9/15/2023 0 Comments Punchdrunk sleep no more new york![]() ![]() ![]() Based off Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth, Sleep No More takes the experience up a level by turning it into a film noir-like tale, giving audiences free reign to roam around the massive performance space, allowing them to carve their own story and sequence of events as they meet characters and encounter dark surprises to edge the narrative forward. But really, leave me out of it.SHANGHAI, CHINA – It’s been almost three years since Punchdrunk brought their blockbuster immersive theatre experience Sleep No More to Shanghai, and the success they’ve seen so far isn’t letting up anytime soon, as good as or even better than previous editions staged in New York and London. Employing out-of-work creatives and encouraging greedy slumlords to utilise their empty buildings for the cultural good of the city is a good thing. Because landlords don’t know what to do with their ever-vacant spaces (help the unhoused?), they’re increasingly offering them up to desperate practitioners of immersive theatre. Unfortunately, immersive theatre’s had a local boom after the pandemic left countless buildings boarded up and unused. ![]() By contrast, I’ve never watched Death of a Salesman and thought, “Oh geez, here comes Willy Loman to ask me for a job.” That’s how theatre should work: you watch it, and the exchange ends there. In any case, that’s all I’m thinking whenever an actor tries to make eye contact or recruit me into their scene: like, they can’t make me, can they? I don’t need that sort of dread in my theatrical entertainment. I believe Rousseau was talking about his social obligations rather than immersive theatre, but I’m not convinced. I’ve had the quote underlined in red since I was 11, probably because I first read it just after my mum asked me to clean my room, or something. Instead, my brain’s paraphrased it to “Freedom is not having to do what you don’t want to do” because it’s shorter and it would look better on a tea towel. My brain doesn’t use the full quote that would be a bit insane. It means immersive theatre audiences skew towards extroverts, and extroverts are a horrible audience, always angling for the spotlight or dancing like no one’s watching (not a compliment). It tends to make for an uncomfortable disconnect between actors and viewers because your average theatregoer does not actually want to be part of the performance. The genre has an ethos around disintegrating the barriers between performers and audience, which is something punk tried in the ’70s and everyone just got spat on or glassed. Thanks, immersive theatre: really appreciate coming out just to spend the evening wandering alone among strangers and trying to regroup with my friends before the entire gig passes.Īs a stroll through a venue, immersive theatre is enjoyable enough there are usually fun things to see (boobs/butts), drawers and cupboards to open, handwritten notes to find, and a tunnel to crawl through. “Come with me,” some actor will motion to your group, and then when you’re not looking, they’ll secretly split you up from the people you came to share the night with. Immersive theatre sucks from the moment you walk in the door. Sleep No More, what have you wrought? Credit: Yaniv Schulman Like a Broadway fixture, it’s continued its run ever since. Sleep No More was an instant phenomenon, earning word-of-mouth hype (the New York Times called it “a voyeur’s delight”) and several Obie Awards in 2011. And then I remembered, oh that’s right, this is the wild world of immersive theatre, what had I expected?Ī recent shift from mere millennia of classic sit-on-your-seat-and-be-quiet theatre, in that it urges patrons to interact with actors and a navigable performance space, immersive theatre has become a buzzy cultural go-to ever since British production group Punchdrunk’s infamous Sleep No More debuted in a disused warehouse - the fictitious McKittrick Hotel - in New York’s Chelsea district in 2011. “When was the last time you f-ed?” she asked. “What did you eat for dinner last night?” she asked. There I was, seated on an office chair amid a small group of strangers, while an overly eager performer dressed up like a Suicide Squad villain harangued me into an impromptu game of “truth or truth”. ![]()
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