I went home to New Jersey for the long weekend and spent some quality time with my mom. She spoils the pants of me, quite literally as she does ALL my laundry if I bring it home. I did not have a chance to see my brother this weekend, but we are planning a date to go see the Punchdrunk production of Sleep No More in the city.
If you haven’t heard of Sleep No More, prepare to have your mind blown. It’s an avant garde production and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. Well, actually considering I saw it both in Brookline and in Chelsea I guess I had seen it before.
Essentially the experience is like a haunted house film noir version of Macbeth where the scenes are happening around you and you are walking through the Great Birnham Wood and Dunsinane Hill. Punchdrunk has clear out an old warehouse and turned it into the 6 story set of Macbeth.
I can hardly do justice describing Sleep No More other than saying it’s a haunting experience that I want to have over and again. This is a scene with Lady Macbeth washing her husband.
Why this is relevant. Other than the fact that I’m totally obsessed with the performance, my Medieval Performance class has spent a large amount of time discussing the definition of performance. Do scripted acts performed before a congregation of a church count as performance? Does performance require an audience?
You’d be surprised to hear how this discussion lasted almost an entire seminar and we still didn’t really come up with an answer. I took my personal opinion from the judge on the James Joyce obscenity trial: you’ll know it when you see it. Of course objectively speaking, this really didn’t help, but it makes sense to me. I also feel that only at Wellesley could you discuss one question for two hours and come to the general consensus that there is not a tangible answer.