Punchdrunk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Punchdrunk logo
Punchdrunk logo

Punchdrunk are a British theatre company, formed in 2000 with the aim of creating performances "in which the audience are free to choose what they watch and where they go"[1]. This format has been called "promenade theatre".

As of 2008, the company's artistic director is Felix Barrett, and its producer is Colin Marsh.

Contents

[edit] Format

In a Punchdrunk production, audience members are free to wander around the "theatre" -- which can be as large as a five-story industrial warehouse -- and can either follow the actors and themes (any of them, for there are usually multiple threads at any particular point in time), or just explore the scenery, treating the production as a vast art installation. British Secretary of State for Culture James Purnell has cited Punchdrunk as an example of "access and excellence" in modern British theatre.[2]

[edit] Productions

Listed below are past productions by Punchdrunk: [3]

As part of The Deptford X Festival of Contemporary Art this adaptation of Eugene Ionesco's play Les Chaises (or The Chairs), was performed in the Old Seager Distillery in Deptford. [4]

Using the Old Seagar Distillery once again this performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest used five floors of the warehouse to create a dark vision of Prospero Island. [5]

Punchdrunk used The Beaufoy Building in London, an old Victorian school to tell the story of Macbeth in the style of a Hitchcock thriller, using reworked music from classic Hitchcock films. [6]

At the 2004 Big Chill Music Festival they performed an interactive adaptation of Georg Buchner's Woyzeck. [7]

Inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky's The Firebird this performance mixed both tales within Offley Works a disused factory in London.[8]

Appearing again at the 2005 Big Chill Music Festival, their performance was an adaptation of the play by Peter Weiss entitled The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Clarenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. [9]

Punchdrunk ran Faust until 31st March 2007; an adaption of Goethe's Faust Part One, relocating the action of the play to a small town in 1950s America, which took place across five floors of a disused archive building in the London neighborhood of Wapping. [10] The production won the 2006 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Designer. [11]

Their current production is the start of a collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre, called Masque of the Red Death it is based on many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories and runs from 5th October 2007 until 12th April 2008. [12] While each performance ends with a ballroom party, Friday and Saturday night performances are followed by Red Death Lates, an elaborate after party with interactive performance, celebrity guests, live bands and cabaret. [13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official Punchdrunk website
  2. ^ Higgins, Charlotte. "Overthrow the tyranny of targets: minister's message for the arts", The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  3. ^ punchdrunk
  4. ^ punchdrunk
  5. ^ punchdrunk
  6. ^ punchdrunk
  7. ^ bigchill.net -audience punchdrunk theatre music year atmosphere within
  8. ^ http://www.punchdrunk.org.uk/Guardian.pdf
  9. ^ bigchill.net -festival stage music main people tent crowd
  10. ^ National Theatre : Productions : Faust
  11. ^ Critics' Circle | Drama
  12. ^ National Theatre : Productions : The Masque of the Red Death
  13. ^ National Theatre : Productions : Red Death Parties

[edit] External links