You know the drill by now: large scale immersive exhibitions have gone from nowhere to ubiquity in London, with the last year alone bringing us big, tech-augmented, family-facing shows devoted to the likes of Tutankhamun, the Titanic, and the destruction of Pompeii. Most of these shows already existed – they’re generally made by European companies – but have started touring to London since the opening of a series of large-scale immersive event spaces, notably ImmerseLDN and Dock X.
It’s to the latter destination – replacing The Legend of the Titanic – that the latest such exhibition is heading. Vikings: The Immersive Exhibition does exactly what it says, ie it’s about Vikings. However, it’s actually about quite specific Vikings, telling as it does the story of – and I quote – ‘King Ragnar Lodbrok, the wise Queen Kraka (Aslaug), and their world-conquering sons, Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironside, Hvitserk and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, as they assemble the Great Heathen Army and change the course of European history’.
Vikingologists may note that the exact historical verity of these figures is at best ‘variable’ but immersive exhibitions love a change to get giddy with a bit of mythology. We’re told the exhibition will put a particular focus on Kraka, rather than simply glorifying Ragnar’s pillaging, which is fair enough, though presumably most audience members will be hoping for at least a bit of pillaging. There’s a decent chance Kraka didn’t exist, but as we’re apparently going to find out about her ‘mystical powers’ we probably don’t need to worry too much.
Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun. It begins with an opening film sequence that transports visitors to 793AD, the year Scandinavian warriors raided the monastery of Lindisfarne on England’s north coast, in what many hold to be the beginning of the viking era, then on to ‘the forest of time’ (a cool immersive forest landscape with information about daily viking life), ‘the mist of time’ (a massive immersive film)… and more.
Vikings: The Immersive Exhibition is at Dock X, from Mar 12.
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