Sleep No More (2011 play)

Sleep No More
One of the audience masks used in the production.
Written by	Punchdrunk
Directed by	Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle
Date premiered	March 7, 2011 (2011-03-07)
Place premiered	McKittrick Hotel, 530 West 27th Street, New York City
Original language	English (mostly mute)
Setting	McKittrick Hotel and environs, Gallow Green, Glamis, Forfar, Scotland
Official site

Sleep No More is the New York City production of an immersive theatre work created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk. It is based primarily on William Shakespeare's Macbeth, with additional inspiration taken from noir films (especially those of Alfred Hitchcock) and the 1697 Paisley witch trials. Its title comes from Macbeth Act II, Scene II, Lines 33–4: "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more,/ Macbeth does murder sleep'".

After incarnations in London in 2003 and Brookline, Massachusetts in 2009, Sleep No More was launched in New York City in collaboration with Emursive and began performances on March 7, 2011. Sleep No More won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and won Punchdrunk special citations at the 2011 Obie Awards for design and choreography.

Sleep No More adapts the story of Macbeth, deprived of nearly all spoken dialogue and set primarily in a dimly-lit, 1930s-era establishment called the McKittrick Hotel. The production is best characterized as immersive theatre, as it is designed for audience members to move throughout the performance space and interact with props at their own pace; however, the actions of audience members are generally ignored by the performers and do not impact the story.

In November 2023, Emursive announced a final performance date of January 28, 2024, but the production was subsequently extended throughout 2024. In October 2024, a final performance date of January 5, 2025 was announced along with a trio of farewell parties entitled APPARITIONS scheduled for January 2025.

Format

Sleep No More is unlike most theatrical productions, in that the audience wanders at their own pace throughout a set populated by actors. As such, it can be categorized as immersive theatre, promenade theatre, and environmental theatre. It is not, strictly speaking, interactive theatre, because although the audience may move through the settings, interact with the props, or observe the actors at their own pace, their presence has no bearing on the story or the performers except in rare instances.

Despite its aesthetics and theming, Sleep No More is not a haunted attraction, although it does feature dark and supernatural elements and audience members are warned that they might experience "intense psychological situations."

Audience members are given a mask upon entering that they are expected to wear at all times during the performance. They are also forbidden to talk outside of the entry and exit point of the show, the Manderley Bar. Otherwise very little direction is given to audience members about what to expect or how they should interact with the show. The audience is given no programme and the production "leads its audience on a merry, macabre chase up and down stairs, and through minimally illuminated, furniture-cluttered rooms and corridors."

Production Overview

A prop letter from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth

Sleep No More was first produced at the Beaufoy Building in London in 2003 and was later renewed in a 2009 collaboration with Boston's American Repertory Theatre at the Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts.

In its New York City production, Sleep No More is set in the fictitious McKittrick Hotel, whose website claims that it has been recently "restored" but which is actually a block of warehouses in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood transformed into a hotel-like performance space. The McKittrick Hotel consists of five floors, throughout which the action of Sleep No More takes place simultaneously. Not all rooms or floors are related to the hotel theming – spaces in the McKittrick include a graveyard, a hospital/asylum, and the mainstreet of a small town. Various papers, pamphlets and menus inside the performance space and at the building's dining establishments identify the show's setting (indoors and "outdoors") as the fictitious town of Gallow Green, Glamis, Forfar, Scotland. The name of the town and some of the characters (as seen in prop letters found in the performance space, and the show's souvenir program) are references to the Paisley witch trials.

Entrance

Guests enter the performance space through large double-doors, unmarked except for a small plaque. After a coat check, they "check-in" to the hotel at a themed reception desk and are given a playing card, which is used to determine when they will enter the show. They then proceed upstairs through a small, dimly-lit maze, symbolizing their journey back in time. At the other end is the Manderley, a themed hotel jazz bar, where they will wait until called to enter the show. Once guests are called, they are told a few rules, handed a mask, and escorted either onto an elevator or to a stairwell to begin their show experience.

Setting

Main article: McKittrick Hotel

Upon leaving the elevator, guests may wander through any of the five visitable floors of settings. These floors and the characters that frequently inhabit them consist of, from the top down:

• Floor 5 – The King James Sanitarium: an antiquated asylum with an adjoining gated forest. Frequented by Nurse Shaw and Matron Lang.
• Floor 4 – The High Street of Gallow Green: the main street of a small town, featuring several businesses including a tailor, a taxidermist, Malcom's detective agency, and two bars. Frequent characters include Mr. Bargarran (a taxidermist), Mr. Fulton (a tailor), Malcolm, Hecate, Agnes Naismith, and the unnamed bartender of the speakeasy.
• Floor 3 – The McKittrick Hotel Residences: mainly the living quarters of Lord and Lady Macduff, and Lord and Lady Macbeth; also includes a cemetery.
• Floor 2 – The McKittrick Hotel Lobby: a hotel lobby, including a dining area, check-in desk, and phone boths. Frequent characters include the lobby's porter, and occasionally the three witches.
• Floor 1 – The McKittrick Hotel Ballroom: a large ballroom/auditorium and its mezzanine level, with smaller surrounding rooms. Frequent characters include Duncan, Banquo, Catherine Campbell, and multiple characters from the other floors.

