All The Building's A Stage
Sleep No More is a massive, ambitious, category-defining piece of work and, when talking experience design, it must be considered. Truly one of the premiere examples of set design, guest experience, and attention to detail, Sleep No More does away with convention in a bold way. It is something that must be experienced to be fully understood and so on August 1st, 2016 Mike and I visited the McKittrick Hotel in New York City for his 1st and my 3rd run at the famous promenade play.
For the uninitiated: Sleep No More is a play by Punchdrunk and Emursive Productions where actors are not confined to a stage but rather roam freely in a building preforming in various rooms across various floors. The plot is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in a 1930's hotel. The building itself is in lower Manhattan but as soon as you cross the threshold you are in another world. Upon entering the show each guest is given a plain, white mask and very little direction beyond: do not talk, do not remove your mask. The mask serves many purposes but perhaps it's most important function is the anonymity it gives the guest. Sleep No More is a voyeur's dream, displaying death, sex, and everything in-between the mask serves as a barrier, releasing inhibitions, allowing people to watch something they might otherwise turn away from.
The audience is allowed to explore as they wish and often find themselves in close quarters with the action. Each room, or set, is beautifully designed to mimic what you might expect from its real-world counterpart. There are beds, nightstands, and clothes in the bedrooms, desks, typewriters, and trashcans in the offices; each space feels disturbingly authentic. There are some stranger spaces too, a room with dirt floors full of grave stones and eerie lights, a room with a maze of trees leading to a secluded hut in the forest, and much, much more. Through effective design each space's purpose is easily understood at a glance and yet they all contain the appropriate amount of detail. If you've come across a trashcan it is sure to be full of garbage you may expect to find in a 1930's hotel, if you take a peek in that jacket hanging on the coat rack you may just find a note from the owner. The pure depth of Punchdrunk's design is slightly unbelievable on a first visit, in fact many guests may even miss it because it seems so ridiculous.
To match the incredible set, the action is different from traditional theater as well. Where in a play one might expect to see scene after scene, sequentially, in Sleep No More each scene takes place in real time. That means while Macbeth is plotting to kill his father in his 3rd floor bedroom, Banquo might be relaxing in the lounge on the 2nd floor. If Lady Macbeth needs to get from the detective's office to the banquet hall for her next large scene she will walk there. And you, the audience, are free to follow (or not follow) as you wish. This also means that you, the audience, matter; more specifically your choices matter. Because actions take place simultaneously it is up to each individual audience member to discover, and choose, what they see.
In every form of entertainment available the viewer is accustomed to being the focus. This can be proved quite simply by looking at different types of media. Movies follow a story arc consisting of the most exciting moments, allowing the audience to see all of the explosions and none of the erroneous. In most video games players are familiar with incompetent non-player characters (NPCs) who rarely get anything done with out express aid or approval from the player. Even news is dramatized and hand picked to provide the most controversial stories. This is mainly done out of necessity and convenience, in order to keep the film or game a reasonable length and make a profit it makes sense to only include the most exciting moments. The issue here is that these decisions end up removing the medium from reality. In real life you certainly have exciting moments, but they are generally exclamatory punctuations on otherwise normal sentences; and thats not a bad thing. The saying “there is no light without dark, no good without evil” is especially relevant here; if life was all exciting it would become monotonous and each moment would lose the appeal they gain from variation.
Sleep No More embraces this concept by allowing the guest to chose what they see (or don't see). If you want to follow Macbeth around the entire time, you may, if you want to sit in the tailor's office for the entire duration of the show, thats your prerogative. Only one thing is certain: you can't see it all. Even after 3 visit's to the show I still have a completely different experience, each one more revealing and wondrous than the last. Beyond that the pacing of the show varies greatly. While the overall tempo builds to a climax it is certainly not a steady rise, there are plenty of time when the action subsides allowing opportunities for the guest to step back and explore before being swept right back up.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Sleep No More however is its precision. Each room must be designed like a stage complete with cinematic lighting that can change and animated if need be alongside speakers that can play ambient sounds and music. Both of these crucial features must be hidden so as not to break the illusion that everything lies in the world of the performance. Each actor or actress must always be aware of the time and where they need to be. While each character has their own story arc these arcs often intersect, join forces or collide, requiring perfect timing. There is very minimal backstage to turn to. All costume and makeup changes must happen in front of a live audience. The sheer amount of coordination required to pull all of this off night after night without any noticeable flaw is staggering.
I could go on and on about Sleep No More there is so much to tell and be analyzed but I'd prefer to leave it at this:
Sleep No More is a humbling experience that so fittingly presents narrative through incredible set design, innovative acting, and impressive technology. It's an inspiration that Mike and I try to incorporate lessons from in each project we ship.
Ryan’s Cool Thing of the Month: