Any of you who follow me on Twitter saw that I took a break early in the show and mentioned a “Remixed-esque crowd.” It wasn’t quite as bad as Remixed, but it was still pretty aggressive. Fortunately, I’ve noticed that sometimes audiences police themselves a bit, and by the third loop it felt like folks had calmed down considerably. But I have some notes:

1. First loop there was a woman snapping her fingers in Macbeth’s face. By which I mean inches away from his face. He stopped, broke character, pointed at her and said “NO.” But she kept doing it. I almost devoted my night to following her and getting in her way wherever possible but there was too much crowd to contend with. That kind of crap is the absolute worst. It is so disrespectful to everyone around you but most especially to the performers. I just try to picture this person in her own job and how fun it might be to office-visit her with a costumed delegation and snap our fingers in her face for a few hours. Sorry, but I’m protective and vengeful.

2. Anyone else notice extraordinary crowding in the Interrogation? I went in there second loop and the audience just kept packing on in, so by the time the door was shut and everyone realized oh hey there’s a scene about to happen and backed up, I got crushed against the wall with an elbow jammed into my gut. Maybe this is a stewarding question to keep the numbers lower (perhaps open the room with less lead time?). 

Did something new at this show and went up to the mezzanine during the ballroom scene to get close-ups on Macbeth as he reacts to the sight of his wife with Duncan, and found that to be a very rewarding scene to catch. 

My evening started, actually, with the 6th Floor 1:1 with Careena. I last saw it back in August and it’s been moved / the setting has been redecorated significantly since then and it is much, much more impressive now. I can imagine if you were at the show for the first time and unexpectedly found yourself alone on that floor it would be an incredibly unnerving / moving experience. It is so, so dark. And having just rewatched Rebecca there are a lot of nice new visual cues from that story that I was excited to see.

I know I’ve said I was over Malcolm, but sometimes it’s still really fun to run up the stairs with him, and that led to having that 1:1 with Ben Thys in the third loop. 

The May Fair Party:

I have to say this was perhaps the best one they’ve put on yet. Bigger and grander in scale than Valentine’s Day, not quite as overwrought and ridiculous as NYE, and the tone and color and theme were perfectly executed. Yes the boys’ costumes were ridiculous but that’s inescapable. Very glad there was a photo booth and eager to see all the results online soon. I didn’t get to explore the infamous kissing booth but had some of my own adventures in that department elsewhere and I’m certain many of you saw that happen. I’ll just say: welcome to Sleep No More, new guy.

Speaking of scandal: weirdest moment of the whole night happened before Gallow Green opened and the cast satyrs were coming through the hotel lobby to announce the impending beginning of the fair; Jeff Lyon was decked out in grapes, and like so many others I ate one off him and was rewarded with a kiss. Then out of nowhere a very tall bro appears and high-fives me, shouting “BRO did he just make out with you with a grape? You are having the best Sleep No More ever!” I suppose that statement might have been true if I were new to these debaucherous afterparties but in my heart all I could think was girl you have no idea the things that have been done to me just feet from where you’re standing. Also I didn’t know people actually addressed each other as “bro” so count that as a first for me too.

It was great to see so many regulars and fans, and meet kathrynyu in person (finally!). Another really wonderful moment was that bloodwillhavebloodtheysay gave me one of his bedazzled masks and it is so, so beautiful - photos can never do that level of sparkle proper justice, and it was just such a kind, generous gesture, I’m incredibly grateful.

In every corner, some whimsical debauchery was transpiring. A ménage-a-trois make-out session; sets of limbs sticking out conspicuously from behind a pine tree; macabre masked faces hovering throughout; and everywhere, punch-drunk carousers stumbling around the manufactured forest.

So this happened at May Fair.

Well if this isn’t my most overhyped blog post ever. Now I know how REMIXED feels!

Now that you’ve had the chance to read about Punchdrunk’s collaboration with MIT Media Labs in this rather disappointing New York Times article, I am excited to share with you the reason that I didn’t immediately post a recap of my twenty-fifth visit to Sleep No More: I had the honor and privilege to be a live participant in the project’s blending of a Sleep No More performance with an online, interactive component.

The test run I was present for last Tuesday was among the first during a week-long set of experiments with the technology and new show content that have been developed in the collaboration. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been invited to participate and provide feedback in extensive conversations with the Punchdrunk and Media Labs staff who are bringing this project to life. 

The NYT article covers much of what I saw. The written teasers I posted earlier actually all happened - the latter two are tidbits from interactions with a new character. But I won’t go into particular detail about plot, locations, elements, because while what I participated in was just an experiment, there’s always the possibility that the project may return in some form in the future, for more testing, or maybe some of what I got to do may be integrated into the show and I’d hate to have ruined the surprises. Instead I’d just like to describe in broad strokes what I experienced in the test run and provide some commentary on why I think these are fascinating developments at what is already a cutting-edge theatrical production.

Any of you who were at the show last week probably noticed some changes on the set: the 5th floor autopsy room was closed; stewards were posted in new places; something was going on in the padded cell; there were “missing” posters and ads for a photo exhibition scattered around the set. You may have even seen some audience members roaming around with masks that had wiring and apparatus attached. These were all part of a story that participants in the Media Lab project explore with each “live participant,” as I was, adventuring in tandem with an online remote participant who accesses the performance space via a media-rich website. 

