On my 36th birthday, now a few months ago, I was lucky enough to see Sleep No More. In case you don't read New York Magazine (my one true love, the charticle) or watch Gossip Girl (Nelly Yuki is back!) or have yourself been asleep for the last two years (Rip, you devil!), Sleep No More is billed as a piece of theater. Certainly there are theatrics and performance, but I would not call this a play. It is an interactive art installation, the focal point of which is the performance by a dozen dancers in a wordless adaptation of MacBeth, with some slight references to Hitchcock's Rebecca (based on the book of the same name by Daphne Du Maurier, which is even more beautiful and scary than the movie, and I'm a little sad the musical based on it turned out to be a giant scam), found mostly in the names of things and the general asethetic. Rebecca is one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite books. I, growing up among strange creepy death filled artwork (thanks mom), have an affinity for creepy. Not at all that I like to be scared, but that I can see things as beautiful even if they aren't necessarily pretty or alive or positive. And Sleep No More is this wonderfully decaying world of death, betrayal, sex, jealousy. The performance is in a warehouse that has been completely reimagined, five floors create a world in miniture-a hotel, a town, a house, a forest (two actually), a castel, a hospital, a churchyard. You are desposited into this world with little explanation, instructed to wear a mask and to explore, "take risks and you will be rewarded." The entire audience is masked, while the players are not. You can follow the players as they go from room to room, floor to floor, no space is off limits to you (yes, it sounds like directions for a board game, because that is basically what it is, interactive Clue, only you go in knowing who did it). Or you can stay in one place and watch the action unfold, wander through the world and stumble across people, things, secret passages, hidden moments, hidden room, orgies, murders. It is voyeristic, it is a haunted house, it is a living movie, a waking dream, it is angels in america and you are the angels, it is obviously inspired by Rupert Goold's MacBeth (with Patrick Stewart) but the actors hold your hand, guide you to a seat, sing to you, cry in your arms, whisper to you, give you clothes and you dress their naked bodies, you soothe them and they come together and pull apart, three shows a night. In short, if you miss this you miss an once in a lifetime, mind altering experience that is worth every penny ($100+). Do it. Do it now. (or maybe wait until they have power and running water.)
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