#Sleep no more running time how to#
#Sleep no more running time free#

It’s part of what makes experiencing the production so addictive. Cynically, I suppose you could say that that’s why people like theme parks and Ghost Trains because it’s the same feeling, you feel alive.” The impact’s greater and it stays with you. You need to reach that point…that your comfort zone is removed, there’s a danger, the adrenaline coursing through your veins so that your synapses are firing so that any sensory stimuli we then give to you, the audience, you’ll receive it tenfold. “ needs to be big enough to instill that sense of panic, so that at times they can feel out of control this can’t be safe, it can’t be legal. Exploring a dangerous place, where you can conceivably be injured, is part of the thrill. Things are not always what they seem, and moonlight can play such strange tricks on the mind. Actors disappear and reappear in other places. Doors are unlocked and then suddenly closed again. As blogger Dan Dickinson observed, “most of us don’t spend our days exploring strange spaces, investigating someone’s bedroom, or following strange people about their business.”Īnd the McKittrick Hotel is definitely a strange space, filled with dark shadows, and a sense of danger around every corner. It takes a clear shift in mindset to become accustomed to being a voyeur the enforced silence and anonymity from being masked help guide this transition. After a while, though, I broke through that mental barrier. I, too, felt awkward rifling through desk drawers and opening closed doors.

the set lighting is typically quite dark with deliberate, staged pockets of lightįelix Barrett has said Punchdrunk has “never wanted to spoon-feed we always wanted them to find the action.” In the beginning days of Sleep No More, I imagine that audience members might have felt shy, not wanting to get too close to an actor, as they were fumbling around in the dark, trying to find their way around, trying to find the action.

the set must be large enough to get lost in or to feel totally alone at moments.

the set engages multiple senses–sight, sound, smell, touch–and has an incredibly detailed design.

#Sleep no more running time free#

the audience is given free reign to explore a massive set.the audience must be masked and cannot speak.The company only crossed the Atlantic for the first time in late 2009. Some key elements of a Punchdrunk production include: It’s also Punchdrunk’s longest running production to date, and the appetite for their style of immersive theatre seems to be holding strong in New York City, as the show attracts locals and tourists alike.įor many viewers of the show, this is the first immersive theatre production they have seen, and also the first Punchdrunk production most attendees have ever experienced. Sleep No More is now in its third staging (previous locations were in London and Boston), and the New York City incarnation is Punchdrunk’s largest, most ambitious work so far.

#Sleep no more running time how to#

Individual audience members go through changes in mindset within a single session or two (namely how to approach the play), and the behavior of fans of the show overall changes over time, as the run of the play gets extended over and over. In some ways, Sleep No More can be viewed a large-scale social experiment: a fascinating way to observe human nature over the course of time. Felix Barrett, Artistic Director, Punchdrunk, on That’s the effect we’ve aimed for in Sleep No More.” Punchdrunk likes to pull the rug out from under the audience’s feet so they can truly immerse themselves in a theatrical world. When you step out of your comfort zone, your adrenaline is fueled and your brain has to work that much harder. Punchdrunk wants to put the surprise back into theater, to genuinely invite the audience to come inside the experience. The fact that we know the rules and feel so safe immediately distances us from the process of the show. It’s so completely passive and mechanical, and we’re all used to it. We go into the auditorium, hand the usher our ticket, rush down the aisle, take our seat, the house lights drop and the show begins. “I love the theater, but the way we experience it can be so formulaic.