Punchdrunk: Sleep No More

Two weekends ago, I finally made it to the much talk-about Sleep No More, by England's Punchdrunk. I had heard much about this production, and thankfully managed to forget most of it before walking in. It is truly a unique theatrical experience, what I would call a choose-your-own-adventure site specific dance piece. Audience members enter the McKittrick Hotel on the west side of Manhattan and are sent into the Mandalay Bar to await their “tour of the hotel.” A dapper young gentleman named Alistair greets us, and summons us to the hotel elevator when it is our turn.

As you board the elevator you are given a white mask that covers your entire face and are forbidden to speak while wearing it. The mask is initially uncomfortable, it pinches the nose, but you soon get used to it. The mask serves several purposes. First, it separates the audience members from the actors. This way you can easily identify who is a character in the piece. It also creates this feel of voyeurism. We are protected by the mask. We stand in a group and watch someone die before our eyes and do nothing. We are somehow complicit, and yet, somehow not responsible. As you run around the hotel, groups of masked figures create an eerie picture, almost as though we are the ghosts of the story, watching the living and the mistakes they make.

The piece is very loosely inspired by William Shakespeare's Macbeth and Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. As I exited the elevator with the final group of audience members, I quickly found myself in a bedroom, with one man suffocating another. Macbeth and King Duncan, to be sure. As the terror and the guilt of what he had done hit Macbeth, he bolted from the room. I ran after him up two staircases into a large bedroom with a bathtub in the middle. Blood was on his hands. Lady Macbeth soon appeared and helped him wash the blood from his hands.

On the ground around the bathtub is a familiar letter that starts “They met me in the day of success...” This right here is an example of one of the most impressive aspects of the piece – the design. Punchdrunk has taken over a five-story hotel and built rooms from scratch. These rooms are filled with incredible details. Letters, books, toys, tea sets, jewelry, hairbrushes, animal pelts, maps, etc. Taking a look at some of these items just might set light to mysteries contained in the performance.

As the evening goes on, it is up to you what character to follow, when to switch and follow a new character, and when to explore the set and not follow anyone at all. Thus, this is truly an individual experience. Every person that walks through that door experiences a different play. The most enthralling moments for me were the ones where sometime happened to me, and me alone. I was taken by myself into secret rooms and spoken to alone. These moments were electric. Part of the play belonged to me and only me! The performers were so intense, so in character, that it was so easy to get swept up by the scene and truly believe in what was happening.

Before I knew it, three hours had passed by. The one thing I do remember knowing before seeing the piece was that all the audience members were lead down for the concluding scene. I somehow slipped through and missed the resolution entirely. Thus when the performance was over, and I was back out in the drizzling Manhattan night, I felt somewhat underwhelmed. Indeed, I wasn't entirely sure what I had just experienced. But, as the days passed, I found that I could not stop thinking about the piece, and the desire soon arose to see it again. Unfortunately, I will not be able to afford to do so, so my mind will continue to muse about the way the characters' paths link together and the artistry it took to put such a performance together.

5 stars
Through September 24