A little over a year since I stepped into Punchdrunk’s astonishing interactive theater experience The Burnt City, the company has reopened its doors in Woolwich, London, for a vastly different production.
For those who don’t know Punchdrunk, the company behind uniquely explorable, interactive and almost video game-like productions such as The Drowned Man, Shakespeare retellings such as Sleep No More and Doctor Who spin-off The Crash of the Elysium, the outfit is famous for their Choose Your Own Adventure approach to storytelling. But the troupe’s latest creation, Viola’s Room, is something a little different.
I experienced The Burnt City, a nearly three-hour sprawling odyssey of mythical Greek storytelling and sacrifice played out over a series of cavernous spaces, just days after a particularly difficult moment in my life. The opportunity to then lose myself completely in that show’s labyrinthine spaces and storytelling for hours was something that will stay with me for a very long time. Its structure was deliberately complex, a web of narrative performed by an enormous cast of actors and dancers moving around elaborate sets on a schedule that ran like clockwork, their stories intertwining at key moments and in specific spaces with explosively violent or strikingly intimate results. I had always meant to go back and see it again, multiple times, especially after delving deep into Punchdrunk’s fan reddits and wikis and learning more about its story and many secrets. Some diehard fans saw more than 100 performances. But I never managed to find time before it closed – and its enormously ambitious nature meant affordable tickets were few and far between.
Viola’s Room is something far more accessible. On the one hand, Punchdrunk has said it is a return to its earliest origins: a retelling of a 2000 production called The Moonslave designed for just a single audience member at a time, which reportedly only four people ever saw. On the other hand, and more helpfully, this is a deliberately smaller-scale and easier to consume experience than The Burnt City, aimed at a wider audience in terms of content and cost.
I deliberately knew nothing of Viola’s Room before heading in, other than the advisories you must acknowledge when booking a ticket. The experience is for small groups of up to six, and you enter barefoot – there’s a storage area for your shoes and socks, and foot sanitisation is encouraged. Much of the experience is in low light, some of it in blackout. And the biggest change of all – there are no performers, or at least, no staff visible throughout. (Talking to a production member afterwards, they acknowledged each group’s experience is closely monitored and managed behind the scenes.)
The storyline is instead narrated to you via headset, which does a surprisingly good job of isolating you from the others in your group, similar to the Greek masks worn in The Burnt City, particularly in the low light. Punchdrunk has rarely relied on star power before, which makes for another difference here – as the unmistakable voice of Helena Bonham Carter has been called upon for audiobook duty. Settling down to experience the first chapter of her tale of Ella, there’s a distinct sense you’re hearing a dark bedtime story-something that’s quickly confirmed by the explorations that follow.
For those who don’t mind hearing a little more of what to expect (skip forward a paragraph if not), the production repeatedly returns to versions of a girl’s bedroom that have been designed with typical Punchdrunk detail. Anyone who grew up in the 1990s will recognize the books on the shelves, the toys, the furniture, the gel pens. I was reminded of the bedrooms you visit in Life is Strange – the importance of them as places of expression and spaces of refuge for their young inhabitants, just as my childhood bedroom had been for me. This repeated place, slightly different each visit, grounds the story but also asks participants to consider which levels of their story are a story at all. Between these visits, the rest of the experience is largely spent in tight corridors, as more fantastic elements are introduced. The scale remains determinedly small throughout, albeit intricate – with narrative paired alongside detailed models that come alive right on cue. And, in the near darkness, there’s a far greater emphasis here on engaging your other senses – particularly via the varied surfaces you walk across barefoot – to heighten your emotions.
Throughout, you’re asked to follow a mysterious light that guides your way – a golden path that makes this experience a distinctly linear one, but inarguably a more complete journey. Sitting down in the bar afterwards to discuss what we’d just seen, there was clearly still plenty of room for theories on the experience and its various influences – there’s a 1901 short story it’s based on, although to me it was pure Brothers Grimm. I expect most will agree there’s less need for repeat visits this time around, although there’s still a handful of ‘wow’ moments within it I’d like to return to, or to share with others. And I also experienced some technical difficulty with the headphones’ audio at certain moments which took me out of the experience, something I’d like to try again without.
If The Burnt City was Punchdrunk at its big budget open-world best, Viola’s Room is a bitesize walking sim breather. Clocking in at just under an hour, it’s designed to be a tightly-paced and enjoyable first step into Punchdrunk’s world – one that’s well worth taking your shoes off for.
Viola’s Room currently booking until Sunday 18th August. A press ticket was provided by Punchdrunk.
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