Photo Source: Yaniv Schulman
Set in a converted warehouse in Chelsea, this unique theatrical experience sends theatergoers on a mysterious journey through five floors of intricately designed rooms, hallways, and open spaces as silent actors play out scenes suggested by Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and Alfred Hitchcock films. The title, a quote from the Scottish play, is ironic, as the show is more like a dream than any other I've encountered. Audience members are required to wear white, long-beaked Venetian masks evocative of a carnival set in hell and may wander about the seemingly endless corridors at their own pace, so each voyeur—I mean attendee—will have a different dream, hallucination, whatever you want to call it. Apart from the vague connection to the Bard's spookiest work, the vignettes are like fragments you try to catch hold of but can never quite piece together. One minute you're in a ballroom watching the Macbeths entertaining a royal crowd and the next you're trying to find your way through a mazelike forest.
My own sojourn began by observing a menacing Mrs. Danvers–like housekeeper dancing seductively over a sleeping Thane of Cawdor (the acrobatic and inventive choreography is by Maxine Doyle, who co-directs with Felix Barrett). After standing on the edges of a court party while weirdly distorted 1940s music played (wonderfully creepy sound design by Stephen Dobbie) and Banquo's ghost hovered on an upper level, I found myself in the dining room of a scary rural English hotel—you know, the kind where all the suspects are called into the parlor after the body has been found. The housekeeper was preparing a poisoned drink and about to offer it to a very pregnant guest—perhaps Lady Macduff—and several other guests were performing a gravity-defying pas de trois in and around a series of phone booths.
From there, the world of Hitchcock totally took over from that of Shakespeare as I ventured into a miniature graveyard, a Victorian street of shops and rooming houses, and a shadowy mental institution. As I proceeded from room to room, I imagined how exciting it would be to apply this technique to "Hamlet," "Three Sisters," or any number of classics.
Each of the environments was realized in painstaking detail by Barrett, Livi Vaughan, and Beatrice Minns and lit with eerie precision by Barrett, Euan Maybank, and Austin R. Smith. After more than three hours, when we were shooed out by black-masked ushers, I was sure I hadn't seen everything and was ready for more.
Because the actors alternate in a confusing myriad of roles, it's impossible for me to single any of them out. Suffice it to say that the cast of 20-plus collectively creates a hypnotically fascinating nightmare from which you won't want to wake up.
Presented by Emursive (Randy Weiner, Arthur Karpati, Jonathan Hochwald), in association with Rebecca Gold Productions and Douglas G. Smith, at the McKittrick Hotel, 530 W. 27th St., NYC. April 13–Sept. 5. Mon.–Sat., 7, 7:20, 7:40, and 8 p.m.; Fri. and Sat., additional entrance times at 11, 11:20, 11:40, and 11:59 p.m. (212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, or www.theatermania.com.