The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable: Punchdrunk at Temple Studios

I have been the only person following this suited man for the last minute or so. There is a long dark corridor, punctuated with spotlights which illuminate and hide him as he moves and I hurriedly walk behind him. He stops at a doorway, turns and inspects me, before taking my hand, pulling me into a dark room and locking the door behind us. He moves over to the light in the corner and turns it off.
I stand in the middle of this small room, surrounded by darkness, breath quickening as I wonder what might happen next. He takes out a torch and shines it into my eyes.
“Have you ever danced with a stranger in dark?” he asks. I shake my head – we are not allowed to speak. He switches off the torch and once again I am plunged into darkness. He takes my hand and puts it on his shoulder, the other on his waist. I feel him moving and we dance. I step on his toes, he doesn't flinch.
Suddenly, someone else enters the room, we hear them. He holds me close and I grip tightly. I still cannot see a thing. Then he moves me, and places my hands on someone elses. They are limp, they don't feel right, so I recoil. He tries again, he puts my hands onto someone elses chest. He is tall, I feel a woolly jumper. Once again I am dancing in the dark. Then he removes my mask and a light comes on. I am looking into the face of a total stranger. The light goes out and the door opens. The moment is over.

I am back in the warehouse that they call Temple Studios, the four floor elaborate set of Punchdrunk's new show The Drowned Man. I can go wherever I like, explore every room. There is a street, with a bar and shops, a fountain and benches. There are film sets of kitchens and locker rooms, there are bedrooms and dressing rooms and dark corners with shrines, all very dimly lit. As you wonder around, you come across the performers, the only ones without masks, they dance, they speak, they argue, they have sex, then when they are done, they disappear in different directions and you alone decide who you want to follow.

The concept of this immersive theatre experience is slickly executed, from the moment you step off the lift, you are in a different world, all on your own. The lighting is eerie and atmospheric, the music is deafening and grand, you are, quite simply, transported.

There are certainly moments of discomfort, feeling lost, disoriented, and the smell of one of the rooms became so overbearing for me that I had to escape as quickly as possible. In particular I loved the forest and the dressing table surrounded by mirrors.

Because of the nature of the idea, you can never see everything that is happening, you will follow some characters and miss others, you catch snippets of story but not all. I revelled in this to begin with, there is something very freeing about just going with your gut and feeling able to wander wherever you like in a safe space. Everywhere I looked there was a perfect image and I just wanted to have a camera with me and take pictures the whole way around.

For me, however, after an hour and a half or so of this, I began to tire of it a little. Because of the bitty nature of the storyline, I found that I was not invested enough in any of the characters to really want to know how it turned out at the end. I found that the full cast finale was a little incongruous with the feel of the rest of the experience, and also I felt that nothing could have topped the intensity of that moment in the darkened room.

Unfortunately, the feeling of boredom that overtook me towards the end seems to have cast a bit of a shadow over the whole evening for me. I was glad that I had obtained a half price ticket, I was glad to have experienced the show, but I am not sure that I would attend their next show. I might recommend it to people, but at the price of £39.50 per head, it would be rare. However I can appreciate that the cost and effort of pulling off such a high value production such as this means that it has to be expensive.

I would say that if you are interested in film, dance and not a usual theatre goer, this is probably the show for you. For me personally, I like a storyline that allows me to become invested in the characters, to care about what happens to them and my journey on this occasion did not allow me that privilege. That is not to say, however, that others who took a different path might not have had just that. Whatever you do, if you do go, heed their advice and go it alone.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 

The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable runs until 30^th December, ticket prices vary from £19.50 to £85.00.

King Lear: Belarus Free Theatre at The Globe Theatre

Simply incredible. Rarely a show will have the full package of top notch acting, directing, creative ideas, atmosphere and soul, this production had it all, to the point where it is quite difficult to break it down and even begin to dissect why it blew me away.

I didn't know the storyline of King Lear, which raised a few eyebrows from the stewards who ushered me to my front row gallery seat which I had managed to get for free yesterday thanks to Spotlight. Surprised, because this show was performed in Belarusian and so I was unlikely to understand any of it at all. But the language barrier was no hindrance to my understanding of the play at all. There was a screen to the side of the stage which outlined the main plot summary of each scene and aside from that, it was surprisingly easy to follow. The physicality of performance meant that it was visually clear what was happening, but also the tone of voice and facial expressions gave all of the emotion that an audience member needed, it almost made me feel like I should always go to see theatre in different languages. Obviously, Shakespeare is renowned for his words, the poetic language, rhythms and puns and all of that would have been lost on me on this occasion, however, from my understanding, the translation into Belarusian kept the poetic nature of the text and it always felt melodic and lyrical.

One of the wonderful additions in this performance was the live music on stage, a piano, accordion and saxophone, and, of course, the power of singing which can be so electric when effectively used in a performance. When the daughters of King Lear initially declared their love for their father, they sang with a bluesy feel, as if in a jazz club, it made it seem modern and edgy, with slightly recognisable tunes but unknown words. However later, they used authentic Belarusian folk singing which was at times haunting and sent chills down my spine. It was similar to the choral singing that I saw in Teatr Zar's Essays On Suicide in Edinburgh in 2012 which was one of my favourite productions to date, the sound of the Eastern European language and the sound of that haunting singing just strikes me to my core. It is beautiful and wholly effective.

One of the musicians was the court's Fool, played by Chris Bone, who played the piano, saxophone and did some generally wonderful clowning around. I am not usually a fan of slapstick clowning but for some reason, in this, the fact that he was so English was at odds with the other cast members and the clowning seemed so authentically French that it just worked. He was totally engaging to watch. The other English speaking member of the cast was Michal Keyamo the King of France and the Announcer who I just loved. She had such a vibrant energy and looked like she was enjoying the performance as much as the audience enjoyed watching her.

However, to single these two out is almost unfair, because every single actor in this piece was perfect in their part. They were committed, they were in the moment, I believed every word that they said and act that they did, despite the minimal stage and lack of setting, they didn't need it, they were just there and I was transported to their world with them. The daughters looked crazy and edgy and beautiful, they were strong sexy women who were out to get what they wanted and totally rocked those fur coats and heels. Even Cordelia, the 'less evil' of the sisters, was out there and believable as a wild child. The side storyline of Edgar and Edmund slightly confused me at first as it felt like a completely separate story, but I came to love when Edgar was on stage. Aside from wondering if he had covered himself in real shit, when he played Poor Tom I was spellbound by his extravagant and camp performance.

The craziness of the world that they created meant that when King Lear descended into craziness himself it was believable and not contrived in the slightest, which I imagine could be a trap with this play. Aleh Sidorchyk was a radical and fairly young king, young at least to be giving his kingdom up, and his mourning of Cordelia was incredibly moving and allowed him to show so many changes in his character over the course of the play.

There was also some very clever directorial choices, the waltzes that were put in were perfect, always at moments where the characters were 'dancing around' a subject with the words and with their feet too. Also, the storm and the war, represented by the moving tarpaulin sheets, very effective, again with such minimal set.

This was a true example of how a big budget is not needed to make moving and educational theatre. This was Shakespeare in a modern world and is, I am going to say it, the best Shakespeare production that I have seen to date.

Definitely ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

King Lear is on at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London, for only two more performances: Friday 27^th September 2013 at 7.30pm and Saturday 28^th September 2013 at 2.00pm.