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| Sleep No More: from avant garde theatre to commercial blockbuster | Sleep No More: from avant garde theatre to commercial blockbuster |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Any night of the week, you can walk down a somewhat forbidding block in far west Chelsea, New York, and take an elevator up to the sixth floor. Down one hall and then another, up a flight of stairs, past a glade of snow-decked firs, and suddenly you’ve entered a wee Scottish bothy, the Lodge. You can settle into a chair by the gas fire or plop yourself down on to one of the tartan-covered bunk beds while you sip a whisky. | Any night of the week, you can walk down a somewhat forbidding block in far west Chelsea, New York, and take an elevator up to the sixth floor. Down one hall and then another, up a flight of stairs, past a glade of snow-decked firs, and suddenly you’ve entered a wee Scottish bothy, the Lodge. You can settle into a chair by the gas fire or plop yourself down on to one of the tartan-covered bunk beds while you sip a whisky. |
| Back down that flight of stairs you can squeeze into a curtained booth at the Heath, a luxury version of a station restaurant. While jacketed waiters bring you your three-course prix-fixe, a jazz combo plays and men and women in 1930s attire move sinuously and sinisterly among the tables. Reversing toward the elevator, you can slide into a train car for a private party, clinking glasses and eating hors d’oeuvres as you peer out the curtained windows. | Back down that flight of stairs you can squeeze into a curtained booth at the Heath, a luxury version of a station restaurant. While jacketed waiters bring you your three-course prix-fixe, a jazz combo plays and men and women in 1930s attire move sinuously and sinisterly among the tables. Reversing toward the elevator, you can slide into a train car for a private party, clinking glasses and eating hors d’oeuvres as you peer out the curtained windows. |
| Or you can see a show. | Or you can see a show. |
| Since it opened in New York in 2011, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, which shares premises with the Lodge and the Heath in a space known as the McKittrick Hotel, has become a theatrical sensation. At each of the nine weekly performances, several hundred spectators (both Punchdrunk and the American producers, emursive, are oddly shy about giving precise numbers), who have paid between $75 and $170, not including cocktails, race around 100,000 square feet of space watching a wordless version of Macbeth as art-directed by Alfred Hitchcock. | Since it opened in New York in 2011, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, which shares premises with the Lodge and the Heath in a space known as the McKittrick Hotel, has become a theatrical sensation. At each of the nine weekly performances, several hundred spectators (both Punchdrunk and the American producers, emursive, are oddly shy about giving precise numbers), who have paid between $75 and $170, not including cocktails, race around 100,000 square feet of space watching a wordless version of Macbeth as art-directed by Alfred Hitchcock. |
| The reviews – from critics and ordinary punters – are mostly ecstatic, and while the show’s American producers say, perhaps disingenuously, that they prepared for a run of only six weeks, Sleep No More doesn’t look like it’s closing any time soon. There are websites and blogs devoted to the show (and its ample nudity), as well as tributes on TV shows like Law & Order and Gossip Girl. The piece continues to be markedly influential, sharpening New York’s interest in site-specific work and experiential events, a mild irony as the 1960s happenings that New York created seem a clear inspiration to Punchdrunk. | |
| But Sleep No More is also a case study of the relationship – sometimes cozy, sometimes uneasy – between art and commerce. We expect a merch table at a Broadway show – Aladdin has a whole bazaar – but there’s something less comfortable about a purportedly avant-garde work that looks to be cashing in, as Sleep no More does with its tie-in bars, its $20 souvenir programs aggressively flogged to departing guests. Where’s the line between experimental and entrepreneurial? | |
| That said, it’s not entirely clear just how much anyone is profiting from Sleep No More. It had an initial capitalisation of between $5m and $10m and operating costs that one of its American producers characterized as “a massive undertaking”. And if anyone is, is that so terrible? Or is there a danger that a profit motive will dilute the work itself, a question Lyn Gardner asked almost a decade ago? | That said, it’s not entirely clear just how much anyone is profiting from Sleep No More. It had an initial capitalisation of between $5m and $10m and operating costs that one of its American producers characterized as “a massive undertaking”. And if anyone is, is that so terrible? Or is there a danger that a profit motive will dilute the work itself, a question Lyn Gardner asked almost a decade ago? |
| No one is particularly forthcoming about either the operating costs of the show, its profits, or the terms of the contract with Punchdrunk. It’s tough to tell if the restaurant and roof bar are another way to cash in or just a means to keep the doors open. | No one is particularly forthcoming about either the operating costs of the show, its profits, or the terms of the contract with Punchdrunk. It’s tough to tell if the restaurant and roof bar are another way to cash in or just a means to keep the doors open. |
| Punchdrunk’s artistic director, Felix Barrett, prefers to see them as companion pieces to the experience, ways to further develop the Punchdrunk aesthetic. Though the American producers oversee the day-to-day running of the show, someone from the Punchdrunk team is almost always in New York to assure quality control and the company is intimately involved in the creation of The Heath and The Lodge. “It isn’t a franchise,” Barrett explained, speaking by telephone from London. | Punchdrunk’s artistic director, Felix Barrett, prefers to see them as companion pieces to the experience, ways to further develop the Punchdrunk aesthetic. Though the American producers oversee the day-to-day running of the show, someone from the Punchdrunk team is almost always in New York to assure quality control and the company is intimately involved in the creation of The Heath and The Lodge. “It isn’t a franchise,” Barrett explained, speaking by telephone from London. |
