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Mar. 21st, 2011 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAhhh guys, I am so behind on booklogging but I have to take today to talk about MORE THEATER. This weekend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sandrylene and wickedtrue (and ms_ntropy but she was at a different time) were in NYC to see Sleep No More, which has just come to Manhattan.
And the frustrating thing is that, as I say, I want to take today to talk about it, but that's actually very difficult to do! Because Sleep No More is a very difficult experience to describe, first of all, and second I am afraid that if I describe too much I will accidentally spoil people who may yet have a chance to see it. But okay, I will try.
Sleep No More is immersive theater based on Macbeth and Rebecca; the whole five-story giant warehouse is part of the show. You are part of the show. You know that you're part of the show because before you're ushered in you are encouraged to be bold, forbidden to speak, and required to put on a mask that looks like this:
So officially you and all the other hordes of people seeing the show have now become very confused ghosts. You're let off somewhere at random in the building - it's different for each group of people - and you wander through the warehouse, which is now a 1930's Hitchcockian hotel, except for when it turns into a psychiatric ward or Birnam Wood. You open drawers and chests and read other people's mail politely thanking the Macbeths for the lovely party and find bloodstains and strange artifacts and hunt for the dead baby room that someone who saw the show before told you to look out for, except when you come across someone who's not wearing a mask walking briskly past you in the other direction and then you chase them the hell down because when you see what they're doing you might be able to figure out who they are and piece together some story, or at the very least see some interesting intepretive dance, or possibly a murder or bacchanalic orgy. You can spend all night chasing actors up and down and around the space, or you can stick to your own pattern of exploring and watch other masked ghosts poking around in likewise confused fashion and wait for bits of story to come to you, scrambling hastily out of the way when Macbeth and Banquo start getting into a knock-down drag-out fight in the place where you used to be sitting. Sometimes actors will collar you and whisper things in your ear; these are the only spoken lines in the whole show.
I sawwickedtrue get accosted and licked by one of the three witches, and sandrylene had a close encounter with the same witch. I did not get seduced by anyone, but Macduff did drop his glass in my bag accidentally during a party and sort of sheepishly had to fish it out. (He was understandably distraught at the time, as Mrs. Danvers - as best we could tell - was about to poison his wife.) At another point, wickedtrue and I found ourselves in an empty hotel room where a gramophone had just started playing swing music; since it seemed the thing to do, we started to dance (although it got a bit undignified when we realized neither of us remembered how to lead.) We were giggling under our masks, but I suspect, thinking about it now, that we might have looked fairly unnerving ourselves to anyone watching from another room.
Some things that they don't seem to say anywhere in the information about the show, and that you should probably know:
- if you are going to have difficulties chasing actors up and down five flights of stairs all the time, there are no accommodations for you
- if you have migraines or anything else that might be triggered by BRIGHT FLASHING STROBE LIGHTS or ENORMOUS ROLLING PILES OF SMOKE, you should know that this may occur without warning
- if you may be triggered by stylized violence, sexual or otherwise, you should know that this may occur without warning
- if you may be triggered by actors suddenly taking off all their clothes in front of you, you should know that this may occur without warning
- seriously, if anything about the phrase 'surprise strobe-lit smoke-filled bacchanalic child-sacrificing orgy' sounds like it may be a problem for you, you really should know that this may occur without warning. And there is an off-chance you will get hit in the face with a dead baby.
ETA: And here iswickedtrue's review!
sandrylene and wickedtrue (and ms_ntropy but she was at a different time) were in NYC to see Sleep No More, which has just come to Manhattan. And the frustrating thing is that, as I say, I want to take today to talk about it, but that's actually very difficult to do! Because Sleep No More is a very difficult experience to describe, first of all, and second I am afraid that if I describe too much I will accidentally spoil people who may yet have a chance to see it. But okay, I will try.
