REVIEW: ‘Viola’s Room’ is more intimate than ‘Sleep No More,’ but no less ravishing
Photo: Audience members at Viola’s Room head through many doors to discover a world of wonder. Photo courtesy of Marc J. Franklin / Provided by The Shed with permission.
NEW YORK — Punchdrunk, the creative team behind the immersive hit Sleep No More, is back in New York City with its latest theatrical offering: Viola’s Room, now playing through Oct. 19 at The Shed in Midtown Manhattan. This show is entirely different than Sleep No More, which was a three-hour sensory overload that transformed Shakespeare’s Macbeth into a Hitchcockian thriller. This one is more intimate and smaller scale, but the storytelling and penchant for detail are no less marvelous.
It’s best to experience Viola’s Room without too much previous information, but here are some basics. Audience members congregate on the fourth level of The Shed, a multidisciplinary arts building in the West 30s. They are ushered through to a darkened sitting room where they are given various rules and expectations.
Attendees need to enter Viola’s Room with bare feet. Socks won’t cut it. There are helpful foot sanitizers nearby, for before and after the show. The experience is limited to only six people for every entrance into this dream-like world. Audiences receive headsets that offer musical interludes and narration by celebrated actor Helena Bonham Carter. Then, it’s up to theatergoers to walk through the experience, always following the light …
The actual story being told should remain a secret. Obviously a character named Viola is the protagonist, but this is not a typical play with an ensemble of actors. In fact, other than Carter’s voice, there are no human elements within this show.
Sleep No More, for those lucky enough to have enjoyed that masterful work, featured an enormous cast of actors who shepherded attendees through the multi-faceted narrative. This experience is much different. The voice in the headphones and strategically placed lights are the only guidance.
In fact, the lighting of this theatrical experience may be the highlight of the entire one-hour adventure. Lights, both large and small, offer an ethereal wonder to the proceedings, highlighting exactly where patrons should look and focus their attention. Little clouds serve as lanterns above one’s head, which helps in these dark, dark environs.
The tale being told is both fantastical and based in the real world. There is pop music, which offers a mic drop for a particular era in the recent past, but much of the narrative feels medieval or fantasy-based as well. The scenic design that brings these rooms and passageways to life is stunningly realized and intricate to a degree that is breathtaking. No small detail is spared, and that seems to be the company line for Punchdrunk, clearly the leader of the immersive theater space.
The actual progression through the exhibition space is a fun adventure for patrons. Most of the movement is walking-based, but there is one area where crawling is necessary (though an alternate path can be arranged) and another area that is somewhat scary just because of the unknowns of what’s on the other side. Exploring in certain rooms is encouraged, but lengthy exploring, which was a hallmark of Sleep No More, is not an option because patrons are ushered along with more lights and more narration.
On the afternoon this reviewer saw the show, a few hiccups occurred, and it seemed some logistics were still being worked out. This group of six didn’t have audio working for the first room, so the experience had to stop and start over again.
No one jumps out at audience members, and this is not a haunted house. Although, truth be told, some of the sensory elements feel pulled from the world of Halloween and fantasy literature. At particular points, Viola’s Room feels like theater, and other times it feels like a museum walk-through. Probably what Punchdrunk has done, like they often do with their immersive shows, is create a whole new form and medium.
Viola’s Room is an exciting entry into the immersive theater space that will invigorate audiences and win them over with wonderment and evocative storytelling. There’s nothing quite like Viola’s Room.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Viola’s Room, created by Punchdrunk and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, continues through Oct. 19 at The Shed in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
