Following the epic The Burnt City, Punchdrunk is staging a new show at its Woolwich home
Groundbreaking theatre group Punchdrunk’s new show, Viola’s Room, which is being billed as “an intimate, linear, audio-driven adventure that promises to suffuse the dreams of those who dare to follow the light”, is here, featuring narration by none other than BAFTA-winning actor Helena Bonham Carter.
The immersive play is based on Barry Pain’s gothic short story The Moon-Slave and has been adapted for a new audience by Booker Prize-shortlisted author Daisy Johnson. While it’s on a much smaller scale than The Burnt City, a sprawling performance spread across several spaces that you could explore at will, Viola’s Room is incredibly atmospheric and immersive in a more intimate, focused way.
You wear headphones, with Bonham Carter narrating the story – parallel stories of a teenage girl and a princess who escapes her engagement party and discovers a maze in the palace grounds – as you move through the installation in a linear fashion, which is not typically Punchdrunk’s style. And you’re barefoot (don’t worry, there are sanitising stations on entrance and exit).
With no live actors, the show relies heavily on sound, materials, and light, and the Punchdrunk team has nailed the combination in Viola’s Room. Bonham Carter’s silky voice, interspersed with tracks from Tori Amos and Massive Attack, is the perfect fit for the story, which veers into the supernatural. The set design is simple (well simpler, in Punchdrunk terms) but extremely effective, especially the maze sections, which at points feel like they’re consuming you, and being barefoot really does ground you in the world. Light is primarily used to guide you through the experience but it, or lack thereof, sets the mood in the most direct and immediate way.
Smaller and shorter, though no less intense than Punchdrunk’s usual fare, Viola’s Room shows that the theatre company can operate on all kinds of levels.
Until Sun 15th September 2024
One Cartridge Place, Woolwich, London SE18 6ZR
punchdrunk.com