Upper House will transform its hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai into immersive performance spaces across three consecutive weekends in October 2026.
Named WITHIN, the 30-minute experience will guide participants from the lobby through four areas of each property before ending at the bar with a bespoke cocktail. Architecture, sound, choreography, lighting, spatial design and costume will shape the journey as the audience moves through the performance space.
The project marks the return of the Upper House art programme, last held in 2023 and now named Art Encounters by Upper House. This edition has been created with international immersive-theatre studio ONE HUNDRED, whose team has 17 years of experience in the field.
Performances will take place at Upper House Hong Kong from 9 to 11 October, followed by Upper House Chengdu from 16 to 18 October. The final weekend will be held at Upper House Shanghai from 23 to 25 October.
Hotel rooms and corridors become the stage
WITHIN begins when guests select a performance time designed to fit around their day at the hotel. A porter appears in the lobby and leads them into a narrative route running through four distinct areas of the House.
The production uses the hotels’ existing rooms, corridors and shared areas, making the route, design and atmosphere of each property working parts of the performance.
This format moves Upper House beyond the familiar art-hotel model, where paintings and sculptures are displayed around guestrooms or communal spaces. During each performance weekend, the property itself provides the setting, route and substance of the work.
The compact running time also distinguishes WITHIN from many large immersive productions. Each journey lasts 30 minutes and concludes at the hotel bar, allowing it to sit within a stay without taking over an entire evening.
Guests will move through the experience as their changing position within the House determines how they encounter its performers, design details and sensory elements.
Three cities receive different narrative worlds
Although the three hotels share the WITHIN title and overall format, each performance has a separate identity rooted in its location.
At Upper House Hong Kong, a luxury hotel rising above Pacific Place in Admiralty, the production is titled The Dreamer. Its story draws on the property’s Upward Journey, using the ideas of sky and cloud to shape a world connected to the House’s vertical setting.
Upper House Chengdu, a contemporary hotel built around landscaped gardens in the Chinese city, will host The Phoenix one week later. This version brings together mythology and the garden, allowing the property’s planted spaces and architecture to influence the journey.
The programme then moves to Upper House Shanghai, a design-led hotel in the city’s Jing’an district. Titled The Collector, its narrative is structured around Shanghai’s relationship with artefacts and ritual.
The city-specific approach means WITHIN is presented as a connected series rather than an identical touring production. Visitors attending in more than one location will encounter the same immersive framework, but the spaces and stories will change with each House.
Hoss Vetry, managing director of Swire Hotels, said the programme reflects the company’s view that its properties have an active cultural role.
“We have never been a backdrop. Each is a destination with its own stories to tell,” Vetry said. “What I love about this programme is that it’s where this conviction becomes something you can feel – culture lived in, not looked at, for our guest who comes home from a city with a story to tell rather than a list.”
ONE HUNDRED brings immersive-theatre experience
Upper House developed WITHIN with ONE HUNDRED, an international studio working across performance, fashion and experiential design. The studio brings together specialists in sound, lighting, choreography, costume and spatial design to create environments in which audiences move through the action.
Upper House credits the team with work connected to Arcane: Immersive and Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, alongside collaborations with Gucci, Valentino and Stella McCartney.
Sleep No More helped establish the large-scale roaming format within contemporary immersive theatre. Audiences explore a multi-floor environment and choose how they move through the production, rather than watching from assigned seats. The New York production ran for 14 years, while other versions and related Punchdrunk projects have extended the company’s work in Asia.
A separate immersive adaptation of Arcane also entered beta performances in Shanghai in January 2026. That 120-minute musical involved more than 20 actors, several settings and multiple storylines, China Daily reported.
Those productions are separate from WITHIN and provide context for ONE HUNDRED’s experience and the wider immersive-theatre format. The Upper House programme is smaller in duration and shaped around the architecture and daily rhythm of functioning hotels.
Art Encounters returns after its 2023 edition
Upper House last presented its group art programme in 2023 under the title Encounters Across Cultures. That edition was the third in a series first launched in 2019 and explored the relationship between technology and creative practice.
Hong Kong artist and music producer Vicky Fung worked with media artist Keith Lam on four multi-sensory data sculptures. Their project followed travellers through different cities, recording sound and biometric information such as pulse and skin resistance.
Lam translated the collected information into visual forms, while Fung developed accompanying music. Visitors could sit on the finished sculptures and experience the work through touch, sight and sound.
The 2023 programme appeared at the participating properties in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as The Opposite House in Beijing. Its focus on responsive installations established a multi-sensory direction, although the works remained individual objects within the hotels.
WITHIN expands that approach by making the hotel environment the medium. Participants will follow a continuous narrative through the building, with performers and production design altering how familiar hospitality spaces are experienced.
WITHIN dates and ticket details
The live performance schedule is:
- Upper House Hong Kong: 9–11 October 2026
- Upper House Chengdu: 16–18 October 2026
- Upper House Shanghai: 23–25 October 2026
Tickets are complimentary, with exclusive early access available to members. Capacity is limited, and further information is available through the Upper House Art Encounters programme.
