This is the second time I’ve seen a performance by Persona Collective. The first one, The Halfway House, completely blew my mind. I wasn’t sure if The Village would have the same effect, that earlier piece had felt like one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had. Yet here I am again, the morning after, sitting with my coffee and trying to make sense of it all. This time, the setting was the restless heart of Soho and Chinatown, the streets, the alleyways, and the hidden places that few ever get to enter. Some of the locations I recognised from the outside, but I’d never had the chance to go in before. Old members’ clubs with anonymous doors that could easily lead to a flat or an office suddenly opened into nostalgic spaces where everyone seemed to know each other. Inside, you could breathe in the history of Soho, as if all the stories and ghosts you’d ever imagined about the area had come alive. The route I followed was called Fallen, and from the very first scene, I felt completely absorbed. It began in a real hairdresser’s, “We Are Cuts.” At first, it seemed like an everyday moment, clients chatting, hair falling to the floor, the buzz of scissors, the smell of shampoo. Then something shifted. One of the characters began to drown herself in a sink full of water. The lights turned pink, a Spanish flamenco song filled the room, and she emerged again, throwing water into the air as she danced in a trance, spinning and spinning. It was raw, sensual, and utterly captivating. From that moment, I was inside the story. Other characters appeared, one trying on wigs, another older woman talking about a brothel, and I wasn’t sure what time in history we were in. When the woman with wet hair left the salon, the audience followed her out into the streets. More characters appeared and disappeared; you couldn’t tell who was part of the performance and who was just passing by. There was something ghostly, almost ethereal, about the way they moved and interacted with us. Only at the end did I learn that they were outcast angels, lost in Soho. Everything was crafted with such attention to detail, the characters, the locations, the costumes. Persona Collective creates a kind of visionary art that’s rarely seen in immersive theatre. I often find it hard to truly feel “immersed” in this kind of work, but with them, it’s different. You’re not just an observer; you become part of it. I felt like one of those fallen angels myself, seeing Soho through their eyes, its chaos, its beauty, its hidden melancholy. The Village reminded me that theatre can still surprise you, transform you, and make you see a familiar city in an entirely new way. Persona Collective is doing something genuinely innovative, creating a world that feels real, poetic, and profoundly human.