The Wedding Reception, Kingsway Hall Hotel – Review

Pros: A fun night out with friends over the festive period including a pretty yummy three course meal in the (very reasonable) ticket price

Cons: A bit difficult to follow the action with a pretty crowded / rowdy room. Breaks for food made it quite long (and made the rowdy people rowdier).
The Wedding Reception, Kingsway Hall Hotel – Review

The Wedding Reception was a clever concept crossing immersive theatre with a meal out with friends. It is the next offering from the team who produce the popular Faulty Towers Experience (which was coincidentally also being run at the same time in the hotel’s main dining room).

The fairly simple premise of the script is that two newlyweds, Kate and Wills, have had a quickie wedding at a registry office to save money. However, Kate’s parents have other ideas and, unbeknown to the happy couple, invited a room full of people to surprise them with wedding reception. Hiring a rookie Wedding Planner to organise everything. What could possibly go wrong?

We arrived in the bar area of the hotel and quickly noticed that amongst the people waiting to go into the performance space/dining area were a few of the performers (the Mum, Dad and the Wedding Planner) who greeted the guests, set the scene for what was about to happen, whilst handing out Jelly Babies and nuts.

Once inside and seated, the action started to unfold as the happy couple turn up and are less than happy about the surprise. Chuck in a few errant party guests, a rogue Best Man and some uninvited relatives and you have the makings of an evening’s entertainment.

Everything took place in the function room of the Kingsway Hall Hotel, which had been done up as you’d expect for a wedding breakfast. White table cloths, cutlery etc . . . The action all took place in between the dining tables and the cast coped well with having to perform in the round by moving the action around constantly.

It was a really fun concept for a show and we did enjoy ourselves, however, we got a bit lost on a few occasions as we were sitting with a very merry crowd of party-goers who were gossiping through some of the action. A bit of crowd control from the actors, or maybe just serving food throughout the action so people didn’t get the chance to start talking could have helped.

Overall though I’d recommend it for a really fun night out over the festive season. A perfect place to go out with a group of friends watch a bit of lighthearted theatre and have a nice dinner and a few drinks.

Producer and Author: Interactive Theatre International
Booking Until: UK Tour currently booking until 27th August 2018
Booking Link: http://www.interactivetheatre.com.au/theweddingreception/tickets_uk.html