Sleep No More is AMAZING

I'm seeing it in about two weeks. Can't wait! May have to brush up on my Macbeth and "Rebecca" before then.

Yay. I'm glad to hear you had such a wonderful experience, billyboy! I'm gonna be a pain in the ass one more time and ask about the masks. See, if I go to this, I'll be going with my mom, and this kind of theater will be a totally new experience for her, and I'd hate for it to be sullied by uncomfortableness. I can already hear it upon arrival -- "Oh, we have to wear what now? For three hours?!"

Are the masks, like... I don't know... large/unwieldy/uncomfortable/hot/close-fitting. Do they fasten with a strap or just sit on your head?

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Thank you, Sauja! And thanks for the review. Yours is the first -- well, I won't say "negative" review. But your review is the first that I've even seen with minor qualms, hesitations, or qualifiers. And you raise some interesting points because some of the things you address were things I had wondered myself -- is it possible to leave after a visit feeling that you've had an unfocused or not wholly satisfying experience? Neato. Thanks, again!

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I know! Everyone on here raved about it so even though I have a ton of great things to say about it, I still feel like the wet blanket. I'm very, very glad I went, loved pieces of it, and can't stop thinking about it. I do wonder how much had to do with expectations and how much different the experience might have been if I hadn't been seriously on the lookout for the bigger meaning. Also, some people were just rude and forcing their way past each other and bumping into each other pretty hard. So it was alternately thrilling and frustrating. Would definitely have been more enjoyable with about 50 less people in the building.

Sauja,

I have to say that I had moments of the same, even though I have to say I think it WAS brilliant. I kept wanting dialogue - and kept wishing I could make more sense of it. I kept wishing they would say SOMETHING so that I could figure a few basic things out - like who was who (see my other post on here asking for character I.D.'s). And I have to say I'm even a little frustrated that the producers have decided to not make the cast list available so that I could do a little research afterward and put names to faces, to help to make sense of it all.

But all of that said - I think the fact that none of us who have seen it can stop thinking about it says VOLUMES about the experience. Even the frustrations - like not knowing exactly who was who - or what you might have missed, adds to the brilliance of the piece. Is it a perfect show? Well, maybe there really is no such thing AS a perfect show.

But what an EXPERIENCE, right? How great to have spent your money and been able to be SO immersed in something that brilliantly constructed. Even the sets alone - my God, you can't even CALL them sets. I mean, this isn't like they decorated 90 rooms. They TRANSFORMED them. In the graveyard, I had to keep reminding myself that I was inside!!

I think that maybe you were supposed to feel like you missed something... that you can't fully understand it all...

Hell, at this point, I'd be happy to know which actor was which character!!

But again, I keep coming back to the same thing: I can't stop thinking about it and crave to know more about what I saw...

THEMYSTERIOUSGROWL:

I don't know what to say about your Mom and the masks. I can't say it was the most comfortable thing I've ever had on - and after about hour two, my face was getting pretty sweaty. But they add SO much to the overall feel of it. Something HUGE would be lost if the audience wasn't wearing these masks. Made us all feel as if we were ghosts and spirits watching the living. So I think it all depends on how difficult your Mom is. Can she roll with the punches and just experience something because it's SO unique and becoming SO legendary? Or is she going to be all wrapped up in the mask being an issue. It's not tight and it doesn't hurt to wear it, like some of those old cheap Halloween masks are. But I would also think that this may not be the right show for the kind of audience member who might be described as "a pain in the ass" when it comes to things not being exactly perfect as they perceive perfect to be. For instance, when I saw The Three Sisters last month downtown, one woman near me bitched the ENTIRE time about the seats being too close. Ok, yeah, they are. There's NO leg room and for a three hour play, it DOES get uncomfortable. But I felt like saying "suck it UP lady - you're seeing some wonderful performances of a classic show with big stars, stop focusing on the negative and take in the WHOLE experience". She came to mind when I got to Sleep No More last night and I could just imagine the amount of bitching she'd subject her poor husband to if he brought her to this.

And if you decide not to take your Mom - GO BY YOURSELF! It's TRULY an individual thing to experience anyway. The LAST thing you want is to be saddled with someone you have to constantly keep an eye out for. You'll miss 3/4 of the show and the experience if you're trying to take care of your Mom. Trust me on this.

yeah I KNOW this is a weird question but what do they disinfect the masks with? I mean I HOPE they disinfect them. Just a titch worried about skin contaminates and potential infections (esp eyes!)

