#Cabaret nyc sleep no more full#

But I often found myself in a situation where the audience is so densely stuffed in a room that I, not only couldn’t see the actors well, but also was also elbowed and stepped on. One might think that in a multiple-story set where action occurs simultaneously in multiple locations, the crowd should be, more or less, equally dispersed. But more often than not, the appearance of the actor would be announced by the footsteps of dozens of audience members chasing them. Unexpectedly, actors emerge and start their scene, wordless and impeccably choreographed. A nursery with a flock of beheaded baby dolls suspended in the air was my personal favorite. You can spend days inspecting rooms for clues and impressive artwork. Enhanced by the music design of Stephen Dobbie and lighting design by Felix Barrett and Euan Maybank, the space itself leaves a deep impression. A small crowed of masked anonymous audience members spills out to the maze of the rooms. Find something you like and follow it for a while” – says the Charon-esque elevator attendant as he opens the door on the fifth floor. “There is no right or wrong way to experience it. You are not allowed to speak and are encouraged to part with the members of your party.

Add to it countless passages and hidden rooms, and you might get lost just by reading it.Īfter you arrive, they give you no map, minimal instructions, and a mask that you are obligated to wear during the entire time you are in the hotel. There is an entire street with small shops on the both sides, a cemetery, a cabaret, a grand ballroom with mezzanine, a hotel lobby, a forest, and lunatic asylum. The five floors of the dimly lit and hazy former warehouse are filled with dozens of sets executed with whit and attention to detail. Barrett, Livi Vaughan and Beatrice Minns, is truly impressive. The vastness and variety of the 100,000-square-foot space, designed by Mr. Critically acclaimed and beloved by the audiences, “Sleep No More” is directed by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle. “Sleep No More”, produced by Punchdrunk and Emursive, came to the Chelsea gallery district in March 2011 and is based on the original 2003 London production. But a strange thing happened leaving the show I felt disappointed, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. My companion and I fell on opposite ends of the spectrum. It might become a life shaping experience or it might annoy you like being cramped in the subway during rush hour. During the three hours of wandering five floors of an immersive production inspired by ‘Macbeth’ and set in the 30s, anything can happen. All the same, stumbling groggily up and down staircases and around darkened hallways gives the night the sludgy, abstracted aura of a nightmare.When you check into the McKittrick Hotel, wear comfortable shoes and don’t bring any luggage – neither suitcase nor expectations. The only caveat I would offer is to attend Sleep No More fully rested: You need your wits about you.

A Shakespearean can walk about checking off visual allusions to the classic tragedy the less lettered can just revel in the freaky haunted-house vibe.

#Cabaret nyc sleep no more full#

I chose the latter, discovering a room lined with empty hospital beds a leafless wood in which a nurse inside a thatched cottage nervously checks her pocket watch an office full of apothecary vials and powders and the ballroom, forested with pine trees screwed to rolling platforms (that would be Birnam Wood). You can follow the mute dancers from one floor to the next, or wander aimlessly through empty spaces. troupe Punchdrunk, have orchestrated a true astonishment, turning six warehouse floors and approximately 100,000 square feet into a purgatorial maze that blends images from the Scottish play with ones derived from Hitchcock movies-all liberally doused in a distinctly Stanley Kubrick eau de dislocated menace.Īn experiential, Choose Your Own Adventure project such as this depends on the pluck and instincts of the spectator.

Directors Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle, of the U.K. Your sense of space and depth-already compromised by the half mask that audience members must don-is further blurred as you wend through more than 90 discrete spaces, ranging from a cloistral chapel to a vast ballroom floor. A multitude of searing sights crowd the spectator's gaze at the bedazzling and uncanny theater installation Sleep No More. To untimely rip and paraphrase a line from Macbeth: Our eyes are made the fools of the other senses, or else worth all the rest.