Next, the woman I’d seen earlier came in to tell us that we must always keep our masks on and that if it all gets too much for us, we can always go and find her in the bar, “I like the company”. I followed him into a small side room with around a dozen others where we were given our masks and he instructed us that there will be “no more voices”. A few minutes later he returned, and simply said “Deuces” – it was my turn. We ordered a couple of drinks (NOT the absinth shots that were on offer, though) and stood by the bar as a man with an undone bow tie around his collar walked up to the Shure 55 microphone on stage and, in a slow monotone drawl, told those with ace cards to drink up and follow him. I noticed a woman sat at a table dressed like Jessica Rabbit who I hadn’t seen in the queue and realised she was a character. Already I was disoriented, not quite knowing which direction I was now facing as I emerged into a glamorous red 1940s jazz bar. We were then led up some stairs into a pitch-black maze of fabric-lined corridors, the only light coming from the corners. After checking our coats in the cloakroom, we walked up to the reception where we were offered two cards and asked to pick. We walked in an found ourselves in a dimly lit hotel lobby. “As soon as you step through the door” came the reply. Also, there’s no right or wrong way to experience Sleep No More, whether you prefer to explore the rooms on your own and take in their rich detail or follow a character around to see their story arc play out, it’s a rewarding experience.Īgain, what follows is a lengthy account of my personal experience of the show, but it does contain lots of spoilers so please don’t read on if you’re planning on experiencing it for yourself.Īs I queued outside with my friend Liam, someone in front of us asked the doorman when the performance starts. It’s worth knowing that the performances loop three times over the three hours, each time climaxing in a version of Macbeth’s famous banquet scene, which can help you get your bearings, with the banquet having a different ending at the end of the night. What I would say, though, is to make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes as you’ll be doing a lot of walking and sometimes running up and down stairs. It’s best to have your first Sleep No More experience (I’ve since learned that many people have gone multiple times) spoiler-free. Other than that, I felt it best to go in without knowing much about the show.įor that reason, if you’ll be in New York soon and are planning to go, it’s probably a good idea not to read on beyond this paragraph, where I’ll go into more detail about my night in the McKittrick. I read a small amount about it beforehand, enough to know that it’s set in a hotel and is an abstract, noirish take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth with a liberal sprinkling of Hitchcockian references, particularly to Vertigo (it’s called the McKittrick Hotel and Bernard Herrmann’s score can be heard at times) and Rebecca (the hotel bar is called the Manderley and one of the characters may or may not be the second Mrs. There are only two rules – you should not talk and you must wear a chilling plague doctor-style white beaked mask at all times. And what a set it is, 100 rooms over five floors inside three converted warehouses in Manhattan’s Chelsea district. I’ll tell you all about them soon but for now I feel the need to write about an experience I’ve not quite been able to get out of my head since – Sleep No More.Ĭreated by British theatre company Punchdrunk, who are also staging an intriguing Doctor Who tie-in show in Ipswich as part of this summer’s Cultural Olympiad, it’s an immersive theatrical experience, where instead of sitting down to watch a performance you walk around the set and discover the characters for yourself. I’ve just got back from a few brilliant days in New York City.
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