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Sleep no more duration11/2/2022 ![]() The ballroom dance party that follows is captivating, too.Īlong with the dim lighting, period costumes, and a score featuring music by Bernard Hermann (the famed composer who scored many Hitchcock films) all these elements converge in an avant-garde, non-linear storytelling fantasy that’s less about Macbeth’s plot and more about its vibe: Generally, the show exudes an eerie air of destruction, foreboding and regret. Yet just as compelling are quieter moments you discover while wandering solo: the hotel clerk manning an empty lobby, King Duncan being shaved by a servant, Macduff and his pregnant wife fighting (and making up), a young girl consulting a gypsy fortuneteller and a dancer gracefully pushing aside giant fir trees in the ballroom. If you’re lucky, a character will grab your hand and whisk you off. While there are many ways to experience the show, one strategy is to follow a performer, especially if you want to catch the aforementioned orgy and other major events. Each character seems to have their own narrative to work with, and I believed every moment. Violent fight scenes are fueled by passion. They appear before you and recreate Macbeth’s key scenes through beautifully choreographed movement and dance. Yet the real highlights are the performers. One of the rooms is a candy store stocked with bonbons, some of which (if you dare sample) are quite tasty. Dozens of tiny rooms contain vintage furniture, books, love letters and wallpaper, which appeared to be printed with some secret code. There’s a dusty hotel lobby complete with angst-ridden clerk, a banquet hall, abandoned mental hospital, huge outdoor graveyard and a haunted forest. Oozing film noir finesse, the massive six-storey labyrinth features more than 100 impeccably designed rooms inspired by Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. ![]() But the more you surrender, the more real this world becomes. As you emerge from the lift into a long, dark hallway lined with themed rooms you can enter and explore, at first it feels like a haunted house with a Broadway budget. Upon joining the other guests in a packed elevator, you’re given a white Venetian mask and instructions. ![]() Have an absinthe shot or cocktail, or come relax here anytime you need a break from the show. SLEEP NO MORE DURATION FULLThere’s a live jazz band and a full bar where a slinky staff (in 1930s character and costume) welcomes you. On arrival, guests’ coats and bags are checked and they’re then ushered into the Manderley Bar, a glamourous 1930s lounge. It’s compelling, thrilling and fun–and a unique experience for every audience member. As a result, the audience’s state of consciousness is blurred, like breaking through dream and reality darkness and light. And the boundary between performer and audience is completely dissolved. Every audience member’s experience is unique. Here, many moments take place simultaneously, and you move through space to perceive them. However, Sleep No More takes things to a whole new level: In traditional theatre, you sit in a single space as the show moves through time. Some of Punchdrunk’s previous London productions, like The Duchess of Malfi and Goethe’s Faust, also incorporated this immersive, choose-your-own-adventure approach. Created by site-specific British theatre company Punchdrunk, Sleep No More takes place in a custom-built Chelsea venue, the McKittrick Hotel (à la Hitchcock’s Vertigo, another key Sleep No More reference) and tells its stories through movement, dance and emotions-not words.Ĭertainly, from dinner theatre to performance art, audience participation is nothing new. No wonder this “immersive theatre” production based on Macbeth has taken New York by storm. ![]() This psychosexual frolic was neither pagan fantasy nor acid trip but one of many mind-bending scenes that swallowed me whole at Sleep No More. Or was it a smirk? You can never be sure with witches. When I later removed it, I saw what could have been a lipstick stain.) Her eyes filled with tears and her lips formed a smile. When she walked over to me and placed her hand on my cheek, her face was so close I thought she might kiss me. I stared back, mesmerized, and emboldened by my anonymity, thanks to a face mask. ![]() As she gave herself a sponge bath, the witch gazed at me again. She led us down a dark hallway and into a secret room with a mossy green forest full of trees, branches and a bucket of river water. Others followed with the discretion of stampeding elephants. As the frenzy wound down, one of the women, a witch, stared into my eyes as she pulled her dress up over her breasts and ran down a dark staircase. There was blood, a knife and, if my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, a newborn baby. One fellow, naked but for a decapitated ram’s head, jumped on top of a table as the others groped each other. I saw the orgy twice: four writhing bodies in various states of undress dancing wildly to techno music while a strobe light pulsed all around us. ![]()
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