The plot of the project builds on a piece of the Sleep No More story already playing out in Gallow Green, delving further into the mystery of why Agnes Naismith has come to the town, and the nature of her relationship to Hecate. Accordingly, there are:

• new rooms to explore within the McKittrick Hotel - the NYT talks about a law office, which I saw; I also found one other very small new room.
• new characters: particularly, “George” in the padded cell, played by Benjamin Thys
• new interactions and 1:1s with existing characters, including the Hecate scene
• new pieces of information embedded in props in the set
• “portals” where the enhanced mask enables a degree of connection to the online participant

Unfortunately, on the night I was there, much of the technology suffered from malfunctions and the interaction with the online participants was limited. Also, from what I was told, the enhanced mask can also enable responses (ie. mechanical, environmental) from new set elements that have been added to the hotel, though I didn’t get to experience this either. The two moments where the technology worked were both mindblowing (one was the ouija board scene mentioned in the NYT article, the other, a moment of hearing voices in my head). The new content in the storyline is also very neatly done, for which thanks are also due to creative performances by Benjamin Thys, Careena Melia, Alba Albanese and William Popp.

It’s a bold and provocative experiment. As Punchdrunk’s Colin Nightingale wrote in a blog post for Media Labs, part of the enormous challenge is fitting this material in alongside a show that is already up and running 8 times a week; the new scenes and spaces are very carefully planned to disrupt the current show as little as necessary. 

In the feedback session, we discussed a topic that has come up frequently in blogs and reviews of Sleep No More over the past 15 months - is it a game? Can it be gamified, or should it? Surely, the Media Labs project adds a whole new dimension to this debate. I had a sense that I was on a particular mission, attempting to accomplish something specific, and so in that regard, it felt more like a game than a normal night at Sleep No More ever had before. And yet, in truth, I was still just seeking answers, seeking some knowledge about the suffering man I met in the padded cell, and what had happened to the woman on the “missing” posters. And neither of these are out of line with the kinds of questions that can normally occupy me at the show. 

What perplexes me most - and what I think is ultimately the crux of the project, and its single greatest potential as a communications tool and a dramatic, artistic enterprise - is the extent to which it is possible for the pairing of live and online participants to build the same kind of empathetic, meaningful but ephemeral bond between two audience members - one in the McKittrick Hotel and one not - that we as audience frequently feel we form with the Sleep No More characters we already know. Why are we helping each other? What is the disembodied, online participant struggling with, and how can I help her? Can she tell what my struggles are, and why should she help me? I think figuring out how to best nurture that relationship is an enormous challenge, but could be a remarkable breakthrough in both theatrical and online experiences. Indeed, in a moment when there appears to be much critical attention to the idea that our online interactions are vacuous and void, and when we come to a production like Sleep No More perhaps precisely because it collapses both the passivity of our mode of consumption and the sensory monotony of our contemporary experience, there is a great opportunity here to dismantle the idea that experiences mediated online are inherently base and banal.

Despite the technical challenges, it was a fascinating and thrilling experience. At times I was terrified, at times I was so frustrated with the difficulty of advancing the story (and here, my extensive previous Sleep No More experience was both a help and a curse) that I wanted to tear the mask off. But I immediately wanted to do it again. For me, the disorientation and wonder of my first night at Sleep No More were almost entirely restored, just because of the different perspective and the different frame through which I saw the performance. The 1:1 with Hecate that ended the night had me desperate to have more time to find answers. 

I’m very excited for the future of Sleep No More, should any of this ever factor in; and I hope I get to try this experience out again. Soon. I want to know what was in that locked briefcase.

Is that all there is… to a recap?

Reader response to this morning’s letter was off the charts. Not only did you say you LOVED the three teasers I already did, you made clear you wanted ANOTHER to tide you over until tomorrow morning. 

So I decided to make a fourth teaser… as a TRAILER.

The concept of following some actor doing interpretive dance was insulting to me as an alpha type personality. Im not interested in FOLLOWING. It actually makes me feel like a loser. I don’t wanna shuffle around some place, watch an under paid actor/dancer twirl in moody fashion, with a bunch of KOREAN TOURISTS and STRAIGHT PEOPLE. I appreciate the effort with the decorating but there was a lot of religious iconography which is always a SNORE to me aesthetically and feels like PANDERING.

So tonight at Storycode – a periodic transmedia & storytelling meetup – I was excited to hear Pete Higgin and Colin Nightingale from Punchdrunk talk about the development of Sleep No More in its current incarnation and their approach to storytelling.

Recognize some of your favorite Manderley bartenders? Over the past months on this blog I/we have gushed about the cast quite a bit but I think we ought to take a moment to recognize these lovely folks for the work they do to make Sleep No More such an excellent experience. And place to have your birthday. And to keep you from dying at the special events. And to try to kill you at the special events. Oh you wickedlovely angeldevils. Thanks for being the best bar staff ever.

Even when it is not executed perfectly, theater can stir a range of feelings, from boundless elation to existential despair. On rare occasions, it can even impart blinding pain, as an overly tight mask presses your glasses into your face, setting off sensitive nerve endings you did not know you possessed.