London has already experienced a number of events where the auditorium and gallery have collided to create work that is part theatre, part installation. The latest offers a drop-in and drop-out experience inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-infused poem Kubla Khan.
The winding passageways of the Roudhouse's Undercroft have been transformed with clever lighting and decor into an opium den, and although nothing stronger than red wine is on offer, the place drips mystery. In theory this strange journey through the drugged mind of Taylor Coleridge should be the most exciting experience that London can offer not involving illegal substances or sex. In practice, it feels like a sophisticated interactive museum experience, or exceptionally clever educational project.
The best part is right at the start, when a young woman leads you wordlessly down dark corridors into the depths of the undercroft. Then a large contraption that looks like a giant fish tank is placed over your head and, following a winding piece of plastic piping, you embark on an imagistic journey into the heart of Coleridge's poem, which you listen to on headphones.
The trouble is that the images are purely illustrative and, unlike other projects of a similar nature such as Oraculus or Deborah Warner's Angels, which involved human contact, the experience is entirely inert. The technology that allows it to happen also deadens it and the audience (of one) cannot impinge upon what is happening in any way.
It is all done with considerable style; if you stay and make an evening of it in the atmospheric bar rather than just doing the "trip", this would offer a memorably different night out. But although it has novelty on its side, the irony is that you'll find more exciting theatrical experiences sitting in the dark in a traditional auditorium than in anything Euphorium offers.
· Until October 20. Box office: 020-7478 0151.
