There are no physical or digital tickets for Sleep No More. Upon entering, I had to leave my bag in the luggage check – it is not optional, you can not get in with bags and backpacks – and the fee is $4. No one under the age of 18 is permitted unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian (children under 13 are not admitted). It took about 10 minutes before we got in, and while we waited, a security man checked everyone’s ID. We arrived at The McKittrick Hotel, in Chelsea, at 7 pm sharp, and we saw a long line. You can not follow everything, that is, each experience will be unique. Each actor tells their own story, with other actors telling stories interconnected simultaneously in other rooms and other floors. You are free to walk independently and follow the cast members as you wish. In 2011, Emursive and Punchdrunk, two theater companies, came together to produce Sleep No More, which was probably the most original theatrical experience in New York history. Well, if you are reading this post and you do not even know what Sleep No More is about, let’s get a brief explanation. And my friends told me: do not try to stay with your husband, stay apart. I also knew that the public needed to wear masks during the performance and that it was necessary to wear comfortable clothes and shoes as well. Another fact that I knew is that it was an immersive experience and, by immersion, what I knew was that you have to follow the cast members. I also knew that everything is set at The McKittrick Hotel, a building featuring a lot of warehouses. I knew it was a play inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I think that the great thing about Sleep No More is that you don’t know exactly what to expect. And here I am to talk about this experience that is really great. Finally, a few weeks ago, I took some time, researched dates, and bought the tickets for Thiago and me. It’s kind of a thing that happens to a lot of people who live here – I have plenty of time to go (but I never go). I’ve read the reviews, listened to opinions, but I never had bought tickets to. Click on any photograph to see it enlarged.Since I moved to New York, I’ve been hearing about Sleep No More. Since the show began, “Sleep No More” now plays seven days a week, and it is popular enough that the “McKittrick Hotel,” still not a real hotel, has become a hub for nightlife, with a restaurant, a rooftop bar, a small concert venue, and a place for special event parties, on Valentine’s Day and other occasions, that offer “Sleep No More” in a package deal. I tired of exploration well before the three hours were up - thanks largely to the clammy and creepy Scream/Eyes Wide Shut masks we were required to wear - but spent some 15 minutes trying to figure out how to exit the place the mute masked ushers weren’t much help. Audience members explore at their own pace for up to three hours. There are also drawers full of relevant photographs and letters to riffle through. One can wander on one’s own through the half dozen floors of close to 100 dimly-lit rooms, some of which don’t feel like rooms at all, such as a graveyard that seems to generate its own fog. It’s up to the theatergoers to follow the characters as they rush up and down the stairs, entering into various startling tableaux vivant – Lady Macbeth washing her hands naked in a bathtub, say - or rough-and-tumble dancing. The production depends on theatergoers’ prior knowledge of the Scottish play, generally a good bet, although the more recently someone has read it (or seen a straightforward production of it), the more the disparate images and chaotic moments of “Sleep No More” will cohere. It is the show that started the latest trend of immersive theater in New York, and it is an engaging if dizzying mix of design, dance and drama – or at least a trigger to recall the drama in Shakespeare’s tragedy, since none of the performers recite the Bard’s lines. It has been running since 2011 in a formerly abandoned club in Chelsea renamed the McKittrick Hotel. “Sleep No More” is Punchdrunk Theater’s staging of Macbeth, as if retold by Alfred Hitchcock and Isadora Duncan.
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