quite remarkable. Because of the nature of the interactions, each reply had to be completely improvised, and I remember thinking to myself that his responses were so fluid that they felt scripted. He also spent the majority of the experience enveloped in child’s pose on the floor, which can’t have been comfortable. Bravo on both counts, Leo.
With participants spread across all tasks, it was impossible to be aware of everything going on at any one moment. That’s not a criticism – more so a commentary on the fact that the show is set up such that you could return many times and never have the same experience. This is one of those shows that gives back what you put in, and for those who really get into these kinds of shows, there’s a lot of re-experienceability (I’m coining it, dammit).
Photo by Uncanny Things Trilogy
Come Bargain: The Verdict
So how close was the promise of being ‘escape-room-like’? Well, what little time we did spend sleuthing, I can’t say we were overly successful. It was difficult to say whether it was cleverer than we thought or instead simply just obtuse. We were given a dusting of hints from our host, but they didn’t really make much sense, and sadly, our time ran out before we could find a solution (although I did feel like we had made an inkling of a connection as the metaphorical bell rang). As I didn’t get to see any of the other puzzles, I’m not sure I can pass completely fair judgement in this area, but it doesn’t really matter – considering that the puzzle-solving made up perhaps a quarter of the entire experience, and that not getting anywhere didn’t have any effect on the outcome of that particular request, it didn’t really bother us.
Come Bargain made me feel many emotions: It was disturbing, tense, and wyrd-as-hell. I felt perpetually intrigued, but I did also find it a bit chaotic at times, and I found myself confused as to what was going on – especially during the moments of invocation-writing. However, this is perhaps more of a testament to the fact that I’m not particularly good at paying attention when I’m instructed to listen to information.
It did, however, achieve its job of being immersive – which it did wonderfully. I can’t remember the last time I felt so entranced by the environment, genuinely forgetting I was in Southwark while under its spell. It’s most definitely the most unique experience I’ve taken part in since diving into the world of immersive entertainment. However, in the absence of puzzles, it would be hard to persuade me to return to complete the trilogy.
The Uncanny Things Trilogy is a Virtually Opera production, which you can find out more about here.
Note: We were not charged for our tickets but this has not affected the contents of our review.