Recorded music, either period (such as tunes by the Ink Spots or Glenn Miller), ambient (composed by Punchdrunk sound designer Stephen Dobbie), or orchestral (mostly consisting of Bernard Herrmann's scores to Alfred Hitchcock films) plays steadily throughout the entire building at all times. Other sound effects, such as thunderclaps or bells, happen simultaneously on most floors as well, though with different volumes relative to the area of the performance where the sounds originate.

There is a small performance space on the sixth floor as well, but it is not open to guests unless they are selected by a performer for a special one-on-one interaction.

Story and Characters

Over the course of the guests' three-hour evening, each character plays a one-hour loop, returning to their initial location at the close of every hour, repeated roughly three times. Some characters are more stationary in their loops, while others are very active across multiple floors of the building.

• The Macbeths plot and execute several murders to ensure Macbeth is crowned King of Scotland;
• The married Lord Macduff spends his time flirting with other women and playing cards in the speakeasy;
• Lady Macduff tries to avoid the hotel's maid, before falling victim to Macbeth's rage;
• Said maid, Catherine Campbell, tries to poison Lady Macduff and her unborn child, and pines for King Duncan;
• Banquo performs several dances across many rooms, and interacts with the witches before being slain by Macbeth;
• King Duncan attends the ball in his honor and is later also murdered by Macbeth;
• Duncan's son Malcolm, a detective, hunts for clues to the seemingly supernatural mysteries of Gallow Green, along with Fulton, who seeks to protect himself from them, and Bargarran, who seems drawn to them;
• Nurse Shaw in the sanatorium is seemingly driven insane by the witches, while the isolated Matron Lang sees the future in her hut in the forest beyond;
• Agnes Naismith arrives in town to search for her sister, she interacts with many of the other characters until coming to a final, climactic encounter;
• The three witches cause chaos throughout the hotel, seducing and mystifying various characters, eventually culminating in their prophecies to Macbeth delivered in an explosive orgiastic rave;
• The hotel's Porter straightens up the lobby while looking for a mysterious object and pining for one of the witches;
• The witch goddess, Hecate, along with the speakeasy bartender (her familiar), invites guests into her sanctum for stories, and orchestrates the three witches and their supernatural events in Gallow Green.
• The ever-changing Men and Women of the Manderley Bar provide rest and respite from the chaos of the other locales.

Temporary characters who appeared for a limited time include:

• George Islay, the missing Grace Naismith's love interest, who was only seen during a brief partnership between Punchdrunk and MIT Media Lab
• The Reverend, a pious hermit found in an igloo-like structure off one of the asylum wings
• Caroline Reville, the secretary of Malcolm's detective agency with her own ties to the supernatural. After her departure from teh show, her resignation letter could be found in the agency.

Actors

The rotating cast of roughly 25 actors (including bar staff) adopt the dress and aesthetic style of the late 1930s, inspired by the shadowy and anxious atmosphere of film noir. The performers wear no masks and perform in silent group settings, solitary scenes, and often choreographed dances. Upon making a connection (usually eye contact) with a specific audience member of their choosing, a character might lead them into a small, private encounter, be it telling a story, quoting a work of Shakespeare or Hitchcock, or giving them a quest or task to complete. These interactions have been dubbed "one-on-ones" or "1:1s" by frequent visitors.

Reception

Critical response

Critics have favorably compared the production to other works from a wide range of media, with New York Magazine's Scott Brown referencing BioShock, Lost, Inception, and M. C. Escher, and The New York Times’ Ben Brantley referencing Stanley Kubrick, Joseph Cornell, David Lynch and Disney's Haunted Mansion. The production is mostly wordless, prompting The New Yorker's Hilton Als to write: "Because language is abandoned outside the lounge, we’re forced to imagine it, or to make narrative cohesion of events that are unfolding right before our eyes. We can only watch as the performers reduce theatre to its rudiments: bodies moving in space. Stripped of what we usually expect of a theatrical performance, we’re drawn more and more to the panic the piece incites, and the anxiety that keeps us moving from floor to floor." Testimonials for Sleep No More have also been given by such celebrities as Neil Patrick Harris, Emma Stone, Leslie Odom, Jr., Evan Rachel Wood, and Aaron Paul, all of whom have also appeared as guest characters in the production.

The show has received positive reviews in several publications including, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Post, and Time Out New York, as well as a critical essay in The New Yorker and the cover article of the August 2011 Vanity Fair.

Audience response

As of March 2021, Sleep No More currently has an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp, based on 1,284 reviews, with 70% of all reviews being 4 stars or above. Similarly, on TripAdvisor, Sleep No More has garnered 1,625 customer reviews, with 77% being either 4 or 5 stars. Many longtime fans of the show (some of whom have visited the McKittrick over 100 times) have also created dedicated blogs on sites such as Tumblr, where they share their experiences, reviews, and derivative fan works based on the show, story, characters, and cast.

Controversy

Actors have alleged sexual misconduct by audience members.

Shanghai

On July 13, 2016, Punchdrunk announced that Sleep No More would make its Asian premiere in Shanghai in December of the same year. This would be the first co-production between Punchdrunk International and Chinese company SMG Live. The original creative team behind Punchdrunk's Sleep No More all worked on the Shanghai production, but the company is made up of long-term Punchdrunk collaborators as well as Chinese performers working with Punchdrunk for the first time.

The Shanghai production of Sleep No More is housed in a disused building five stories high, renamed the "McKinnon Hotel", in the Jing'an District of the city. It combines the original story from Macbeth with Chinese folk myths.