A jazz band will perform, and Nightingale notes, “If we’re doing our job right, there should be something for everyone.” The functioning Mandalay Bar serves as an open space for audience members to take a break and discuss the show. There are four arrival times per show, and attendees are free to roam for three hours as there is no set interval for communal breaks. The majority of the performers are dancers, so it’s a lot of physical storytelling as opposed to verbalized text.”įlexibility is a key element to Sleep No More’s world. There’s a sound design running throughout the whole building and we’re playing with smells. “We’ve created a total multisensory world. The audience can look through desks and read diaries or letters,” Nightingale explains. “A lot of the storytelling is done within the design and details of the space. This means that every audience member ends up with a very unique experience that’s personal to them.”Īn abandoned building in Jing’an has been transformed into the show’s setting, the McKinnon Hotel, and the story was adapted to take place in 1930s Shanghai. Within that, they’re actually being presented a fragmented narrative that they piece together by exploring. “Audiences are free to explore the space and the whole story is spread across six floors of the building. “We’re making a non-traditional form of theater – taking the audience away from this passive interaction where they basically sit and have something presented to them,” explains the show’s producer Colin Nightingale. Critics have dubbed it as a pioneer of immersive theater, and past productions of Sleep No More have enjoyed sold-out years-long runs in New York, London and Brookline, Massachusetts. Ironically if the Bard represents the pinnacle of traditional theater, Sleep No More has won wide acclaim for its experiments with the form. Already reservations to Sleep No More have been filled until the Spring holiday despite its December 14 opening date. In a year full of standout theatrical tributes to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, few are as highly anticipated as Punchdrunk Theater’s take on Macbeth.
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