Sleep No More is immersive theater based on Macbeth and Rebecca; the whole five-story giant warehouse is part of the show. You are part of the show. You know that you're part of the show because before you're ushered in you are encouraged to be bold, forbidden to speak, and required to put on a mask that looks like this:
So officially you and all the other hordes of people seeing the show have now become very confused ghosts. You're let off somewhere at random in the building - it's different for each group of people - and you wander through the warehouse, which is now a 1930's Hitchcockian hotel, except for when it turns into a psychiatric ward or Birnam Wood. You open drawers and chests and read other people's mail politely thanking the Macbeths for the lovely party and find bloodstains and strange artifacts and hunt for the dead baby room that someone who saw the show before told you to look out for, except when you come across someone who's not wearing a mask walking briskly past you in the other direction and then you chase them the hell down because when you see what they're doing you might be able to figure out who they are and piece together some story, or at the very least see some interesting intepretive dance, or possibly a murder or bacchanalic orgy. You can spend all night chasing actors up and down and around the space, or you can stick to your own pattern of exploring and watch other masked ghosts poking around in likewise confused fashion and wait for bits of story to come to you, scrambling hastily out of the way when Macbeth and Banquo start getting into a knock-down drag-out fight in the place where you used to be sitting. Sometimes actors will collar you and whisper things in your ear; these are the only spoken lines in the whole show.
I saw
wickedtrue get accosted and licked by one of the three witches, and sandrylene had a close encounter with the same witch. I did not get seduced by anyone, but Macduff did drop his glass in my bag accidentally during a party and sort of sheepishly had to fish it out. (He was understandably distraught at the time, as Mrs. Danvers - as best we could tell - was about to poison his wife.) At another point, wickedtrue and I found ourselves in an empty hotel room where a gramophone had just started playing swing music; since it seemed the thing to do, we started to dance (although it got a bit undignified when we realized neither of us remembered how to lead.) We were giggling under our masks, but I suspect, thinking about it now, that we might have looked fairly unnerving ourselves to anyone watching from another room.Some things that they don't seem to say anywhere in the information about the show, and that you should probably know:
- if you are going to have difficulties chasing actors up and down five flights of stairs all the time, there are no accommodations for you
- if you have migraines or anything else that might be triggered by BRIGHT FLASHING STROBE LIGHTS or ENORMOUS ROLLING PILES OF SMOKE, you should know that this may occur without warning
- if you may be triggered by stylized violence, sexual or otherwise, you should know that this may occur without warning
- if you may be triggered by actors suddenly taking off all their clothes in front of you, you should know that this may occur without warning
- seriously, if anything about the phrase 'surprise strobe-lit smoke-filled bacchanalic child-sacrificing orgy' sounds like it may be a problem for you, you really should know that this may occur without warning. And there is an off-chance you will get hit in the face with a dead baby.
ETA: And here is
wickedtrue's review!
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:07 pm (UTC)I've pretty much decided that I want to go see this thing again. I want to go chase MacBeth the whole night and see Banquo's ghost scene.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think I am with you. I want to stalk the Second Mrs. DeWinter and see all the Rebecca bits! And the graveyard, and the dead baby room! And of course Banquo's ghost scene.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:17 pm (UTC). . . I won't lie, though, when they first gave us the masks and told us not to speak, I had to work really hard to resist the urge to start humming, and I THINK YOU KNOW WHAT.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:21 pm (UTC)And okay, I have to ask - did you ever get pulled off for a one-on-one with one of the actors? I didn't see that happening at all during the show and only found out that it could be part of the production when I came home and read the reviews, and I am so curious.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:23 pm (UTC)Dude, let's seriously talk dates later this week. I want to see it again with you just so we can talk about it!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:28 pm (UTC)I am excited to read your review!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:30 pm (UTC)During the last scene at one of them, Hecate came up behind me , gripped my shoulder really hard and pressed a small red stone into my hand. I... have no idea what that meant. But it was cool.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:47 pm (UTC)You will never get away from him, Becca. TEN LONG YEARS from now, he will find you!
WTF LJ, stop eating my comments.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:50 pm (UTC)PHANTOM. GET OUT OF MY MIIIIIIIND. ;_________;
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:02 pm (UTC)He will always be theeeeere! Insiiiide your miiind!
Just don't let him get hold of any blackmail material and/or place bets on you with your significant other.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:10 pm (UTC)(Did I tell you I am reading the book-Phantom right now? Gaston Leroux says in the intro at the beginning that Meg is now a BARONESS. Take that, ALW!)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:17 pm (UTC)I maintain the dead baby room is the coolest art piece in the entire set, though...that little Main Street USA portion was really awesome.
Also, the bald witch might just be the hottest person in all of creation.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:17 pm (UTC)...They're pretty good!
(WIN! *Hugs Meg* Suck it, ALW.)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:33 pm (UTC)The orgy was the same, as was the dinner scene. Either there was no Ballroom scene, or I missed it both times it went around.