Audience member in Viola’s Room | PHOTO: Julian Abrams
By Ruby Cooper
Who are Punchdrunk?
Punchdrunk is a British immersive theatre company known for its ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style experiences, multi-sensory performances and intricate set designs.
What do they do?
Punchdrunk earned international recognition for creating productions that reinvent promenade theatre, blending artistic forms of installation art, live performance and interactive storytelling. These productions allow audience members to choose which characters or scenes to follow at their own pace as the story unfolds around them. This open-ended approach aims to leave the audience ‘spinning, seeing stars, and intoxicated by the magic of a live experience.’
How was it founded?
Artistic director Felix Barrett created Punchdrunk in 2000 in response to a desire for more unconventional, ground-breaking theatrical spaces. Barrett developed his love for site- specific theatre after studying Drama at the University of Exeter. In fact, part of his degree final included a staging of the German play Woyzeck in an old Territorial Army Barracks. As of today, Punchdrunk operates with a small core team that frequently collaborates with a wider network of freelancers. In 2015, Punchdrunk International was formed with the intention of adapting a set of Punchdrunk’s commercial productions for a wider global stage.
What sets them apart?
One of the most distinctive features of a Punchdrunk experience is the use of masks. More often than not, an audience member is given a mask to help distinguish the performers from the audience in the multi-space environment. This gives the audience agency in a world where they are not allowed to talk, as they are able to frame the narrative in their own way anonymously.
Another distinctive feature is the company’s willingness to push an audience member out of their comfort zone, ultimately creating a physical reaction to an extent not often found in theatre. Those who have been to a performance have stated that before the show, they are given a briefing sheet to alleviate any anxieties a participant may have but also to remind them of the intense physical and pyschological sensations that come with immersive theatre. Breaking the boundaries between performance and participant forces the experience to mean something different to each person.
Detailed set designs are also integral to the identity of a Punchdrunk production. Previous reviewers have described the company as having reconstructed vintage hotels, a 19th -century mansion, a 90’s teenage girl’s bedroom, and even Ancient Greece and the city of Troy. In the Woolwich location, each performance is transformed from three Grade III listed industrial buildings they work with into these fantastical spaces. The intricacy of the environment in which these performances take place is essential for the audience to fully immerse themselves, as well as sometimes giving clues to hidden storylines or characteristic features of the world-building.
What are some of their most famous works?
Perhaps Punchdrunk’s most famous piece, Sleep No More combines Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a noir Hitchcock-esque aesthetic and the history of the Paisley witch trials. The experience takes place over the course of three hours, with a one-hour-long story repeated roughly three times. Originally performed in 2003, the UK run of the show was set in a deserted school, with different rooms emphasising the themes of desire, power, madness and the supernatural through reinterpretations of Shakespeare’s iconic scenes. The ongoing New York run of the show instead sets the performance in the McKittrick Hotel, fitted with a restaurant and bar alongside the theatrical elements. Shanghai’s Sleep No More takes a similar approach, set in the five-story McKinnon Hotel.
Punchdrunk has also ventured into TV production, with The Third Day: Autumn being their most ambitious project. Livestreamed over 12 hours with Sky Studios, the performance follows Sam (played by Jude Law) navigating a surreal and supernatural psychological drama. The real-time performance blurs the line between reality and fiction, engaging viewers through continuous or intermittent participation and pushing the boundaries of traditional TV narratives in a typical Punchdrunk fashion.
The theatre company has not been afraid to venture into other mediums, working with big names to deliver experimental approaches to their bands. Punchdrunk’s involvement in the music industry can be seen in Rihanna’s ANTIdiaRy project and the Mumford & Sons Delta Tour. They have also previously curated a fashion show concept for Alexander McQueen as well as a narrative-driven launch party for Louis Vuitton’s Bond Street store.
Where can I see them perform?
Viola’s Room is Punchdrunk theatre’s latest immersive project, which is ongoing at the Woolwich HQ in London. The experience is said to be an intimate, audio-driven approach to Daisy Johnson’s reimagining of The Moon-Slave by Barry Pain. Guided by the voice of Helena Bonham Carter, the participants are led barefoot through a maze-like installation to reveal a story of ‘innocence lost and obsession unleashed’. A special production of Viola’s Room—A Christmas Tale is running between December 20th and 23rd 2024.
Both the Shanghai and New York locations are staging the landmark performance, Sleep No More. In New York, the performance takes place in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood but is currently on its final extension until December 4th after running since March 2011. The Shanghai experience has been running since 2016, becoming one of the city’s longest- running shows, adapting the performance to include elements of Chinese folklore.