The New York City production consists of very limited dialogue and allows audience members to experience it at their own pace as they make their way through a number of theatrically designed rooms in the five-floor McKittrick Hotel.Īudiences explore the rooms and interact with props as the story unravels before them unlike any other as they are drawn into the fictional town of Gallow Green, Scotland. Created by the British theater company, Punchdrunk, the site-specific show is based loosely on Macbeth, while pulling influence from classic noir films and the Paisley witch trials. Oh, and in that gift shop.Immerse yourself in an innovative piece of theatrical work when you get your Sleep No More tickets today on TicketSmarter. You'll need to come back to make sense of it." How on earth can a company charge such high prices for a show you cannot hope to appreciate fully in one, two or even three sittings? The numbers just don't add up. The actor, on the defensive, replied: "There's 13 hours of footage in there. As the audience is kettled into yet another queue, the actors reappear and attempt to sell souvenir programmes, a final touch that struck me as cynical.Ĭhatting to an actor-cum-salesman, I asked why I hadn't seen a single murder in this re-imagining of Macbeth. This lack of "aesthetic rigour" (a useful requirement identified in Michael Billington's recent blog on theatrical experimentation) persists even as you leave the show. Why make such a fuss of relocating Macbeth if you're not relocating it at all? The hotel backdrop is actually a pretty hopeless theatrical tool, which makes little sense of the original text and fails to create a complete or claustrophobic world. The only problem is that, apart from a dusty reception area and a dingy restaurant, this shadowy space doesn't look a bit like a hotel. Once inside, the comprehensive design, which spans over six floors, does impress. There are no actors on hand to help set the scene, except a singer and someone advertising themselves as a soothsayer – why? – and, when you finally enter the hotel, you're rattled for all the wrong reasons. Bar men sell hideously overpriced drinks. This space is really a waiting room and, though it does little to delve into the world of Macbeth, it does its damn best to dig deep into the audience's pockets. After leaving your belongings at the cloakroom (only a small fee, naturally), the audience is led into a red-lined bar. The show doesn't even begin once it, well, begins. It wasn't exactly atmospheric, as the taxis whizzed past and an out-of-role ticket checker weaved his way along a queue full of people frozen stiff. Although the website lists staggered arrival times, on the night I went the audience was kept waiting outside for nearly an hour. In fact, they begin as soon as you the queue for Sleep No More outside New York's McKittrick Hotel. Mind-blowing." Look more closely at the website, though, and you'll notice the Broadway-priced tickets, private events offers and even a gift shop.Īnd these money-grabbing touches extend all the way into the show. According to Olivia Wilde, the show is "the coolest, sexiest, most mind-blowing thing ever done in New York. The website is packed with quotes from famous people, cooing enthusiastically. The New York critics are raving about it too, with Ben Brantley gushing that it was "a voyeur's delight". This reworking of Macbeth, which opened at The McKittrick Hotel back in March 2011, is an undoubted commercial hit.
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