Stage | The Guardian: There’s a moment when I’m burrowing through a small room – a deranged costumier’s studio or shopfront perhaps, jam-packed with decadent evening wear hanging next to macabre pig outfits – and I spy a rack of furs. There’s a gap in the coats I can pass through, like one of the Pevensie children, and soon I’m alone in a white-tinselled winter wood, draped in a black cape, wearing a sinister rabbit mask. And I think: “Where am I?”
2 comments:
I have recently gotten into exploring the world of museum exhibits. This all immersive, explore at your own pace theatrical piece feels much more in the realm of an interactive exhibit - because the people are unsupervised as they pursue the various rooms, so everything needs to be kick proof, child-proof, and able to handle the load of a person or many people handling it. I would be concerned about how set dressing and props hold up over time if there are lots of people poking at them. Also, while I understand the appeal of a choose your own adventure theatrical experience - I enjoyed Sleep No More even though I am an individual that dislikes participating in theatrical performances - I do not think this is a post-COVID conscience format. People touch the same surfaces over and over again. I think that having to clean all of those common surfaces would be much more of a hassle than it is worth.
First and most, regardless of the actual context of the show, it is good to see how people are finally preparing for the performance in general that are not necessarily for “during” the COVID, but after it. As I was very interested in Punchdrunk’s works (although I never had the opportunity to see theirs), it was interesting to see how they managed to produce similar but distinct immersive performance. I am not sure if including the words (instead of being completely wordless like Sleep No More) would be effective, because I think it interrupts the audience from being completely immersed into the performance (because they have to process the context) and limits the range of audience members (to those who can actually comprehend that language). However, as they have said the writing is just another implementation like other parts of the design, I am excited more than I am concerned about what they will bring.
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