It was a dark and stormy night, well not really it was clear, and cool as we stood in line to check into the McKittrick Hotel. Eager and ready to submit to whatever lay beyond the giant black double doors. We were greeted by the staff who made sure we had already purchased tickets and stamped our hands if we were planning to drink at the bar. A absentminded formality at best, we inched closer and my heart already beating as if I had downed 4 cups of coffee jumped up a beat or two.............we were next.
We passed into a dark hallway and stopped briefly at coat check, you are not allowed to have anything but your wits when in residence at the hotel. A stones throw away two lovely ladies checked us in and handed us each a playing card. We stumbled upstairs and into a cacophony of music & maze. There was NO light and we felt our way through the first of many labyrinths. Emerging into a small sitting room and just beyond that through a slight curtain the noise and smoke of a 1930's bar, I half expected Sally Bowles to appear and sing a number swaddled in her "best" fur.
I made a quick stop into the ladies because the sensory shock and awe took a toll on my nerves. I collected myself in the safety of my stall, repeating over and over that I would be fine, it's a show, you will be safe, Ned promised, or did he I couldn't remember.
The "French" host was making periodic announcements as we sipped our gin sours, "Would guests with card numbers Ace through 4 please follow Andre into the next room." We all had 6's or 7's on our cards and even when they called for the sixes we hesitated to be separated so quickly. So we waited for our sevens to be called and we all made our way into the mask room. A beautiful Afro-Brit was waiting for us, "Darlings how lovely you all are, do come in and take a mask, quickly loves, come closer I won't bite, much anyway. Darlings hurry now mustn't keep Charles waiting." We all crammed into this small room put on our masks and once she was happy with our state she laid down the law.
"Darlings you mustn't speak, not a word, not to each other or use your silly cell phones, also no pictures darlings. Please this is all we ask, if you need assistance there are stewards on each floor wearing black masks to help you. Don't be afraid darlings you will have a wonderful stay and if you get tired please do come back down and have a drink with me, I get awfully lonely." She then turned and knocked on the giant door and muttered something there was a brief pause and the door slide open to reveal an elevator. We all herded in like cattle. The four of us were at what was now the front of the car and "Charles" spoke, “Welcome to the McKittrick Hotel. You all look lovely, here at the hotel anonymity is of the utmost importance so do keep your masks on at all times.” He pressed the 5th floor button and we began to ascend. His witty banter just became back ground to the thumping in my chest. I thought dear god don't have an asthma attack now. The elevator door opened and Charles said, "Fortune Favors the Bold," and the first passenger exited the car. Then in a flash Charles closed the door and we all chuckled that to be first meant to be alone. We went down to the 4th floor and as we exited Charles said, "Enjoy, explore and be brave." We filed out and like a pack followed each other into the first dead end. This whole experience was a great study in human behavior how as a species we are inclined to either stay together for safety or go on our own ways.
That was the last time the four of us were together, we lost each other almost instantly and that my gentle reader is the point. I noticed couples staying together, holding hands even, bore snore. Cowards I say! You are wearing a mask and are surrounded with a maze of infinite possibilities have your OWN journey, find your OWN way. Instinctively, the four of us are those people and in the end were so much better for it.
It took awhile to find my way onto other floors, but once I did at every turn is something more shocking and amazing. They encourage curiosity, you may pick things up and look through papers and books etc. If you cross a line or stumble somewhere forbidden there is a steward there to wag a finger, no-no, or stop you from entering. I got told no a lot. My inner Velma (a’la Scooby Doo) was in overdrive, I hadn't felt this rush of adventure since exploring the catacombs just outside Paris. Only this time I was alone and didn't have my Le Dollar flashlight.
You encounter the players/dancers as random as they encounter you. Some people chose to latch onto characters and follow them through out the night. The "Mackers" as I called them were the most annoying. Macbeth had a posse that would humble even the biggest egocentric celebutante. I would watch those scenes with the mob for a bit but then would go off in the opposite direction surely to see or find something no one else would. It paid off in spades even thought I had been give the 6 of clubs as my ticket.
