Kate Mulley

This past weekend I went to Boston to watch the Head of the Charles and catch up with old friends. I also happened to see the US premiere of Punchdrunk, the site-specific movement-based company that has caught the UK by storm.

When I arrived in London for my Masters three (!!) years ago, one of the productions we were told to see was Punchdrunk’s Faust. I had no friends in London at this point and had booked my ticket on a day that none of my coursemates had, so I headed out to an old warehouse in Wapping with my comfortable walking shoes and my warm coat, as I was instructed. The show was a complete revelation to me. I felt like a child discovering things at my own pace and enjoyed the spectacle that I was exposed to. Our class even had a session with Felix Barrett, the artistic director (who at the time was 26, which I didn’t think was young back then, now that it’s a week before my 26 year old birthday, I’ve realized it is) who spent two hours with us talking about the process, what they hoped to bring to the audience and how what we saw related to the story of Faust, but he also wanted to know what we thought, how we experienced it, what we liked and didn’t like. About a year later, Punchdrunk saved the Battersea Arts Centre from certain doom when it staged The Masque of the Red Death there and it became the must-see show of South London. When I saw Masque I was less blown away, but still impressed by the level of detail, the specificity of the choreography, the props and design and the way that audiences could follow their own interests. But I also felt as if I had figured out how to manipulate the show for my own benefit. Within 10 minutes I procured a free glass of wine and was quite pleased with myself. Once I got over my self-satisfaction, however, I delved into the production and the image I most remember is seeing a man carry what appeared to be a beating heart. Creepy, but awesome.

So when I read somewhere that Punchdrunk was coming to the American Repertory Theatre with their show Sleep No More, I jumped to get tickets. I brought along one game high school classmate and my theatrically-adventurous parents and we headed to the Old Lincoln School last night for the show. I won’t write much about it because I worry about giving things away with these shows. So much of the appeal is the act of discovery. My two pieces of advice to my theatre companions were for the four of us to to go our separate ways and also to follow actors when the opportunity presented itself. What I like the most about Punchdrunk’s work is that it doesn’t dumb itself down for the audience. You arrive with very little information and you leave with lots of details and movements to piece together. One of the best experiences is talking about what you have seen and what your theatre companions have seen and realizing what you missed, but also comprehending more of the story. After last night’s show, but before we got our coats from coat check, there was a fire drill (probably from too many fog machines). So we walked down to the fire meeting point and talked about the things that we had all seen and the things that only we had seen. My father had experienced a “one on one”, as I believe Felix referred to them three years ago, and was just astonished by it. We kept talking about the show until we got back into the building and throughout the car ride home. My father and my friend have decided they want to go back to try to see all the things they missed.

If any of you are in or near the Boston area between now and January 3rd, I highly recommend this show. It will completely change the way you view theatre and will challenge you as an audience member in ways that I promise you will enjoy. Seriously.

Last week I made it to two Broadway shows: Superior Donuts, the new play by Tracy Letts and the Donmar Warehouse production of Hamlet. Which means in two nights in a row I saw Michael McKean, Spinal Tap god, and Jude Law. It doesn’t seem fair to Letts’ play that I saw Hamlet the following night. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like if the order had been reversed.

Superior Donuts is an amusing and well-acted play that doesn’t match the precedent that August: Osage County set. It’s at times laugh out loud funny (though I can’t say I remember any of the jokes), but also painfully predictable. Sometimes I think that I’m at a disadvantage when I’m watching plays because I overanalyze the crafting of the play and try to guess what the playwright is about to do. And I’m most impressed is when I’m wrong, when the final outcome is not one of the endings I’ve listed in my head.

Hamlet‘s quite another story. I was really impressed with almost all aspects of the production. I had never seen the play performed before and just to see the action unfold (and being a few years older than I was when I first read it) made the play click for me. A lot of that comes from directorial and acting choices, of course, but the text remains clear and exceptionally crafted. There’s a possibility that I will be working as a freelance dramaturg on an upcoming London production of Hamlet, so having seen it makes that more exciting to me. I came up with a few ideas that I like and hope that it’ll work out.

Last night I was invited to a reading of a play called Little Rock. It’s an upcoming show by a company called Rebel Theater about the Little Rock Nine. It was a great reading with a terrific cast and pretty stunning direction. The company is very big on both revolutionizing American theater and making a difference in American schools. And the artistic director (who is the playwright and the director of Little Rock) is so infectiously positive that he made me want to do all the artistic and educational things I’ve been talking about for years. Some day… Before I’m too cynical.