Macbeth Doth Murder Sleep!

All Images Via The NYT Review

Last night I met with friends to experience the show Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea. After walking so far west in Manhattan that we actually began to think that the show might take place in New Jersey, we arrived at a large old "hotel," which holds inside the most elaborate set design of any show I have ever seen-ever.

From the hotel "guest" emails that begin to arrive a few days before you "check in," to the actual entrance process to the hotel itself, you feel like you might actually be checking in to a crazy hotel somewhere, which makes the show experience even more real. The hallways are so dark as you enter that you are forced to merely shuffle after the person in front of you in order to arrive at your first stop--the hotel lounge/bar.

My friends and I drank a St. Germaine cocktail, listened to the jazz band, and sat at the 1930s inspired speakeasy bar until those guests holding the "ace of hearts" cards were called. From here, we were given a mask to obscure our faces and render us all anonymous, told not to speak at all in the hotel, herded into an elevator, told our experience would be better if it was individual, and...we were off!

I am not really sure how to describe Sleep No More except to say that you absolutely must go! While the connections to the text are loose, to say the least, the murder mystery/haunted house/interactive theater/experience in voyeurism is too fascinating not to see. You can interact with the set and the characters on multiple levels, while also pulling back and watching the action if you so desire. There are times when you find yourself alone and it can be quite creepy.While there are also times that you might join the running throngs of the audience as you chase after characters to see where they are going and what they are doing. Pursuing characters is a feat in and of itself, as I know for me, at one point I was following the nurse and she leapt in between the slimly positioned bars of a gate to "Birnim Wood" and, by the time I got through the gate, she had disappeared into the forest.

My friends and I couldn't stop talking about this and I completely recommend it--even in spite of the cost. Go! One word of advice, however, don't (as I did) step into a corner store to buy a water bottle afterwards while carrying the required mask from the show, as they will definitely think you are about to rob them. I have never made someone so nervous in my entire life. Oops!