![]() ![]() ![]() With barely enough time to mourn Duncan, I let myself be swept away by the crowd scurrying in the wake of blood trails. Under the dim lights, the blood looked like ink, black and permanent.Īt this point, I faced a choice – stalk the killer as he continues on his rampage, or stay behind with the victim and watch him resurrect as a ghost. I watch, horrified, as he scrubs them violently at the realization that his hands are becoming darker instead, splattering the pristine murder scene. Though his modus operandi is spotless, the scene turns bloody as soon the murderer washes his hands in a basin set beside the bed, attempting to rinse himself clean off his sin. Here, the soon-to-be-king’s weapon is choice is a pillow instead of a dagger, like in the original play (likely due to the difficulty of feigning stabbing someone before a watchful audience). It’s one thing to listen to Macbeth confessing how he’s “done the deed” and quite another to witness him smothering King Duncan, twisting in his sheets as if ensnared in a nightmare, from the foot of the royal deathbed (2.2.665). The creators of “Sleep No More” omitted Shakespeare’s line and included scenes that the Bard left off pages and stages, making the production more akin to fanfiction than a faithful adaptation of “Macbeth”. Just as you ruminate the word choice of your Literature texts, so too must the audience members stay cerebrally engaged to understand the dialogue between the Macbeths as they dance silently across their bedroom. In fact, barely any words are uttered the language of “Sleep No More” is dance. Unlike Shakespearean scripts analysed in classrooms, this adaptation is bereft of confounding “thee”s and “thy”s. “Sleep No More” isn’t a typical interpretation of “Macbeth” either. They cannot sit back and relax into their seats to enjoy the show they’ll have to walk, sometimes sprint, to do so. Guests can also wander from room to room free to sit on beds, rummage through drawers, riffle through books, and even wear coats left on hooks. A few lucky audience members each night receive coveted one-on-one scenes where they privately interact with (minor) characters. The show allows guests to follow Macbeth by literally following the tragic hero, chasing after him around the McKittrick as he seeks out soothsaying witches, consults his wife and doles out murders. It’s an immersive theatrical performance in which the fourth wall conventionally dividing audiences and actors doesn’t exist. “Sleep No More” isn’t an ordinary play though. “Sleep No More” incorporates the three words encapsulating his guilt into its title and adapts his tragedy into its production. “Macbeth shall sleep no more,” he laments, tormented after slaying the slumbering King Duncan, the first of many casualties of his political agenda (2.2.701-703). Macbeth, a Scottish general, is consumed by his ambition to seize the throne, committing a string of murders to forestall a prophecy that he’ll be usurped. If the title stirs the back of your mind, you’re probably familiar with “Macbeth”, widely regarded as one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Originally a warehouse space, it now contains the universe of the theatrical experience “Sleep No More”. Of course, the McKittrick Hotel isn’t a regular hotel. Instead of a hotel key card, I was issued a playing card and beaked half-mask that I had to don before I was allowed to explore the McKittrick’s extensive facilities: a ballroom, a dining hall, bedrooms, a hospital ward, a candy shop, a forest, a cemetery, an asylum, etc. I can’t comment on the quality of the cocktails as I’m under the legal American drinking age of 21, but I doubt any amount of liquid courage could have steeled me for my stay there. ![]() Drenched in red lights and smooth jazz, the Manderley Bar resembles a 1930’s speakeasy. The façade of the building is nondescript, there are no revolving doors or friendly porters, and I had to blindly stumble down a pitch-black corridor to reach the lobby-cum-bar. Upon arrival, the McKittrick Hotel seems like the least inviting accommodation that New York City has to offer. Sleep No More is still being performed today in New York. In this review-essay, Sim Wee Ong shares her experiences of the play, and comments on its relationship to the original text of Macbeth. Created by British company Punchdrunk, Sleep No More is site-specific to the fictional ‘McKittrick Hotel’, a block of warehouses transformed into a performance space. Termed by some critics as “the world’s most interactive play”, Sleep No More is an Off-Broadway immersive experience of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
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