Punchdrunk is a British theatre company, formed in 2000, by Artistic Director Felix Barrett MBE. Since its inception, Punchdrunk has pioneered a form of "immersive" theatre in which the audience is free to choose what to watch and where to go. This format is related to "promenade theatre". Artistic director Felix Barrett prefers the term "site-sympathetic" when describing their work.
Punchdrunk was founded by Felix Barrett, who continues to be the company’s Artistic Director and works closely with the company’s creative team. Punchdrunk’s Executive Director is Rebecca Dawson and Peter Higgin is Director of Enrichment and Punchdrunk Village. Company members include Associate Director and Choreographer Maxine Doyle, Creative Producer Colin Nightingale, Creative Director Stephen Dobbie, Senior Designer Livi Vaughan.
The company is a National Portfolio Organisation with Arts Council England.
In 2015, Felix Barrett founded a new production company called Punchdrunk International. Punchdrunk International produces a number of Punchdrunk’s main projects overseas, including Sleep No More in Shanghai.
Punchdrunk International has also collaborated with selected organisations, including a longer term creative relationship with Samsung North America, formed after a project with Rihanna. These are led by Felix Barrett and the Punchdrunk International creative team.
In 2008, Punchdrunk founded a new branch of the company focussed on outreach to communities and schools called Punchdrunk Enrichment. Punchdrunk Enrichment projects are mostly aimed at children and young people but they are created out of the same ethos as Punchdrunk’s main projects, with a similar ambition in terms of form, scale and design.
Peter Higgin, Punchdrunk’s Director of Enrichment, described these projects as “transformative experiences with a wider educational focus and the trademark design and imagination that you’d get in bigger Punchdrunk shows.”
Projects from Punchdrunk Enrichment have included:
Under the Eiderdown (2009), a theatrical experience in which school pupils are invited to visit a magical bric-a-brac shop, encouraging them to show an interest in creative writing.
The Lost Lending Library (2013), an immersive experience for primary schools in which a librarian shares her love of books.
Against Captain's Orders: A Journey into the Uncharted (2015), an immersive exhibition for children at the National Maritime Museum in London.
In a typical Punchdrunk production, audience members are free to roam the performance site, which can be as large as a five-story industrial warehouse. They can either follow the performers and themes (there are usually multiple threads at any instant), or simply explore the world of the performance, treating the production as a large art installation.
Former Secretary of State for Culture James Purnell cited Punchdrunk as an example of "access and excellence" in modern British theatre.
Woyzeck (2000), Punchdrunk’s first adaptation of the play by Georg Buchner. This production can be seen as something of a prototype for what the company’s work would eventually look like. The action was set in an abandoned army barracks in Exeter and the audience wore masks as they explored the story for themselves.
The Cherry Orchard (2000), based on the play by Anton Chekhov
The Moonslave (2000), an experience that saw single audience members taken to an old mansion house by a masked chauffeur, following candlelit paths through a dense forest where the story unraveled.
The House of Oedipus (2000), an adaptation of Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles, staged in the garden of Poltimore House, Devon.
Jonny Formidable: Mystery at the Pink Flamingo (2001), an interactive show that invited an audience into the world of Jonny Formidable, a three-dimensional noir flickbook set to a jazz soundtrack.citation needed
Midsummer Night's Dream (2002), an interactive, promenade reworking of the Shakespeare classic set in a private house and garden.
Chair (2002), an adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs, performed in the Old Seager Distillery in Deptford.
The Tempest (2003), an adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, again performed at the Old Seagar Distillery, using its five floors to create a dark vision of Prospero's island.
Sleep No More (2003); see below for the 2009 and 2011 reinventions. An adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth in the style of a Hitchcock thriller, using reworked music from the soundtrack of classic Hitchcock films. Staged at the Beaufoy Building in London, an old Victorian school.
Woyzeck (2004), an adaptation of the play by Georg Buchner. Performed at the Big Chill Music Festival.
Marat/Sade (2005), an adaptation of the play by Peter Weiss. Performed at the 2005 Big Chill Music Festival.
