![]() You won't hear them articulating their famous lines in this mostly wordless show, but you will see them express their psychological angst in stunning dance and mime (choreography by Maxine Doyle) that brings to mind Martha Graham's art. But I think it's fair to tell you that watching the bloody rendezvous of Macbeth (in the buff) and Lady Macbeth (in revealing lingerie) in a bathroom following Duncan's regicide is a goose-bump raising spectacle. With my experience obviously differing from yours, it's tough to point you to some most powerful moments, and even tougher not to give away the coup de theater that ends the play like an exclamation mark. The rooms in which all these events occur are meticulously designed by Felix Barrett, Livi Vaughan and Beatrice Minns. If you insist on meeting them all, or want to see a different actor play a particular role (actors sometimes double in parts), count on booking a return visit to the McKittrick. But don't expect to encounter all of them all. Some of the play's major characters you're like to encounter are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Macduff, a very pregnant Lady Macduff, Duncan, Banquo, the Porter. The better you know Macbeth, the more you will appreciate Sleep No More. I can only sum it up as art on the run, with Punchdrunk's reimagining of Macbeth fueled by the audience's own adrenaline and boldness. Clearly this is unlike anything else most people will have experienced Not only does it demand a suspension of disbelief, but of conventional notions about theater going. ![]() No one's experience will be the same, largely because each person gets to pick and choose the rooms to wander through, and the specific actors to watch as they enact various Macbeth episodes. Whether you stay the course for two or three hours, Sleep No More will keep you on your feet. After that, however, he warns that "you will have to find your own way." that if they feel overwhelmed at any point, there are Actors strategically placed on each floor who can assist anyone feeling overwhelmed. He does reassure his passengers not to worry. On the elevator there's an urbane young man, with a velvet-smooth voice issuing instructions not to talk during the show and to keep the mask in place at all times. He looks and sounds sincere, except that he's likely to evoke Duncan's e words of Duncan from Act 1, Scene 4: "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face." Despite any reservations this prompts, you'll hand him your card in exchange for a white Venetian-styled mask and it's on to a freight elevator leading to the main part of the performance. ![]() ![]() ![]() Soon a tuxedo clad host arrives to welcome the guests to Manderley. It's a set-up that encourages f drifting into the mood and atmosphere that will permeate the evening. Card in hand, there's another stop at a lounge, replete with a bandstand and bar, where drinks are served and jazz wafts through the air. The evening which can last up to 3 hours transforms attendees into inmates who are expected to shuffle through dark passageways, climb up and down stairs, stroll through cemetery plots, saunter through shrines and studies, zig-zag through mazes - not to mention going in hot pursuit of the dramatic action.īefore undertaking this exploration, there's a stop at the box office to receive a playing card, leave coats, sweaters, and bags in a coatroom. It's not a performance you watch as one within which you live. This Punchdrunk production, directed by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle (in collaboration with Emursive), draws on Shakespeare's classic tragedy Macbeth and Hitchcock's early work - not to mention the chutzpah of any attendee who decides to indulge in this site-specific work at the McKittrick Hotel.Ī caveat to potential attendees: This British environmental escapade is for the most adventurous theatergoers, those hearty souls who will go through thick and thin to see their Shakespeare in a fresh new light (or is it a cinematic noir light?). Sleep No More can be physically tiring, but it's never boring. Nicholas Bruder as Macbeth and Sophie Bortolussi as Lady Macbeth in Sleep No More scene ![]()
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