The exploring on your own was full of liberation, especially when you find yourself facing a dark and narrow hallway. You think, do I dare, what could be down there? That's when Charles' voice would ring back to me, "Fortune Favors the Bold," and to my surprise I would go down the rabbit hole. Some of them rewarding, some of them curious or some merely dead ends. Yet every time I felt braver, smarter, piecing clues together and discovering bits of story gleaned from Macbeth or the classic Hitchcock thriller Rebecca which I recommend watching and reviewing to help you figure out who is who.
The performers themselves do not speak. They dance, fight, make love, murder, rape, lip-sync, if they do speak it's guttural or reactionary sounds. Brief moments of "conversation" are not said for you to hear or even understand if you are not close enough. However, there are one on ones. A performer may take you by the hand lead you into another room & close the door. They might dance with you or tell you personally a bit of story or verse or just plan scare the bejesus out of you. One of my friends witness a performer take someone into an asylum room slam the door and then a light appeared beneath it. What happened? No one knows but that audience member. Yet the effect rippled through everyone watching.
The watching is in itself something to observe, which seems redundant but you are part of the show. We all look the "same" the mask becomes the fourth wall. It frees you and the performers, and when you step back from yourself, and see the others this macabre Greek wordless chorus is profoundly chilling in an Eyes Wide Shut way. My stomach began to rumble with more nerves and I luckily found respite in a water closet on the asylum floor. I took off my mask and splashed my face with cool water. Took a moment to process all that was happening, how I felt, how this was affecting me. In true 2011 fashion I updated my facebook status quite shocked that I could get a single so deep within this alternate matrix. "They are gonna have to drag me outta here. I never want to leave." I wrote & sent into the interweb. It's true I could have stayed for 8 hours, 10, 12....I feel like I just scraped the surface of a theatrical animal that has me in its spell.
So much of my life I've lived in fear, so much lost over it, but something happened to me last night. Something intense as I stumbled in the dark surrounded by the unknown; fortune really does favor the bold. I will never be timid and feeble again after last night. Thank you company members of Punchdrunk for blowing my mind and changing my idea of what can be told without words. What theatre can & should be is a shared experience and that's just want happened, at the stroke of 2a.m. the final scene had played which I was lucky enough to be dead front & center for...the stewards masterfully herded us all back to the '30s bar where the band and singer were rocking it speakeasy style. I turned on my phone and sent a txt to the gang, "I'm in the bar over behind the piano." I had found a little nook with some seats and then seconds after I hit send there was Ned, then Meredith and finally Richard. We all just looked at each other before starting the recant of our journeys to say a collective. Wow.
At first it was loud and packed and getting to the bar was impossible but the beautiful Afro-Brit appeared with drinks, "Darlings, would you care for a refreshment?" We hungrily handed her our money and sipped the sweet nectar as we began piecing our stories together. Filling in blanks for some and revealing new information to others. As the crowd thinned we moved to a more comfortable table and sat down with the two girls already resting there....as we regaled ourselves with our experiences one of the girls said, "What was the scariest thing you saw," which launched the six of us into the deepest conversation about the event. The blond had a one on one that gave me goose bumps and Ned was able to help her understand what the nurse had tried to tell her in relation to the story. Magic, all of it shear and utter magic to share with strangers and "help" each other see the big picture which is never, ever the same.
So go, beg, borrow, steal; if you are up for a night “out of the box”, an evening of mental surrender & self discovery you do not want to miss this romp back in time. My one suggestion to the geniuses at Punchdrunk is you should ask everyone before entering to name 4 characters from Macbeth; if they can't refund their money. This is not a place to have a bachelorette party or take your buddies for an evening out. The buffoonery from some was a bit much and their antics were disrespectful to the performers and to the other members of the audience. It was the same shameful chicanery that tourist reveal themselves before her majesties royal guard trying to get them to flinch. Simpletons let me inform you that these creatures are of a higher ilk. You will not break them from their duties at the hotel, they are professionals there to serve and reveal layers you can't find on the Jersey Shore so be gone or behave.
