Karen Hart reviews the latest immersive theatrical experience from Punchdrunk where participants are required to crawl, squeeze through and navigate the spaces in almost complete darkness
Let us have a little sleep. Drifting off into our dreams, lying in our teenage bedroom. And as the lights fade away, so the story begins. ‘Let me tell you a story, from long, long ago …’
Our unseen narrator is Helena Bonham Carter, conspiratorial and soothing, her story relayed through headphones worn throughout our journey, as we follow the trail of lights leading us through the gothic fairytale that is Punchdrunk's latest immersive theatrical experience.
From Viola's bedroom our group of six moves forward through a series of rooms and spaces. We are barefoot – a requirement of the show, which contributes to the immersive feeling of being somewhere forbidden and otherworldly. There are no actors here, no jump scares. It's all about the unfolding story and the multi-sensory experiences along the way. Participants are required to crawl, squeeze through and navigate the spaces in almost complete darkness. When the lights go out completely, you remain still and listen to the narration alone.
Like all good fairytales, this one unravels slowly, indulging us with a fable of innocence lost and obsession succumbed. The script, written by Booker-nominated novelist Daisy Johnson, is a re-working of Barry Pain's gothic mystery The Moon-Slave, ladled with a generous serving of Victorian melancholy.
The provoking choice of music that punctuates the narration – Tori Amos's ‘Cornflake Girl’ and Massive Attack's ‘Angel’ in particular – are particularly impactful, especially as they spring unexpectedly from moments of darkness and silence.
The deeper you enter the warren of maze-like corridors, the greater your feeling of disorientation. It's hard to judge how long you've spent in this world, and impossible to tell the size of the space you are actually walking though as paths double-back and loop into circles.
Having the narration spoken through headphones makes the experience personal, with clever use of left ear/right ear-only narration. Punchdrunk takes innovative lighting to new levels here. There's a revealing scene in a church that takes your breath away, and the intimate set design is meticulous in its intricacy, both in the room settings and illuminated set pieces that help animate the story along the way.
Your agency is almost entirely removed, with no regard given to which route you'd like to take. This adds to the sensation of being driven forever onwards towards your destiny. At times, you'll feel like a teenager anticipating Christmas, and at others, you'll be Alice falling through Wonderland, and other times it'll be like you're an extra in a horror film. When the time came to leave the fairytale, I didn't want to go.