![]() I tired of exploration well before the three hours were up - thanks largely to the clammy and creepy Scream/Eyes Wide Shut masks we were required to wear - but spent some 15 minutes trying to figure out how to exit the place the mute masked ushers weren’t much help. Audience members explore at their own pace for up to three hours. There are also drawers full of relevant photographs and letters to riffle through. One can wander on one’s own through the half dozen floors of close to 100 dimly-lit rooms, some of which don’t feel like rooms at all, such as a graveyard that seems to generate its own fog. It’s up to the theatergoers to follow the characters as they rush up and down the stairs, entering into various startling tableaux vivant – Lady Macbeth washing her hands naked in a bathtub, say - or rough-and-tumble dancing. The production depends on theatergoers’ prior knowledge of the Scottish play, generally a good bet, although the more recently someone has read it (or seen a straightforward production of it), the more the disparate images and chaotic moments of “Sleep No More” will cohere. It is the show that started the latest trend of immersive theater in New York, and it is an engaging if dizzying mix of design, dance and drama – or at least a trigger to recall the drama in Shakespeare’s tragedy, since none of the performers recite the Bard’s lines. It has been running since 2011 in a formerly abandoned club in Chelsea renamed the McKittrick Hotel. This comment is more of a buyer be ware….“Sleep No More” is Punchdrunk Theater’s staging of Macbeth, as if retold by Alfred Hitchcock and Isadora Duncan. I do not fault the playhouse or production company for the behavior of its patrons, however, the crowding and rudeness of other guests was not at all pleasurable! - My 1 star ranking in no way reflected this part of my experience. PS- SUPER HATED WEARING A MASK UNDER A MASK. I had more fun acting like the entire building was a haunted escape room and I had to find clues to get myself out in the fastest time possible. Even if I could follow the story, awful - just awful. This play was all over the place - I was so lost and confused. You are then placed onto an elevator and dropped off at random floors… from there the poop show commences. The experience - you are herded through a mandatory coat check-in line, sent to a ticket booth, phone checked and then told to head to the 2nd floor lounge. My poor husband didn’t understand by the website description that when you pay $300+ per ticket it is only for a seat at a table that is completely unnecessary, and a bottle of champagne that I can’t drink…. I have to say I really loved the concept and theming of this place. ![]() Not sure…ģ) The very end of the show, which I found powerful and shocking the first time, was played much safer in last night’s performance, and it just did not have the same effect. I’m not sure the reason for this except that I thought perhaps some of the detail/objects were removed from the rooms to prevent pilfering, and the lights were turned down so the rooms wouldn’t look bare. I’m thinking of the Macbeth bedroom and the sanatorium room with the cots. ![]() I do think the experience is more powerful/intense if you go it alone.Ģ) Certain rooms/scenes were so dark that you could barely see what was going on. This could have been because they were running late with getting everyone in due to checking everyone’s Covid tests and vaccination cards. ![]() But some things about the show had also changed from the pre-Covid era.ġ) They didn’t try to separate couples/groups, and they didn’t have you hang out in the bar at the beginning. My experience was different the second time around, partly because I knew the lay of the land, had some things in mind that I wanted to focus on, and felt slightly more comfortable in the environment. I had such FOMO the first time that I couldn’t wait to go back to see those scenes I heard about but missed (including the techno party scene). But the most intriguing part of it is that there’s always something else to explore. The physicality of the acting/movement is impressive, and somehow the actors manage to maneuver around the audience. Sleep no More is completely transporting (and creepy). Last night I returned for a second time, seeing the newly reopened and slightly revised version of the show. I attended Sleep No More for the first time in early 2020–right before it was shut down due to Covid. ![]()
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