| “What we’re doing with the bar and the restaurant are experiments, research,” he said. “How do you tell a story through food? How do you have a three-course meal that has a narrative?” Originally, Barrett had created a whole separate narrative for the restaurant with a separate 12-person cast, but in testing it he found “people weren’t ready to watch theater” while they ate. Expense, he suggested, was also a factor. So now there are fewer, less formal theatrical accompaniments to the catering. | “What we’re doing with the bar and the restaurant are experiments, research,” he said. “How do you tell a story through food? How do you have a three-course meal that has a narrative?” Originally, Barrett had created a whole separate narrative for the restaurant with a separate 12-person cast, but in testing it he found “people weren’t ready to watch theater” while they ate. Expense, he suggested, was also a factor. So now there are fewer, less formal theatrical accompaniments to the catering. |
| Barrett uses similar arguments about experimentation and research to support the company’s work for private clients like Stella Artois and Louis Vuitton. “We only ever take on projects from commercial clients if we are going to try out R&D, [research and development]” he said. As an example, he discussed a project for Absolut Vodka that will explore the intersections of handheld gaming and live performance. “The question for us is how can you tell a story using those little pixels, those dynamics?” he said. “We’ve been talking about it for years and we’re only able to do it because Absolut is giving us money to try it out. We would never do anything just for commercial gain. It would be boring.” | Barrett uses similar arguments about experimentation and research to support the company’s work for private clients like Stella Artois and Louis Vuitton. “We only ever take on projects from commercial clients if we are going to try out R&D, [research and development]” he said. As an example, he discussed a project for Absolut Vodka that will explore the intersections of handheld gaming and live performance. “The question for us is how can you tell a story using those little pixels, those dynamics?” he said. “We’ve been talking about it for years and we’re only able to do it because Absolut is giving us money to try it out. We would never do anything just for commercial gain. It would be boring.” |
| Profit, he says, was not the motivating factor in bringing Sleep No More to New York or in joining with commercial partners. The cost of production and the lack of US government subsidies made some sort of partnership necessity and so they went with emursive, a production company run by Randy Weiner, a playwright who helped to run the Box nightclub; Arthur Karpati, whom Forbes described as a “real estate impresario” and Jonathan Hochwald; the executive producer of Madison Square Gardens. “We wanted to make work and they were the people who were willing to help us,” Barrett said. “That they were commercial didn’t cross my mind.” Barrett is so sweet and ingenuous in conversation that you can’t help but believe him. | Profit, he says, was not the motivating factor in bringing Sleep No More to New York or in joining with commercial partners. The cost of production and the lack of US government subsidies made some sort of partnership necessity and so they went with emursive, a production company run by Randy Weiner, a playwright who helped to run the Box nightclub; Arthur Karpati, whom Forbes described as a “real estate impresario” and Jonathan Hochwald; the executive producer of Madison Square Gardens. “We wanted to make work and they were the people who were willing to help us,” Barrett said. “That they were commercial didn’t cross my mind.” Barrett is so sweet and ingenuous in conversation that you can’t help but believe him. |
| Then again, he also believes that the bar and restaurant can provide those who can’t afford a ticket a chance to “come for a drink and be exposed to our world”. But can they afford a $16 cocktail? In fairness, the beer is a lot cheaper. Plus, if Punchdrunk is making money off of those cocktails – executive director Griselda Yorke wouldn’t comment – is that really so bad? According to Barrett, they funneled a lot of it back into their last show, The Drowned Man and into the magical enrichment programs they offer in primary schools. | |
| Related: Does Punchdrunk's The Drowned Man live up to the hype? | Related: Does Punchdrunk's The Drowned Man live up to the hype? |
| Hochwald, speaking by phone from New York, said that the desire to bring Sleep No More didn’t come from a “cynical place. I know that’s hard to imagine. He continued, “If we’d gone in on that uber-commercial kind of way, it wouldn’t have worked, they only reason it does work is because it’s meant to be sort of soulful.” | Hochwald, speaking by phone from New York, said that the desire to bring Sleep No More didn’t come from a “cynical place. I know that’s hard to imagine. He continued, “If we’d gone in on that uber-commercial kind of way, it wouldn’t have worked, they only reason it does work is because it’s meant to be sort of soulful.” |
