ART & CULTURAL INDUSRIES REPORT

A new spectator experience 

Some contemporary performances redefine the relationships between the actors and the audience in order to create a new personal and individual experience. Immersive theater includes artistic installations, scenographic designs, and physical performances. There is a high connection between the production and the location which is usually an old warehouse, a hospital or a nightclub. Those productions provide sensual experiences to the audiences and encourage the public to touch, taste or smell their environment. Physical interaction with the scenic elements and a proximity with the actors are the main unconventional specificities of immersive theatre. Over the last decade, the immersive theatre has been accepted by conventional theatrical institutions which are developing some immersive productions as the American theatre or the Broadway houses. Punchdrunk, a pioneer producer in contemporary immersive performances was founded in London by Felix Barrett in 2000. It has expanded its production internationally and presented the play « Sleep no more », a re-interpretation of the Shakespeare’s play Mac Beth through the lens of suspenseful film noir. I had the chance to discover the thriving city of New-York last December and I took this opportunity to assist to this play which amazed me. 

 

Inside « Sleep no more » 

The five-floor McKittrick hotel is located in a small and dark street in Chelsea. The spectator walks into the building by the first floor and is welcomed by a hostess who gives him a mask. After following a long path between dark corridors he arrives into a 1930s' piano-bar animated by singers and humorists. After few minutes, an usherette dressed in a long red dress invites some of the spectators to pass behind black curtains located at the back of the bar. People are then asked to remain silent, to put their masks and to follow the stairs which will lead them to the haunted house. Nothing was left aside and the environment transports the audience into the thirty’s. The spectator can freely navigate through a cemetery, an abandoned orphanage, a ballroom or a hostel, while a disturbing music is playing. Suddenly he meets a couple of actors who are having an argument. The woman starts to dance with anger in the place, the public move in order not to disturb her. The man leaves the room from another door. The audience chooses to follow one of them. During the play, the spectator forgets about the reality, animated by curiosity, fear and a lack of understanding. The spectator seems to have a role to play too and have to choose its own path through the story by choosing which actor to follow. I really appreciated this experience. It was unique of its kind but I am curious to know why those productions, who create a unique spectator experience, hasn’t already been developed so much in others cities excepted from London and New-York?

 

New theatrical productions are emerging, focused on the sensual experience of the spectator. Sleep no more, one of the most well-known plays, succeeds in putting the spectator out of its comfort zone. These successful productions show promises and must be followed. 

 

 

 

 

« Punchdrunk started as an idea I had with some friends at university. It was born from a desire to create work in which the audience is at the center of the experience. We wanted to wrench them from the safety of traditional theater seats and place them at the heart of the action, equipped with identity and purpose. » Felix Barrett, Punchdrunk

 

 

 

Website: 

https://mckittrickhotel.com  

https://contemporaryperformance.com/2017/12/09/immersive-theater/ 

Images : 

Sleep no more, The McKittrick hotel.