An Edgar Allan Poe-Inspired Immersive Theatre Experience Is Coming to an Abandoned Newtown Warehouse

Imagine a fully immersive theatre experience with a choose-your-own-adventure twist and lots of macabre nods to Edgar Allan Poe, and you'll have some idea of what to expect when A Midnight Visit takes over an abandoned Sydney warehouse later this year.

Unlike any theatre offering the city has seen before, this captivating experience is part performance, part playground and part film set. And it's being brought to life across 30 rooms of an eerie, two-storey, 3500-square-metre Newtown warehouse before it's demolished to make way for apartments.

Audiences will find themselves transported into a dream world that takes its cues from those notoriously macabre works of Edgar Allan Poe, as imagined by a team of local actors and a crew of innovative sound, film-set and costume designers. Expect an air of David Lynch and some Stanley Kubrick vibes, with a spot of steam-punk thrown in for good measure.

"The experience explores themes of madness, guilt, death, impermanence and memory — just the small things in life," explains director and co-creator Danielle Harvey. "It's sometimes funny, sometimes sexy, sometimes wistful, and yes, sometimes a bit scary." It won't be for the faint-hearted, with hints to uneven floors, suffocatingly small spaced and many 'troubled characters'.

If you're thinking you might need some sort of tipple to calm your nerves before all of that, or after, you'll find yourself in good hands at The Ravens Rest pop-up bar, curated by Studio Neon.

A Midnight Visit will run from October 3 until December 9, at 655 King Street Newtown. Tickets are $45, available here. Preview performances from September 19 will also be available for $25.