Every once in a while I enjoy a completely unexpected evening in New York City, something beyond the dinner-and-a-movie realm that really pushes the envelope. When I was in my 20s I certainly ripped that nocturnal envelope to shreds in so many ways, but now that I have settled into my early 40s I still crave adventure—but perhaps something that won’t leave me reeling the next morning.
So when I read about Sleep No More, I immediately rang up and ordered tickets. Haven’t heard of it? To quote New York magazine: “A dance-theater horror show? A wordless, nonlinear mash-up of Macbeth and the darker psychosexual corners of Hitchcock? A six-story Jazz Age haunted house for grown-ups and anyone who’s ever entertained sick cineast-y fantasies of living inside a Kubrick movie?”
Think haunted house-meets-performance piece-meets-Eyes Wide Shut built around the tale of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that takes place in a sprawling warehouse space in far western Chelsea with fantastical sets and eye-popping theatricality. All theatergoers wear masks as they wander from room to room and floor to floor following the depraved antics of King Duff, Duncan and crew in a three-hour tour. You will undoubtedly interact with the actors as they race past you down a hall, dance from bathtub to bloody bathtub and zoom through the ballroom and up the stairs. And you’ll probably get lost, but that’s part of the fun.
After all is said and done, guests regroup in the intimate cabaret, sip cocktails, catch their breath while listening to a torch singer and compare notes about their far-flung adventures in the Scottish hinterlands plunked smack into the heart of Manhattan. It’s a wild, rollicking ride free of inhibitions. Don the mask and let the adventure unfold. To quote Lady Macbeth, “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.”