The company developed a form of immersive theatre in which no audience member will have the same experience as another. The audience is free to choose what to watch and where to go.[2][3][4] The format is related to promenade theatre, but uses audience immersion more extensively.[5][4] The company has been recognised for its unique uses of sound, light, movement and environment.
Theatrical style
In a typical Punchdrunk production, audience members are free to roam the performance site, which can be as large as a five-story industrial warehouse. They can either follow the performers and themes (there are usually multiple threads at any instant), or simply explore the world of the performance, treating the production as a large art installation.[citation needed]
Masks are another signature element of Punchdrunk's work. Barrett says when the company "...introduced masks, suddenly inhibition fell away and people found a sense of freedom in their anonymity, allowing them to fully explore their surroundings and become totally absorbed in the world around them."[6]
In 2008, Punchdrunk founded a new branch of the company focused on outreach to communities and schools called Punchdrunk Enrichment. Punchdrunk Enrichment projects are mostly aimed at children and young people. Established as a separate company in 2016, and now operates as an independent charity.
The Moonslave (2000), an experience that saw single audience members taken to an old mansion house by a masked chauffeur, following candlelit paths through a dense forest where the story unraveled.[8]
The Tempest (2003), an adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, again performed at the Old Seagar Distillery, using its five floors to create a dark vision of Prospero's island.[10]
Sleep No More (2003); see below for the 2009 and 2011 reinventions. An adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth in the style of a Hitchcock thriller, using reworked music from the soundtrack of classic Hitchcock films. Staged at the Beaufoy Building in London, an old Victorian school.[11]
The Masque of the Red Death (play) (2007–8), a co-production with Battersea Arts Centre (BAC). An adaptation of stories by Edgar Allan Poe including "The Masque of the Red Death". Performed at the BAC from 5 October 2007 until 12 April 2008.[18] While each performance culminated in a ball scene, Friday and Saturday night performances were followed by Red Death Lates, an elaborate after-party with interactive performance, celebrity guests, live bands and cabaret.[19]
Tunnel 228 (2009), a collaboration with the Old Vic theatre, in the abandoned tunnels beneath London's Waterloo station.[20]
The Guilty Party, a 2017 interactive experience commissioned by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and Civic Entertainment Group, USA for the launch of season two of Search Party.[32]
The Third Day is a co-production between Sky Studios and HBO, in partnership with Plan B Entertainment, writer Dennis Kelly and Punchdrunk International. The six-part, one-hour episode limited series stars Jude Law as Sam,[33] who after being drawn to a mysterious Island off the British Coast, is thrown into the unusual world of its secretive inhabitants.
The Burnt City is a production based around the fall of Troy, performed in Woolwich's Royal Arsenal, London in 2022.[34]
Viola's Room, an audio-driven journey through a moonlit fever dream. Barefoot and wearing headphones, audiences feel their way through a labyrinthine installation as an unseen narrator reveals a story of innocence lost and obsession unleashed. Ran at The Carriageworks in Woolwixh from May - December 2024.[35]
Punchdrunk Partnerships
To celebrate the launch of their flagship New Bond Street store, in 2010 Louis Vuitton approached Punchdrunk with the ambitious challenge of reinventing the party. Inspired by original Louis Vuitton luggage, the worlds they contain and the narratives they suggest, Punchdrunk created the labyrinthine world of The Collector. Choosing between six mysterious doors on arrival, the guests were taken through a sensory extravaganza before congregating in a glittering ballroom for dinner.[36]
The Night Chauffeur was a unique intervention between Punchdrunk and the creative agency Mother to launch Stella Black in a select number of London bars in the winter of 2010. Over a two-week period, up to 800 people participated in an immersive story played out on the streets of London. The actual performances took place in the back of vintage Citroen DS cars.[37]
Punchdrunk was approached by W Hotel’s PR agency, John Doe, to create an innovative way to showcase the new Leicester Square W Hotel to VIP and Press in 2011. Five bespoke stories were created as exclusive 1-on-1 performances for just 60 audience members. Fed through in groups of five, guests were led to believe it was a standard tour only to get into the lift and be dropped off one by one on a different floor in One Hundred and Ninety Two Doors.[38]
Following the success of The Night Chauffeur, Punchdrunk was commissioned to devise another immersive performance for a larger audience for Stella Artois in 2011, which lasted for a longer period of time. The result was The Black Diamond, a fusion of live cinema and theatre. The show ran for six weeks and played to an audience of 3,000 who registered on-line for free tickets.[39]
Asked to create an immersive experience inspired by the Playstation game Resistance 3 to promote its release, And Darkness Descended ran in 2011. Using the myriad of tunnels underneath Waterloo train station, the role of the audience as player, participant and character was explored to create a unique survival horror experience that transcended theatre and gaming.[40]
Alexander McQueen asked Punchdrunk to create a top secret fashion show concept for Sarah Burton as part of her McQ A/W 2012 collection, that was to include music, set and performers.[41]
Punchdrunk was invited to collaborate with award-winning musician, Jack White, on a one-off secret gig in 2014 to celebrate his newly released album Lazaretto. Set in an abandoned office block which was transformed into Vescovo & Co’s medical research centre, audiences became patients and a contagious disease ran riot.[42]
Silverpoint was a 2015 piece of research and development, in partnership with Absolut and Somethin’ Else. Punchdrunk created a mobile gaming app, with an aesthetic that celebrated Andy Warhol’s lesser known Silverpoint sketches. Players were rewarded with pieces of story as they advanced through the levels of the game, which culminated in three live levels taking place in locations across London.[43] Silverpoint won a Digital Dozen: Breakthroughs in Storytelling award from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2016.
Believe Your Eyes, a 2016 VR experience commissioned by Samsung for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Believe Your Eyes was awarded a Silver Lion in the Entertainment category at Cannes 2017.[46]
Punchdrunk was commissioned in 2017 by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and Civic Entertainment Group, USA to create an interactive experience for the launch of Search Party season two. Guests were invited to Public Hotel, NYC to delve into scenes from season one and granted a sneak preview into the darker themes and narratives of forthcoming episodes through a series of interactions with performers in The Guilty Party.[47]
Following their secret gig at the McKittrick Hotel, Mumford & Sons approached Punchdrunk to collaborate on their Delta Tour. They wanted Punchdrunk to help them achieve an intimate, immersive experience for their audience despite the scale of the arenas at which they were playing in 2018. [48]
The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia
The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia was published by Routledge in 2019, edited by the theatre scholar Josephine Machon.[49] Development of the book began in 2014, after Machon interviewed Felix Barrett for a book on British theatre companies.[50] Machon interviewed further members of Punchdrunk and visited Barrett's parents' home.[50]
The book is structured as an encyclopaedia to allow non-linear exploration of its contents, mirroring Punchdrunk's non-linear performances.[50] It was reviewed by The Times Literary Supplement,[49] and nominated for the Theatre Book Prize in 2020.[51]
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