Have you ever seen nature inside out? When the sun stands at midday and it's as if the world was going up in flames?
Step into the world of Temple Pictures where the Hollywood studio system meets a forgotten hinterland filled with dreamers who exist at the fringes of the movie industry. Here, celluloid fantasy clings to desperate realism and certainty dissolves into a hallucinatory world.
Inspired by Buchner's fractured masterpiece Woyzeck, this theatrical journey follows its protagonists along the precipice between illusion and reality.
You would be forgiven for thinking wtf does that mean when you read the above blurb for immersive theatre company Punchdrunk's latest spectacle - The Drowned Man. To be honest you would be forgiven for thinking wtf when you get to the end of the entire evening, having absolutely no idea what you just witnessed. But lord this is good.
Call me cynical but normally I'm a little sceptical of people who tell me how much they 'loved' some weird modern arty theatrical performance because I always slightly think they're worried their cool-points will plummet if they say they didn't like it and had no idea what was going on. This time, though, I was intrigued.
For those who don't know, a little summary. Firstly, you all have to put on Venetian-style white masks so that suddenly you become completely anonymous and it's almost impossible to recognise your friends or they you. Once inside, the whole building becomes the dark (quite literally) world of Temple Pictures and its surrounding grounds. It is absolutely vast.
Floor after floor with different sets, secret passageways, characters' private rooms where you can rummage about their papers and diaries etc, while all the time actors run amongst you playing out scenes. One moment you could be watching a romantic moment between two lovers, before you find yourself in a seedy bar with drunken cowboys threatening each other.
How on earth do you even begin to tackle such a huge project. The answer is of course completely up to you. Some choose to follow an individual character who will, inevitably, introduce you to other people, other floors, other sets as they move around the building. Others follow friends. Some people stick to just a couple of floors and never even find the other sets. Personally I went off on my own. Being the nosey person I am, I went off looking for secret passageways, details written in letters inside characters' dressing rooms, watching random scenes as I came across them. It's a voyeur's dream and I have to say it concerned me a little how easily I slipped into this role...
Sadly I didn't come across many secret passageways... clearly I'm not practiced enough at snooping... but I know some people found themselves whisked away by strange actors desperate to make them famous or being chatted up by a discerning young gentleman...
If you keep wondering around you will eventually discover the bar... completely in the 1940s Hollywood style, you get swept up in the glitz and glamour. It is also the only place in the entire building where you can take off your masks and are allowed to talk to people. Having lost my friends I stumbled across the bar, got myself a glass of wine and found myself getting into deep discussion with a completely random man I'd never met before. There's something so brilliant about that. Like when you're a bit tipsy and get into some weird conversation with a strange person but with all the excitement of the setting and again surrounded by actors carrying on in character.
The experience is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone but I would give a little advice:
- Definitely read the brief outline of the play that they hand out in the queue.
- Don't get too het up with working out the story and what each scene is trying to do because inevitably you will come out with no idea what just happened.
- For this reason, split up with your friends and then afterwards go for a drink and share your experiences - you can start to then piece together the story a bit more for yourself (or just get really jealous that your friend found a secret passageway through a fridge or trapdoor or some other awesomeness.
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