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REVIEW | STOREHOUSE, Deptford Storehouse - London
- Harry Brogan
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
As you walk into Storehouse, the new immersive experience by Sage & Jester, you’re stepping into a fascinating world, a fictional “Arkive” that’s been printing and cataloguing everything ever posted on the internet since 1983. Why? To fight misinformation of course, with the ultimate goal of reaching “Truthtopia” by January 2025. But that deadline’s passed, employee morale is low, the place is falling apart (with ink dripping from the ceiling and weird growth on the books), and now it’s up to you, as a newly appointed Trustee, to help decide what the future holds. Be prepared to cast your vote.
The audience is split into groups and guided to waiting rooms, provided with visitors' badges, then meet with the employees who have been working underground for the last 42 years on this project: Book Binders (responsible for analysing and binding the data into physical books), Stackers (in charge of the cataloguing system) and Caretakers (maintaining Storehouse itself).
In our group, Rob Leetham was our Book Binder, Elizabeth Hollingshead and Chris Agha were our Stackers and Nat Kennedy our Caretaker.
Other groups would have seen performances by: Bonnie Adair, Darrel Bailey, Dawn Butler, Grace Hussey-Burd, Harriett O’Grady, Nina Smith, Scott Karim and Zachary Pang. Echoing through the halls of Storehouse are the recognisable voices of Toby Jones, Meera Syal, Billy Howle, and Kathryn Hunter, making announcements over the loudspeakers, which can be difficult to hear over the noisy crowd, and honestly, not entirely memorable.
The story, is at times confusing and often doesn’t resonate. We follow our protagonists as they show us around their unique environment, explaining how they ended up in this unusual job that has kept them away from “The Above” since 1983. Book Binders are having to analyse every article, every post, every meme, every cat video. Stackers, honestly, don’t seem to know where to put these books anymore and are trying to find a solution to speed up the process and get out of there, after wall “The Great Aggregation” was supposed to be January 2025, and yet they are still stuck there. They have a lot to do and a lot of stress, but hey at least down here they don’t age! And yes, everyone looks amazing in their funky 80s power suits.
While the world-building is strong there’s just too much to take in: in terms to learn, core values to remember, a mission statement to read, and you only get 90 minutes to do it all. The high stakes the show tries to set up don’t have enough time to develop properly. Additionally, the interactive part of it can make or break some scenes as characters ask the audience questions, and well, not everyone can take the situation as seriously as the protagonists would want you to, which makes the whole plot feel a little silly.
The world of Storehouse is visually stunning. Sophie Larsmon (Creative Director), Alice Helps (Production Design), James Bulley (Sound Design) and Ben Donoghue (Lighting Design) have created a multitude of different environments, from a familiar workshop to a surreal space with white fluffy walls and books in every nook and cranny. Although the set design is exceptional, the audience is too focused on following along with the complex story to be able to fully absorb and interact with the space. It’s clear how much thought has been given to curating the rooms, especially to the Book Binder workshop, as there’s even a printer spitting out pages and pages of printed data, illuminating how overwhelming keeping up with the internet has become, but there’s just not enough time to soak it all in and give it the attention it deserves.
In the end, Storehouse is a bold, imaginative show that looks incredible, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always manage to balance all its moving parts. The show is co-written by 6 people (Tristan Bernays, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Kathryn Bond, Katie Lyons, Caro Murphy and Rhik Samadder), and maybe that’s exactly where the issue lies, too many ideas and not enough depth. The interesting world of Storehouse deserves a much longer format, a lot more thorough preparation for the audience to understand what they’re about to step into and a bit more sense of direction on what it wants to achieve.
★★★
STOREHOUSE plays at the Deptford Storehouse until 20th of September.
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