The Drowned Man

Overview

Set within the fictional "Temple Pictures", The Drowned Man was Punchdrunk's largest theatre installation, covering 200,000 sq ft., catering for up to 600 audience members per show with a cast of nearly 40. The production falls within several genres of theatre, including so-called site-specific theatre, promenade theatre, interactive theatre or immersive theatre. The audience members, who are free to roam around the sets at will, wear white masks to distinguish themselves from the cast, and the narrative is communicated through a series of overlapping scenes blending the mediums of interpretive dance, contemporary dance and traditional acting. The show opened June 2013 and tickets run until 6 July 2014.

Temple Pictures

Temple Pictures is the name of the fictional Hollywood film studio which forms the setting and backdrop of the production. It is physically located at 31 London Street, London, next to Paddington Station, occupying 4 floors of the building that was previously the Royal Mail sorting office. It is described within the fiction as the British outpost of major Hollywood studio Republic Pictures around the time period of the 1960s. The various sets and locations within the building represent internal and external locations both within Temple Pictures and also the outskirts of the town near which it is situated. The various locations include a desert, a saloon, a trailer park, a chapel, as well as several dressed sound stages and a Lynchian black and white chequerboard dancefloor. As in previous Punchdrunk shows, the audience is free to roam around and explore the sets in their own way, and the intricate detailing of the props and locations assists the audience in picking up the threads of the narrative.

Narrative

Creative Director Felix Barrett has said that The Drowned Man is "the first time that we've played with the idea of more than one lead narrative". The two main narratives form mirrors of each other, one following the story of a couple within Temple Studios and the other a couple who live on the outskirts of the Hollywood town. The main characters play out a tragic love story, with the numerous supporting characters embellishing the detail of that story as well as having some independent side-stories of their own. Many aspects of the narrative are influenced by Georg Buchner's famous unfinished play Woyzeck, including the main themes of murder, madness and adultery. However, the work also draws on several other sources for inspiration, including Nathanael West's (1939) novel The Day of the Locust and Ray Bradbury's (1962) novel Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Critical reception

Several reviews have complimented the scale of the production and the ambitious use of multiple narratives, whilst also commenting that the scale can at times make the experience feel fragmented and difficult to follow. However, the majority of official media reviews were written at the beginning of the show's run in June 2013, and since that time several important changes have been made to improve the audience's understanding of the story, including handing out slips of paper with a brief outline of the plot at the start. Time Out magazine awarded the production 3 out of 5 stars, commenting that "as pure spectacle, Punchdrunk are now operating on a level that makes criticism basically redundant. But in terms of straight-up theatre, they have made better". The Independent commented "For all its logistical flair the show is lacking in heart", awarding it 3 out of 5 stars The London Evening Standard gave it 4 out of 5 stars, commenting "abandon all preconceptions of what theatre should be and prepare yourself for a multi-storey treat" The Daily Telegraph awarded it 5 out 5 stars, asserting that "the masters of immersive theatre have returned with a show that will surely become a cult hit" The Financial Times called it "Thrilling - Punchdrunk’s newest ‘immersive’ piece is seedy, frightening and feels supremely alive", awarding it 5 out of 5 stars.