The performances build to a climax, but aside from that, you don’t really get any guidance on how to experience the night. Actors move about the hotel, up and down stairs, and scenes take place throughout the building over the course of a night. The audience are all given white masks and instructed to remain completely silent throughout the performance. So, what happened when we went to Sleep No More and how might it apply to museums?įor those of you who are coming at this fresh, Sleep No More is a theatrical experience (not a play, per se) that combines elements of Macbeth, film noir, and uses an abandoned hotel as the setting. There might even be a conference session in there… We’ll see. I’m hoping to convene an online discussion amongst a group of folks who’ve seen it to help me process what the experience was like. And I still recommend it to museum people. Weeks later, I’m still not sure whether I liked it or not, but I’d still probably go back and see it again. Three hours later, we were discharged onto the street tired, conflicted and unsure of what we’d seen and done. So, with high hopes for an “aha” moment, Jennifer, a friend and I walked up to the McKittrick Hotel on West 27th and got in line. I’ve been thinking and writing a lot lately on alternate models for developing exhibitions and it sounded like a model worth exploring to see how it might inform what I do. Seb Chan had written a longish piece about his experience months ago, and several friends who opinions I value had raved about it. I had been meaning to see Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, an immersive, participatory theatre experience that had run in Boston for months without us going, and had almost completed its New York run. Over the Christmas holiday, my lovely and talented wife and I went down to New York City for a few days to see friends and go to the theatre.
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