Sleep No More | |
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Written by | Punchdrunk |
Directed by | Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle |
Date premiered | March 7, 2011 |
Place premiered | McKittrick Hotel, 530 West 27th Street, New York City |
Original language | English (mostly mute) |
Setting | McKittrick Hotel and environs, Gallow Green, Glamis, Forfar, Scotland |
Official site |
Sleep No More is the New York City production of an immersive theatre work created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk. It is based primarily on William Shakespeare's Macbeth , with additional inspiration taken from noir films (especially those of Alfred Hitchcock) and the 1697 Paisley witch trials. Its title comes from Macbeth Act II, Scene II, Lines 33–4: "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more,/ Macbeth does murder sleep'". [1]
After incarnations in London in 2003 and Brookline, Massachusetts in 2009, Sleep No More was launched in New York City in collaboration with Emursive and began performances on March 7, 2011. Sleep No More won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience [2] and won Punchdrunk special citations at the 2011 Obie Awards for design and choreography. [3] [4]
Sleep No More adapts the story of Macbeth, deprived of nearly all spoken dialogue and set primarily in a dimly-lit, 1930s-era establishment called the McKittrick Hotel. The production is best characterized as immersive theatre, as it is designed for audience members to move throughout the performance space and interact with props at their own pace; however, the actions of audience members are generally ignored by the performers and do not impact the story.
In November 2023, Emursive announced a final performance date of January 28, 2024, [5] but the production was subsequently extended throughout 2024. [6] In October 2024, a final performance date of January 5, 2025 was announced [7] along with a trio of farewell parties entitled APPARITIONS scheduled for January 2025. [8]
Sleep No More is unlike most theatrical productions, in that the audience wanders at their own pace throughout a set populated by actors. As such, it can be categorized as immersive theatre, promenade theatre, and environmental theatre. It is not, strictly speaking, interactive theatre, because although the audience may move through the settings, interact with the props, or observe the actors at their own pace, their presence has no bearing on the story or the performers except in rare instances.
Despite its aesthetics and theming, Sleep No More is not a haunted attraction, although it does feature dark and supernatural elements and audience members are warned that they might experience "intense psychological situations." [9]
Audience members are given a mask upon entering that they are expected to wear at all times during the performance. They are also forbidden to talk outside of the entry and exit point of the show, the Manderley Bar. [10] Otherwise very little direction is given to audience members about what to expect or how they should interact with the show. The audience is given no programme and the production "leads its audience on a merry, macabre chase up and down stairs, and through minimally illuminated, furniture-cluttered rooms and corridors." [11]
Sleep No More was first produced at the Beaufoy Building in London in 2003 and was later renewed in a 2009 collaboration with Boston's American Repertory Theatre at the Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts. [4]
In its New York City production, Sleep No More is set in the fictitious McKittrick Hotel, whose website claims that it has been recently "restored" [12] but which is actually a block of warehouses in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood transformed into a hotel-like performance space. The McKittrick Hotel consists of five floors, throughout which the action of Sleep No More takes place simultaneously. Not all rooms or floors are related to the hotel theming – spaces in the McKittrick include a graveyard, a hospital/asylum, and the mainstreet of a small town. Various papers, pamphlets and menus inside the performance space and at the building's dining establishments identify the show's setting (indoors and "outdoors") as the fictitious town of Gallow Green, Glamis, Forfar, Scotland. The name of the town and some of the characters (as seen in prop letters found in the performance space, and the show's souvenir program) are references to the Paisley witch trials.
Guests enter the performance space through large double-doors, unmarked except for a small plaque. After a coat check, they "check-in" to the hotel at a themed reception desk and are given a playing card, which is used to determine when they will enter the show. They then proceed upstairs through a small, dimly-lit maze, symbolizing their journey back in time. At the other end is the Manderley, a themed hotel jazz bar, where they will wait until called to enter the show. Once guests are called, they are told a few rules, handed a mask, and escorted either onto an elevator or to a stairwell to begin their show experience.