Sauja summed up my feelings perfectly (and much more articulately than I could have ever done)

I found the crowds of people rushing and pushing to follow each character distracting, and the herds racing up and down the steps to stay with a character also. If your Mom isn't great with steps, she may have trouble keeping up

I tried staying in one place some times, and then characters came to me and I saw scenes that way (tho always with their large entourage crowding into the room I was already in, and usually blocking me back in a corner)

But I too haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and wish I had seen more, or gotten more of the 'Macbeth' storyline from it. I wish I could see it again, but unless it extends I won't be able to

The masks are hot (when I was alone in a room I'd push mine up and breathe, till I'd get caught and 'asked' to put it back down). I agree, tho, that the masks add to it -- they anonymize the audience and make them less distracting, making the characters more real

I'm really glad I went, tho I left feeling frustrated that I'd missed something important

For one thing -- I did miss the 'finale' (I heard people saying there was one?). I was still wandering around alone, exploring. I guess towards the end time, you should definitely follow a character? I have a feeling that the characters all came together at the end, and that's what gathered the audience in one place?

Namo, if you could pm me and tell me what I missed at the end, I'd really appreciate it. That's been bugging me more than anything

I still wholeheartedly recommend it. I saw several great scenes, LOVED exploring the rooms to my heart's content, and found so many quirky little surprises along the way

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Thanks so much for the FYI on the masks, really eased my mind.

Can you tell us if the show will extend at all? A friend want to when she is in town in May.

I thoroughly agree about having a cast discussion. I bet they have some wild stories about interactions with audience members and things they've seen them do.

I went twice in Boston and am headed down in a couple of weeks to go in NY. Question: I bought an early ticket assuming I'd be able to stay till the end of the night (sat. night, 2 am?) It now sounds like the first audience will be "swept" out. In Boston, we had the opportunity to hang out at the bar and listen to the band after the performance was over. Is that not the case in NY (on Fri/Sat early performances?) Also, what time will we be forced out of the performance area/rooms?

I have a feeling you're right and I probably would have been better off with an 11:00 entry instead of the 7:00. I went to see it in Boston twice and STILL didn't make it into all the rooms (though I saw all but 1 of the major scenes, I believe.) With twice as many rooms, I'm afraid I'll feel pressured to explore more quickly than I'd like. Oh well, maybe they'll extend it and I'll go back again. No more weekends available during the run. Would have been just perfect if I could have stayed from 7 till 2:00 a.m!

Speaking of Lady McB, I got so close to her last night that she stepped on my foot with her spiked heel and she had to mouth a little apology! I too was pretty captivated by Sleep No More, although the tix I bought (with a great discount) from someone who couldn't make it last minute were for 7:40, and I'd much rather have started earlier.

The first 30 or 40 minutes were pretty frustrating, couldn't find many actors around, wondering what was the point...am wondering now if I had stepped into the action mid-cycle, don't know how many times it all goes around...anyone have an answer?

Then, all of a sudden, so much drama, actors in my face, amazing dancing and acrobatics, incredible final tableau...and I was a fan! My daughter was not crazy about it--too disorienting for her taste--and I wouldn't recommend it to people who aren't too nimble, as my fondest memories are of chasing some pretty wild characters up multiple flights of stairs at a breakneck pace. But so unique...and I'd think it'd be of particular interest to fans of dancing, because it's so balletic.

We studied Rebecca and reviewed MacBeth before the show and were still mystified by much of it, even though I was enthralled. For me, Lady McB was just amazing, and I wound up following her (well, almost) everywhere.

Very cool experience...wish it was less expensive, but I can see where the money went. And I somehow want just a bit more guidance, maybe in the form of a program people could look at while waiting in the line, or Q and A afterwards or both.

"I'd pay for a ticket to an event like that where we could ask the actors questions about their roles and what we saw."

According to people who are friends with a few actors in the Boston production, the actors are only familiar with what happens in their own tracks. They know exactly where they have to be and when and they don't spend any time on the bigger picture because they have so much to do. Also, they're contractually obligated to reveal nothing in their smaller, more specific scenes.

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