| His reasoning for why they’ve added the nightspots is fuzzier than Barrett’s, a combination of aesthetic desire and financial reality. “Given the scope and scale of the building and the accompanying rent and the cost factors involved in keeping a building like this running, we saw an opportunity to continue the experience both before and after the show by creating these other kind of, if you will oases, where people can hang out and discuss what they’ve seen or what they’re about to see and also create another destination in the McKittrick,” he said, which sounds a bit like having your three-course prix fixe with Nutella tart to finish and eating it, too. | His reasoning for why they’ve added the nightspots is fuzzier than Barrett’s, a combination of aesthetic desire and financial reality. “Given the scope and scale of the building and the accompanying rent and the cost factors involved in keeping a building like this running, we saw an opportunity to continue the experience both before and after the show by creating these other kind of, if you will oases, where people can hang out and discuss what they’ve seen or what they’re about to see and also create another destination in the McKittrick,” he said, which sounds a bit like having your three-course prix fixe with Nutella tart to finish and eating it, too. |
| Still, Barrett believes that the show is in good hands. He didn’t visit the production for 10 months – the time just before and after the birth of his son – and when he returned the cast had changed entirely. “It was like walking into a dream I’d had a long time ago,” he said. But he was impressed at the scrupulousness and consistency of the performances. To make a test, he stood in a spot that should have led to a one-on-one, an intimate encounter with a performer that only a small percentage of theatergoers experience. | |
| “I tried it out and her eyes hit mine and I had a one-on-one,” he said. “It was exactly the same. The choreography, the rigour, the effort that it takes to keep the standards up are really being adhered to.” He continued, “You’d think after all this time they would be taking it easy, but actually no.” | “I tried it out and her eyes hit mine and I had a one-on-one,” he said. “It was exactly the same. The choreography, the rigour, the effort that it takes to keep the standards up are really being adhered to.” He continued, “You’d think after all this time they would be taking it easy, but actually no.” |
| Still, not everyone is so sure – about the way the work endures or the motives for reviving it in the first place. In 2013, Miriam Gillinson wrote a post for the Guardian subtitled Is This a Sell-Out That I See Before Me, complaining that the “money-grabbing touches” that begin with the ticket pricing “extend all the way into the show”. | |
| So I decided to see for myself. | So I decided to see for myself. |
| I’m not nearly cool enough to have sped through the original London production of Sleep No More in 2003: according to Barrett, only 400 people did, fewer than crowd the McKittrick on a typical Saturday night. But I’ve kept up with the company’s work since 2005 and I saw Sleep No More when it played in a Boston suburb in 2009 as well as when it opened in New York in 2011. Had the pressures of commerce changed it? | I’m not nearly cool enough to have sped through the original London production of Sleep No More in 2003: according to Barrett, only 400 people did, fewer than crowd the McKittrick on a typical Saturday night. But I’ve kept up with the company’s work since 2005 and I saw Sleep No More when it played in a Boston suburb in 2009 as well as when it opened in New York in 2011. Had the pressures of commerce changed it? |
| Yes and no. A few of the furnishings looked slightly more threadbare than I remember, and I couldn’t smell the caramel-scented spray that once coated the sweet shop. But the sweets themselves were very fresh and the performances seemed as crisp as they ever were. | Yes and no. A few of the furnishings looked slightly more threadbare than I remember, and I couldn’t smell the caramel-scented spray that once coated the sweet shop. But the sweets themselves were very fresh and the performances seemed as crisp as they ever were. |
| It was frustrating when crowds of masked audience members prevented my following a performer or getting a good look at a scene. Were too many tickets sold for the show? Probably. But just as likely I fell victim to crowd dynamics. And if, to follow one of Gillinson’s points, the fragmented nature of the storytelling makes the evening less rewarding than it might (I only glimpsed Macbeth at the end), I believe this is an aesthetic choice, in keeping with Punchdrunk’s earlier work, rather than a craven one. (I can’t disagree with her about the drinks being overpriced, but you can do as friends have done and bring a pocket flask.) | It was frustrating when crowds of masked audience members prevented my following a performer or getting a good look at a scene. Were too many tickets sold for the show? Probably. But just as likely I fell victim to crowd dynamics. And if, to follow one of Gillinson’s points, the fragmented nature of the storytelling makes the evening less rewarding than it might (I only glimpsed Macbeth at the end), I believe this is an aesthetic choice, in keeping with Punchdrunk’s earlier work, rather than a craven one. (I can’t disagree with her about the drinks being overpriced, but you can do as friends have done and bring a pocket flask.) |
| The only really queasy moment – well, aside form watching a buxom woman in a red gown cough up raw liver – was at the show’s end when a man hawking those $20 souvenir programs barred the exit path, making his pitch vigorously. He didn’t make a sale with me, but otherwise I couldn’t wish I’d spent my night elsewhere. While these tickets were free, I’ve bought Punchdrunk tickets in the past – for myself and friends – and I’d do it again. I do worry and wonder if some of the choices were motivated by the bottom line, but in a country without generous arts funding, I’m unclear on the alternatives. | |
| “We’re humbled by our reception in New York,” Barrett said when we spoke in the phone. “We can’t wait to do something new.” And whatever the cocktail prices or the compromises, I know I’ll be there. | “We’re humbled by our reception in New York,” Barrett said when we spoke in the phone. “We can’t wait to do something new.” And whatever the cocktail prices or the compromises, I know I’ll be there. |