Sleep No More: Shaping the Audience
Upon entering the McKittrick Hotel, you are given a list of rules.
The mask that you've been given is to be worn at all times, and you are not allowed to speak. There will be people with black masks stationed throughout the hotel. They will sometimes guide you, but they are not your guides. The journey you take is to be taken alone.No Talking
more thoroughly connects the audience with such an interactive performance. If you have ever been in a haunted house, you know that talking and connecting to the people in your group is a vital part of the experience. Talking allows you to mentally distance yourself from your surroundings and make whatever scary thing you encounter easier to handle. Without it, SNM to the world you've stepped in to by removing the potential distraction of the conversation. You are completely invested in the world around you, and your mind is freed to consider and question what you are experiencing.One of the most confusing things you hear when entering for the first time is that you must navigate this world alone. Without the crutch of familiar faces (well, bodies) you are forced to venture out, following things that only have meaning to yourself. You decide where the next chapter of the story leads and you make the connections that tie them all together. One of the things that SNM uses to define itself is its "interpretive audience." Being alone forces you to forge your own path and being silent allows you to make your own connections to find meaning in what you uncovered."This road is best traveled alone."
The
As an interpretive experience, SNM encourages the audience to investigate and draw your own conclusions as opposed to the meaning being handed to you. You're told to search through pocket and drawers, read the letters and journals that you find, and open doors to see where they lead. When talking to one of the producers of the show, he said that the masks are supposed to give the audience a sense of anonymity so that they feel free to go into things, open them, taste them... But the masks also reinforce the lone journey that they have encouraged. When you see someone that you may know, you're doubtful without their face being shown. Are they who you think they are? Do they see you? Does it matter? After a while you start to think of these other people as part of the story instead of someone watching just like you.
Why do this? Why does it matter?
In an experience like this, the audience is just as much part of the set as the performers or the props. So, the way that the producers set up the audience to receive the show says a lot about the show itself. From the very beginning, you are told to choose your fate. Over and over the decisions you make greatly impact the meaning that you end up with. Whether you decide to follow a character up four flights of steps of stay in the room they just left, everything that you see is based off of a choice that you made. But with this free will there are guidelines that ensure you getting the most Sleep No More-y experience possible. Imagine if instead of following the rules someone decided to walk through the hotel with a group of friends with their masks in hand, making comments about the detail put into the set production. Not only would they be missing out on a valuable part of the customizable experience of SNM, but they would also be ruining the atmosphere of anyone around them digging for clues trying to find connections.The purpose of an Underworld journey is to find connections that the traveler can use once they exit. SNM sets the audience up to make these connections by giving us a set of rules to follow. While there is a that is difference for everyone based off of what they may have saw and done, there is an overall message about free will and the boundaries of it here. Just like the witches of Macbeth, SNM gives us a guide on what will happen, but how we experience what will happen is up to us. Macbeth's decisions, not his destiny, led to his demise.
The witches said "All hail, (Macbeth) shall be king!" not "All hail, Macbeth shall kill the king!"
As an audience member you can do a Macbeth says and let things happen to you ("If chance will have me king, chance may crown me king without my stir.") or you can do as Macbeth and follow the path (or person) that you think will yield you the most results. However, the fact that choosing either of these can still end in a satisfactory experience suggests that as long as you follow the rules set out, an audience member is sure to succeed. Just like the three weird sisters, SNM gives the traveler a path, but the journey is up to them.