Upon leaving the elevator, guests may wander through any of the five visitable floors of settings. These floors and the characters that frequently inhabit them consist of, from the top down:
Recorded music, either period (such as tunes by the Ink Spots or Glenn Miller), ambient (composed by Punchdrunk sound designer Stephen Dobbie), or orchestral (mostly consisting of Bernard Herrmann's scores to Alfred Hitchcock films) plays steadily throughout the entire building at all times. Other sound effects, such as thunderclaps or bells, happen simultaneously on most floors as well, though with different volumes relative to the area of the performance where the sounds originate.
There is a small performance space on the sixth floor as well, but it is not open to guests unless they are selected by a performer for a special one-on-one interaction.
Over the course of the guests' three-hour evening, each character plays a one-hour loop, returning to their initial location at the close of every hour, repeated roughly three times. Some characters are more stationary in their loops, while others are very active across multiple floors of the building.
Temporary characters who appeared for a limited time include:
The rotating cast of roughly 25 actors (including bar staff) adopt the dress and aesthetic style of the late 1930s, inspired by the shadowy and anxious atmosphere of film noir. The performers wear no masks and perform in silent group settings, solitary scenes, and often choreographed dances. Upon making a connection (usually eye contact) with a specific audience member of their choosing, a character might lead them into a small, private encounter, be it telling a story, quoting a work of Shakespeare or Hitchcock, or giving them a quest or task to complete. These interactions have been dubbed "one-on-ones" or "1:1s" by frequent visitors.
Critics have favorably compared the production to other works from a wide range of media, with New York Magazine's Scott Brown referencing BioShock , Lost , Inception , and M. C. Escher, and The New York Times’ Ben Brantley referencing Stanley Kubrick, Joseph Cornell, David Lynch and Disney's Haunted Mansion. [10] The production is mostly wordless, prompting The New Yorker's Hilton Als to write: "Because language is abandoned outside the lounge, we’re forced to imagine it, or to make narrative cohesion of events that are unfolding right before our eyes. We can only watch as the performers reduce theatre to its rudiments: bodies moving in space. Stripped of what we usually expect of a theatrical performance, we’re drawn more and more to the panic the piece incites, and the anxiety that keeps us moving from floor to floor." [14] Testimonials for Sleep No More have also been given by such celebrities as Neil Patrick Harris, Emma Stone, Leslie Odom, Jr., Evan Rachel Wood, and Aaron Paul, all of whom have also appeared as guest characters in the production.
The show has received positive reviews in several publications including, The New York Times , [11] New York Magazine , [10] The New York Post , [15] and Time Out New York , [16] as well as a critical essay in The New Yorker and the cover article of the August 2011 Vanity Fair . [17]
As of March 2021, Sleep No More currently has an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp, based on 1,284 reviews, with 70% of all reviews being 4 stars or above. [18] Similarly, on TripAdvisor, Sleep No More has garnered 1,625 customer reviews, with 77% being either 4 or 5 stars. [19] Many longtime fans of the show (some of whom have visited the McKittrick over 100 times) have also created dedicated blogs on sites such as Tumblr, where they share their experiences, reviews, and derivative fan works based on the show, story, characters, and cast. [20]
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Actors have alleged sexual misconduct by audience members. [21] [22]
On July 13, 2016, Punchdrunk announced that Sleep No More would make its Asian premiere in Shanghai in December of the same year. This would be the first co-production between Punchdrunk International and Chinese company SMG Live. [23] The original creative team behind Punchdrunk's Sleep No More all worked on the Shanghai production, but the company is made up of long-term Punchdrunk collaborators as well as Chinese performers working with Punchdrunk for the first time.
The Shanghai production of Sleep No More is housed in a disused building five stories high, renamed the "McKinnon Hotel", in the Jing'an District of the city. It combines the original story from Macbeth with Chinese folk myths.
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The McKittrick Hotel is a performing arts venue themed as a 1930's hotel in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It is located at 530 West 27th Street and is best known as the setting of the immersive theater production Sleep No More. It has also featured a bar and dining space known as Gallow Green on the roof, a restaurant called the Heath on the sixth floor, and the Manderley bar on the second floor. In addition to Sleep No More, it has been used as a venue for a number of parties, performances, and special events.