Luckily a black mask pulled her aside, pointed out the problem, and asked her to wait. She arrived but didn’t realize she had no mask, and there was no way for her to get it back behind the locked door set on the fourth floor.
She bolted out of there, too, tailing Malcolm down to the mezzanine. But he had gotten behind in the scene, and when the bell tolled Duncan’s death (Malcolm’s cue to run), he bolted out of there even faster than usual. He removed her mask, as in all SNM one-on-ones, to facilitate a more intimate connection. Given the show’s large real estate and free-roam structure, audiences need to tell at a glance who’s a performer worth pursuing and who’s an audience member just screwing around.Īt one memorable performance, my close friend earned the Malcolm one-on-one. The most unusual rule on this list is “to wear your mask the entire time.” While Punchdrunk’s custom-made bautas do wonderful artistic work (empowering the audience with anonymity, making the otherwise dopey-looking audience look spooky), their primary purpose is practical. It’s no longer the experience it was designed to be. If more than 1% of the audience committed these behaviors, I’d stop going. Right? And yet I will hear people talking to their friends, flipping their masks up, or fiddling on their phones in the stairwell (which despite appearances is the highest trafficked area in the entire McKittrick). (See my post on the importance of rules in immersive theatre here.) RULES FOR PUNCHDRUNK’S SLEEP NO MORE (NYC) But sometimes people go rogue, or more commonly, someone makes a mistake, and when a rule gets violated, the entire experience can break. Speaking of: the show's 10-year anniversary has come and gone while the theater went dark-but it's never too late to properly celebrate.99.9% of audiences don’t want to break the rules. In fact, Broadway World reported that the "Broadway League mask guidance will indeed stay in place through April 30, 2022."įor what it's worth, we're excited to be able to immerse ourselves in the Macbeth-like experience that Punchdrunk has been hosting since 2011. What that means on a practical level has yet to be seen (more on that right here), but if the folks behind Sleep No More were to follow directions by other theater productions around town, it would seem that masks aren't really going anywhere. The resumption of the critically acclaimed show comes at the heels of Governor Kathy Hochul's decision to lift the mask mandate across the state starting today. Industrial-size dehumidifiers have been installed, for example, and the ventilation system has been updated overall as well.
Still inside Chelsea's McKittrick Hotel, the production has also undergone some space-related changes. The Times also reveals that, moving forward, entering audience members will be asked to "please give your fellow patrons and the residents a bit of breathing room and keep a respectful distance." To put it simply: everyone try to stay six feet apart. The New York Times reports that the white "pointy" masks that Punchdrunk, the company that created the show, is known for will give way to "smoother, more streamlined" ones that "cut above the nose and across the cheekbones." According to the outlet, the new face shields are intended to be worn with a white KN95 mask-which the staff will distribute at the door-and are therefore shaped in particular ways. Let's start with the infamous face coverings that have become synonymous with the interactive production. The production went dark in March of 2020 and-although performances were scheduled to resume last October-the Delta variant lengthen the hiatus period. Finally, on February 14, Sleep No More will once again welcome ticket holders-albeit with new protocols and new masks in place. Sleep No More, one of the largest and most well-known immersive theater experiences in New York, is officially opening up to guests again after a nearly two-year-long closure.