The Red Bulletin June 2019

Secret Cinema
SECRET CINEMA/LUKE DYSON/FRASER GILLESPIE
of murder. We did it in some tunnels beneath
London Bridge, filled with ramps and
halfpipes, and the audience became part of
the skateboard community in this hideout,
with staged police investigations.”
With each year, the events grew
in scale and ingenuity: Alien, Lawrence of
Arabia, Ghostbusters. Word-of-mouth built
hype, but attendees kept the secret. “I think
there’s a real desire to escape the looped
existence we have, where everything is
revealed and predictable, and everyone knows
where everyone is on social media,” says
Riggall. “In a world addicted to information,
that idea of secrecy is critical, as is a physical,
social thing you have to invest in – one you
can’t just click and download.”
Getting the audience invested has become
a science for Secret Cinema. “Lawrence Of
Arabia [2010] was the first time the audience
was really asked to participate,” says
Kulkarni. “At Alexandra Palace, we made a
huge souk [marketplace]. They had to bring
things to barter with, and exchanges were
happening on the Tube before they arrived.
We had Bedouin tents, and camels and horses
wandering out of Ally Pally.”
This attention to detail is even brought
to smaller events. “Secret Cinema X is an
underground format where we show films
that haven’t been released,” says Moccia.
“In 2017, we did a ‘Tell No One’ production,
where we don’t tell people what they’re going
to see.” It was The Handmaiden by Korean
director Park Chan-wook. “The performance
was done with silhouettes and you couldn’t
speak throughout the night. Walking into
a room with 1,000-plus people, all completely
silent. And at the bar you had to order on
a piece of paper. It was beautiful.”
In 2014, Secret Cinema delivered its most
ambitious project to date: Back To The
Future – a recreation of Hill Valley near
London’s Olympic Village. “People could
write letters to each other and postal workers
would deliver them within the venue,” says
Kulkarni. “Each house had a telephone you
could call the other houses with.”
The sheer scale proved too staggering; the
show wasn’t ready in time for launch. “It was
devastating not to be able to open on that
first night,” recalls Moccia. “But it’s a learning
process.” The show finally opened to rave
“You get to a point
where the audience
are the performers”
Moulin Rouge,
Printworks London (2017)
"The cast and team were like
family, much like the Moulin Rouge
in 1900," says Moccia. "During
the run, the Manchester bombings
and the Westminster terror attack
happened. We got the audience to
sing along to The Show Must Go
On. I'm tearing up as I speak about
it. It was a really moving moment."
The Handmaiden,
Troxy (2017)
"We got the venue
at 5am and had
to produce the show
that night," recalls
Bennett. "Following
the film's repressiveuncle
narrative that
no one can talk in his
house, the audience
took a vow of silence.
They loved it."
reviews, but nature almost intervened. At
11pm one night, a surprise rainstorm struck.
“Every costume was soaked,” say Kulkarni.
“We had to find a way to clean and dry 600
costumes in 12 hours. We hot-boxed an entire
cabin and put everything in it.”
If Back To The Future was a lesson in
untempered ambition, it didn’t shown; the
next year, Secret Cinema took it up another
notch with The Empire Strikes Back.
“It took a year of talking to eight
stakeholders, from Lucasfilm to Bad Robot
to Disney to Fox,” says Riggall. “[Lucasfilm
president] Kathy Kennedy supported us. As
exec producer on Back to the Future, she was
impressed with what we did there. But to give
us the rights to do that movie in the year they
were releasing The Force Awakens – a $2 billion
franchise – was extraordinary. Then, to find
an old newspaper factory to build Star Wars
in… that was an insane ambition.”
“It was an old printing press not fit for
audience members,” says Moccia of the
building that is now the nightclub Printworks
London. “We transformed it and put in three
productions: The Empire Strikes Back, Dr
Strangelove and 28 Days Later.”
“I wanted to build a gigantic Secret
Cinema that could stay there for ever,” says
Riggall. “We put a lot of work into it, invested
a great deal, but I know the guys who set up
Printworks, and good on them.” He sees
Secret Cinema’s contribution to the buildings
it inhabits as a positive. “So many are empty,
waiting years for planning permission.
Developers are opening their eyes to what
we do. We can create this ‘meanwhile use’,
filling them with happy people experiencing
something. I like to think that in the depths
of the night, as people are dancing to some
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