NY Around Town , Experimental Theater
NEW YORK -- It took a while, but Lady Macbeth was finally located on the fifth floor.
She was in a bathtub washing off blood and shrieking. And stark naked. At least one hopes that was Lady Macbeth. A tipoff: She wasn't wearing a mask.
Confused? Excited? Weirded out? Scared to bits? Those are just some of the natural reactions to the "Macbeth"-inspired immersive theatre experience that opened Thursday in New York's Chelsea section.
The British theater company Punchdrunk, which specializes in putting on genre-bending shows that audiences can explore as they roam brilliantly imagined spaces, has turned three empty hulking warehouse spaces on 27th Street into the setting for "Sleep No More."
It's been transformed into the fictional, 100-000-square-foot McKittrick Hotel and theatergoers are handed a Venetian-style mask to wear at all times. They are also told to stay silent and wander about as they please. That creates voyeurism and anonymity – very "Eyes Wide Shut."
There's so much to explore: About 100 rooms have been carved out over several floors – some as small as a child's bedroom and others as large as a ballroom. The outside has also been brought inside, with a gritty cemetery and a massive forest included in the mix. Guests are encouraged to rummage about the infirmary, taxidermist, padded room, libraries, apothecaries, laundry, even a detective agency. Open the drawers, read the books in the shelves: Each room is decorated with no detail unspared. They even seem to have their own odor.
About 25 performers act out mostly wordless scenes inspired by Shakespeare's play while dressed in 1930s outfits and giving off a film noir vibe. (The hotel takes its name from the Hitchcock film "Vertigo.") If you find someone without a mask moving amid the maze of dark rooms, follow them – they'll likely lead you to a scene. And then just as soon vanish. The actors might even plant a kiss on your mask or pull you into a room.
Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett has co-directed and co-designed the production, with help from co-director Maxine Doyle, who choreographed the show, and co-designers Livi Vaughan and Beatrice Minns. Sound designer Stephen Dobbie has created a soundscape that conjures dread, with unnerving violin sounds and plenty of Prohibition-era bar songs set to ukuleles.
What the creative team has done is create an utterly unique mash-up of dance, performance art and nonlinear storytelling that is unique to each theater-goer, depending on where they've been and what they saw. Plus, it's even got a working nightclub that serves a mean gimlet.
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