Sleep No More

[oakenguy]

Wow.

Any Shakespeare play I walk out of with my ears aching a little from the techno music, a little dent on my forehead from the mask they make all the audience members wear, and my feet a little sore from all the running up and down stairs I did, is a good show.

The short version: 'Sleep No More' is a bizarre mash-up of a 'Macbeth' play, a LARP, and a haunted house designed by Stanley Kubrick, where the actors are in constant motion and the audience (in masks and silent, so it's like a busload of ghosts are following a few real people around) can either trail one, investigate the rooms, or have a nervous breakdown and go drink in the bar. Everyone in the Boston area who hasn't seen it should, and you should take me with you so I can see all the bits I didn't have TIME to see tonight.

The long version will have to wait until tomorrow, for I'm SO totally worn out. Watching Scottish witches drink half a bottle of bourbon and then take piggyback rides on the Devil is just exhausting.

Comments

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

In contrast, we had an absolutely awful experience. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, and if it sounds like something you'd like, if you hear about it and go "that's AWESOME!!", I don't want to discourage you... but if anybody out there has been thinking that it *doesn't* sound like something you'd enjoy, but you're being swayed to try it by all the universally glowing reviews, well, there is a dissenting opinion out there, and you might want to listen to your initial instinct.

Also, I know they wouldn't give a crap about this if I complained to them, but the exclusionary ablism of it (i.e., you have to be able to walk/go up and down stairs for hours -- I heard audience members in line outside making fun of some "old people" with canes they'd seen there the night before, stumbling around looking for a place to sit -- and also, what with that large rigid plastic mask, just don't wear your glasses; trying to deal with the mask over my glasses nearly triggered a migraine for me, and the stagehands who kept coming over to tell me I was wearing my mask wrong didn't help...) made me genuinely angry.

I am well aware that I am the minority opinion in this.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

To clarify, it wasn't just that the physical conditions were uncomfortable; I also found the show/performance itself almost as pretentious as it was stunning and ambitious, and ultimately, incredibly frustrating in the aesthetic sense. The combination was what turned the experience from just "intriguing but frustrating" to "downright awful" for both of us.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, ayelle. Right from the first reviews of this, the descriptions alone made me trigger hard with regard to the control one must surrender to be an audience member. I feel intimidated in a very bad way, and that says something since I was weaned on avant guarde performance styles.

oakenguy, not trying to rain on your parade, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Something strong tells me I should sit this one out, though.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade,

...and yet...

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

I am sorry. My only purpose in posting the comments was to get the information out to those who may be slightly disabled or otherwise not good candidates for seeing this show, who were being swayed against their first instincts by the universally positive reviews -- people like ourselves. It was *not* to discourage anyone who thinks it sounds great and really wants to see it and isn't concerned about the rest of it. We heard nothing but glowing reviews ourselves and went in expecting to be blown away. The information that it would be physically painful, for me almost migraine-triggering, to wear the large, rigid plastic masks over our glasses -- and that any attempt to deal with this would result in a stagehand coming over to tell us we were wearing the masks incorrectly -- would have been helpful. And if I had two fully-functioning feet (I wore my most comfortable shoes of course), we might have been able to stay longer and gotten more out of it -- but no-one told us that it's hard or impossible to know when or where important scenes are happening in the four stories of rooms, and that we should be prepared not just to walk/stand, but to run, up and down stairs, for hours... and also, if we really wanted to see enough to make it all worth our while, to be prepared to pay the money to come back a second time, as every person I know who enjoyed the performance plans to do, but which we can't afford. :( Anyway, I won't post discouraging things again on your promised longer review... if you describe important scenes that we didn't get to see, I'll be very interested to read about them.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Also, if you would prefer, I'll delete all my comments on this post and post about it on my own livejournal instead. I'm sorry.

[smacaski.livejournal.com]

Scottish witches shouldn't be drinking bourbon. Scotch, or the very least Drambuie. Sheesh, make it somewhat believable.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

Maybe they were witches whose ancestors, like so many Scots, ended up in the Appalachians..and then repatriated...and then went back in time a bit. See, its perfectly plausible...for a Shakespeare play :/

[clionona.livejournal.com]

Sounds awesome to me!
Thanks for sharing.

Why do I have to live in some small backwards town where nothing cool like this show happens? :P

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Hmm...on the one hand, there've been days when I would have killed for a Universal Studios pass, or the ability to drive to Disneyworld. But the more I talk about the good things in your state the less likely you are to move up here. So please disregard this comment. ;)

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

I want to do that! Wish it would come to Toronto...or that Boston was a short trip on the TTC away.

[ice-cream-eyes.livejournal.com]

I loved it too. Wrote a review of it on yelp.

[ngakmafaery.livejournal.com]

...one of my buddies endorsed this as fabulous, but I hadn't heard of it elsewhere...