The Firebird Ball (2005), inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird. Staged at Offley Works, a disused factory in South London. The Firebird Ball ran for six weeks and received The Observer Review of the Year award for Best Out-of-Theatre Experience.
The Yellow Wallpaper (2005), a co-production with Battersea Arts Centre for Octoberfest 2005.
Faust (10 October 2006 until 31 March 2007), an adaptation of Goethe's Faust Part One, relocated to a small town in the 1950s Midwest. Staged across 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2) of a derelict 5-storey archive building at 21 Wapping Lane in the London neighbourhood of Wapping. The production, which was presented by Punchdrunk and the National Theatre, earned the company a nomination for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer and won the 2006 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Designer.
The Masque Of The Red Death (2007 play) (2007–8), a co-production with Battersea Arts Centre. An adaptation of stories by Edgar Allan Poe including "The Masque of the Red Death". Performed at the BAC from 5 October 2007 until 12 April 2008. While each performance culminated in a ball scene, Friday and Saturday night performances were followed by Red Death Lates, an elaborate after-party with interactive performance, celebrity guests, live bands and cabaret.
The Bunker (2008), presented by Punchdrunk and Aldeburgh Music as part of an experimental music festival called Faster Than Sound at Bentwaters Air Base. The production ran for one night only and included a performance by Seaming To and Semay Wu.
Tunnel 228 (2009), a collaboration with the Old Vic theatre, in the abandoned tunnels beneath London's Waterloo station. The production showcased the work of 23 artists working in the unclassifiable territory between theatre and contemporary art.
Sleep No More, a 2009 reinvention in Boston of the 2003 London production. An adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Produced in association with the American Repertory Theatre at the Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts. It won the Elliot Norton Theatre Award for Best Theatrical Experience 2010.
It Felt Like A Kiss (2009). Commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and produced in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and musician Damon Albarn at a deserted office block in Spinningfields, Manchester. It depicted "America's rise to power in the golden age of pop, and the nightmare that came back to haunt us all." The production won the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Special Entertainment.
The Duchess of Malfi (2010), an operatic adaptation of the play by John Webster with a score by Torsten Rasch. Produced in collaboration with English National Opera and performed in a vast, decommissioned pharmaceutical headquarters at London's Great Eastern Quay.
Sleep No More a 2011 reinvention in New York of the 2003 London production (also revived in Boston in 2009). Performed in disused warehouses at 530 W 27th Street in Manhattan, which was transformed into a faded hotel. Sleep No More won a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and a Special Citation For Design And Choreography at the Obie Awards.
The Séance (2011), a co-production with MIT Media Lab, as part of NESTA’s pilot Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, funded by NESTA, ACE and AHRC. Audience members from Sleep No More were teamed with online counterparts to solve a mystery.
The Crash of the Elysium, commissioned by Manchester International Festival, BBC, London 2012 Festival and Salford City Council. A 2011 one-hour show for children aged between 6 and 12, made in collaboration with the television series Doctor Who.
Black Diamond a 2011 a travelling production that took place across 7 venues in East London between 3 July and 1 September to launch Stella Artois Black.
And Darkness Descended... a 2011 site-specific performance that took place in the tunnels beneath Waterloo station to launch the PlayStation game Resistance 3.
The Borough (2013) – an immersive theatrical experience inspired by George Crabbe’s poem The Borough and Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. Presented by Punchdrunk and Aldeburgh Festival.
The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable (2013), an adaptation of Woyzeck set in a sixties film studio, performed in a disused postal sorting office in Paddington, London. Presented by Punchdrunk and the National Theatre.
Against Captain's Orders: A Journey into the Uncharted (2015), an immersive exhibition for children at the National Maritime Museum in London.
Machon, Josephine. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. London: Palgrave (2013).
White, Gareth. "On Immersive Theatre". Theatre Research International 37.3 (2012): 221-35.
Machon, Josephine. (Syn)aesthetics: Redefining Visceral Performance. London: Palgrave (2009).
Oddey, Alison and Christine White (eds.). Modes of Spectating. Bristol: Intellect (2009).
