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An Underworld Journey into 'Sleep No More'

letter from snm

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I Was Really Confused, But That is a Good Thing Sleep No More was one of the most confusing things I've done. As in I was not sure what was actually going on for about two and half hours of our three hour visit. First off, the elevator guy just dumps you off on whatever floor he feels like it, and its not like you can tell if you are going up or down, or even moving so you get off the elevator and there are just rooms in front of you and no rules to help at all with deciphering what is happening. In the McKittrick Hotel "Fair is foul and foul is fair" as just about any journey through dark and twisted place is good and bad and kind of makes no sense (1.1.11).

This second world that Sleep No More presents is entirely of the players or persons creation. You are viewing your own version of the tale of Macbeth. You can watch forward, backward, inside out, right side up, or just give up because its too hard and just leave the world incomplete. The three hours and three showing don't really serve to help find the play of Macbeth and all the important scenes, but to instead find all of the missing pieces to your story.

Every new run through of Sleep No More will yield a new story, or if you beyond unlucky, you will the exact same thing. When seeing the production again, just as in video game, you are presented with new perspectives as you now know what you are already saw and created and now you crave more. Almost entirely new game or play is seen with every walkthrough since you can never see every action that is happening at the same time.

In this way, Sleep No More is incredibly reminiscent of pretty much every video game, whether you are the player or the character. You are thrown into this entirely new environment where you have to figure what you are doing and what it is you have to do. Where do I go, what is important to the quest and what is just a fun little side quest. The world of Sleep No More also changes up on you, and with new characters that really spice things up since it takes what you know about Macbeth and throws it out window.

All in all, Sleep No More offers up a new and refreshing take on media and entertainment as it tries to have the player, or in the case of this being reality, you the human embark on your adventure piecing together all the little hints and easter eggs to construct what exactly is going in this creepy and dark world. With this, you the human, is able to draw your own conclusions about what is that happens that you do not see the play that Shakespeare presents, but instead you see the play that you see, that is a direct result of your actions because once you pass through the "hell gate," you don't know what you are going to see (2.3.2).
Agnes Naismith
In the interactive adaptation of Macbeth, Sleep No More, the Paisley Witch Trials play a key role. These historical events, unlike Shakespeare's fictional play, were the haunting of eleven year old Christian Shaw. Shaw, an anxious little girl who had seven of her townspeople tried and killed for being witches, brought about a curse on the town of Green Gallows with her hysterical convictions. One of the victims of her accusations was the witch Agnes Naismith. The tradition of witchcraft in Scotland explored in Macbeth and the endurance of the dark arts are demonstrated throughout, and especially in a particular one-on-one experience within, Sleep No More.
The character of Agnes Naismith in the play is a smartly dressed woman in her mid to late twenties. Agnes Naismith was the most vocal of the witches in the trail that ended her life. Her character within the play is just as bold. She reads damning letters scattered throughout her town. The last place she enters is the office of the Mac Crinain & Reid Private Detective Agency, named after other persons in her trial, where she scans the last document left on the desk and her fate is sealed. She, in the tradition of witches, takes a guest of the Sleep No More experience and ensures the survival of her coven. She choose me during my visit.
I was lead into a dark and claustrophobic corridor. She removed my mask, told me stories of materialistic little girls, and had me sign a document. She asked, “Do you like to do favors for strangers in the dark?” I nodded and she passed the document through flames. It erased my name and left only the words “I sign myself over to her.” I unwittingly signed away my life to the cauldron. The same witch who supposedly set loose demons on Christian Shaw was adopting sisters. Agnes Naismith cursed her town at the Green Gallows, and now spends her time at Sleep No More inducted witches into her coven for the injustices done to her. Her coven may even be of the same denomination as the witches of Macbeth.
It would stand to reason that all Scottish witches believe that "fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I.i.11). Agnes Naismith did after all have me sign a contract under dubious pretenses and for shadowy reasons. These witches are all secretive about their motives. They rely solely on the willingness of their members to unquestioningly act. The witches of Macbeth never protest their prophecies or misdeeds, as I never debated any of the things Agnes asked me to do. They follow an unspoken bond of sisterhood. They share a love of things creepy, dangerous, or foul. They are women who meet in “thunder, lightning, or in rain” and “hover through the fog and filthy air” (I.i.2-12). Agnes and the witches thrive in the cold murk, and relish in the havoc they inspire in changeable characters such as Macbeth and Christian Shaw. They maintain the coven above all else. They indulge their dark and other-worldly desire for chaos. The coven is deeply anchored in a magical second world. Sleep no More is itself an heterotopia, but the band of witches within them is an even more estranged existence. They follow different rules, and teach different lessons than teachers of humanity. The witches are a connection to the afterlife, the underworld, and every spirit world transcending any particular religion. They follow their witches brew and exist beyond earthly limitations. Macbeth’s witches and Agnes offer the audience a window into their world, the world of their dark sisterhood.
Agnes Naismith’s one-on-one invites a member of the audience into the secrecy of a coven. They become women who do favors for superiors in the dark. They sign themselves away to the powers greater than them the way the Weird Sisters are indebted to Hecate. The witches of Scotland are banded together and united in fostering trouble. Agnes Naismith, in this adaptation, takes an anonymous witness and immerses them in the attractive conspiracy of witchcraft.