by Charles Breiner
My heart races as I move down the darkened corridor. The man I’m following wipes blood stained hands on his white shirt. I struggle to keep up as he breaks into a run. My mind races. I should have done something to stop the murder I’ve witnessed. Like a ghost, I stood there on the sideline and watched silently without objection.
The man enters a bedroom. His wife waits patiently; expectantly. Surely she is just as responsible for this gruesome act. She strips off her husbands bloody clothes. She appears proud and almost aroused by her husband’s violent act.
Alarms and bells sound in the corridor. The body’s been found.
Two hours later the murder swings from the gallows, his feet kick inches above my head as he gasps in vain for air. It’s over. Justice, not quite as Shakespeare conceived, but certainly not far off.
London’s groundbreaking theatre company Punchdrunk’s North American debut is nothing short of mesmerizing. Produced in collaboration with Boston’s A.R.T. Theatre, Sleep No More is Macbeth through the eyes of Alfred Hitchcock.
The format is similar to other Punchdrunk productions: each audience member is given a mask and directed to an elevator. There’s no telling where you’ll be let out. With the freedom to wander through the 46 rooms spread over five stories of the transformed school at one’s leisure, everyone experiences the production in a way that is unique from the other 300 audience members.
A basic knowledge of Shakespeare’s tradgedy is helpful, but not essential. One would go mad trying to put together a linear version the interweaving story of murder, greed, and revenge. While theatre-philes will stumble into more than a few scenes they will recognize, never have you had to jump out of the way as the Scottish king and queen act on their passionately violent relationship in their bedroom. I doubt Macduff has ever asked you to dance or that you’ve ever thrown back shots with that alluring yet sinister trio of witches.
To call “Sleep No More” a play is a bit of a misnomer, more accurately it is an experiential ballet of contemporary dance. But this is no swan lake. It is as dirty and grimy as any interpretation of The Bard’s Scottish Play. Performed with none of Shakespeare’s dialogue the actors waste not a single movement to tell the complex yarn flawlessly.
With audiences 3 feet away rather than 103, Punchdrunk can afford to short it’s production at no level, nor does it. As each of the 46 room will be combed through by audience members over the play’s 3 hour running time, no detail is left out. From haunting witch’s lairs lined with instruments of dark magic, to a sulfuric graveyard, to an evergreen forest, to numerous bars, to the Macbeth’s intricately decorated bedroom, there not a room that has an a prop or piece of set design that is not intentional. It’s chilling score guides the moments from haunting to beautiful and back again. The sparse but effective lighting is used to great effect like that of the darkest noir. It gives only enough for us to light our winding path.
All of this would be for not if it were not brought full circle by the wonderful cast. The company has transformed the characters we’ve seen over and over again making them fresh, enchanting, and absolutely relevant. Never breaking character they are forced to perform in the hardest of circumstances. While the audience moves freely in and out of rooms, gets in the performer’s way and changes the environment these men and women perform flawlessly. Completely vulnerable they deliver some of the most courageous performances that I’ve seen anywhere.
Punchdrunk has again proven that they are one of the most important, forward thinking voices in theatre today. ”Sleep No More” is a triumph in every sense of the word. This is the future of modern theatre and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
