20 December 2016
Newsdesk
Co-creators Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle, alongside the rest of the original creative team, unite with Chinese artists to bring Punchdrunk’s work to Asia for the very first time.
Cast of 30 perform across five floors and 90 different rooms in vast new, specially built venue in Shanghai’s Jing’An District
Punchdrunk have today released production images as their award-winning theatrical experience, SLEEP NO MORE, premieres in Shanghai.
Home to Punchdrunk International’s brand new production of SLEEP NO MORE, the “McKinnon Hotel” opened its doors to Chinese audiences last night ushering them into a visceral, tactile and darkly cinematic telling of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Macbeth. The production has broken box office records in Shanghai, selling over 10,000 tickets in its first four days of sales. It is now sold out until March 2017. Spanning five floors of a vast, specially constructed building in the Jing’An district of the city, this is the first immersive work of this scale to be performed in China.
Punchdrunk have presented their ground-breaking immersive theatre work around the globe for over 15 years. To create this new production, set in Shanghai, they have collaborated with Chinese co-producers SMG Live and Chinese artists. The original creative teams have been working in China with their local counterparts for several months creating a unique production that shows the world of 1930s Shanghai in sumptuous cinematic detail.
The Punchdrunk creative team delved into historical documents in museums and archives to provide authentic touches and minute details. Audiences are able to open every one of over 3,000 drawers to read every document, examine every prop and article of clothing chosen to re-create the era, all of which can be verified, including addresses on envelopes, the script on handwritten letters and shapes of the stamps. Even the scent and temperature of each space has been elaborately designed by the creative team giving individual rooms a character of their own.
Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, led a delegation from the UK’s cultural industries to visit the McKinnon Hotel last week. The Secretary of State for Culture addressed British and Chinese guests at a reception hosted by the British Council as part of the 4th UK-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue. As she congratulated the combined efforts of both companies Karen Bradley remarked, “this Punchdrunk - SMG Live co-production is exactly the kind of long-term mutually beneficial cultural partnership that I hope will become a model of success in this golden era of UK-China cultural relations”.
The creative team for Punchdrunk's SLEEP NO MORE is Felix Barrett (Co-Direction, Co-Design and Lighting), Maxine Doyle (Co-Direction and Choreography), Livi Vaughan and Beatrice Minns (Co-Design), Stephen Dobbie (Sound Design), David Israel Reynoso (Costume Design) and Colin Nightingale (Creative Producer).
SLEEP NO MORE is performed by an international company, including many long-term Punchdrunk collaborators alongside a host of some of the most exciting and innovative performers China has to offer.
Listings
Venue: The McKinnon Hotel, 1013 West Beijing Road, Shanghai
Dates: End of 2016
Pricing:
Mon – Thu Evening, RMB 550
Fri – Sat Matinee show, RMB 650
Fri – Sat Evening, RMB 650
Website: http://www.sleepnomore.cn
Punchdrunk
Formed in 2000, Punchdrunk’s award-winning productions include The Firebird Ball (2005), Faust (in collaboration with the National Theatre, 2006), The Masque of the Red Death (2008), Tunnel 228 (in collaboration with The Old Vic, 2009), It Felt Like A Kiss (with Adam Curtis and Damon Albarn, Manchester International Festival, 2009), Sleep No More (with the American Repertory Theatre, Boston, Mass., 2009), The Duchess of Malfi (with English National Opera, 2010), The Crash of the Elysium (Manchester International Festival, 2011), The Borough (Aldeburgh Festival, 2013) and The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable (Temple Studios, a co-production with National Theatre of Great Britain). Punchdrunk are currently presenting their New York debut Sleep No More at the legendary McKittrick Hotel in the Chelsea district (produced by Emursive). Sleep No More won a 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and a Special Citation For Design And Choreography at the 2010-11 Obie Awards.
Punchdrunk Enrichment
The worlds that Punchdrunk makes are transformative for those who experience them firsthand as audiences. Since 2008, Punchdrunk Enrichment has inspired and engaged participants through projects that focus on the innate creativity and imagination of the individual. Punchdrunk Enrichment takes the company's innovative practice into communities and schools, creating performances with and for children, young people and participants. Integral to the creation of this work is the same commitment to exemplary design and performance that defines Punchdrunk’s large-scale productions for adult audiences.
Key projects to date include installation-based schools projects, The Lost Lending Library, Under the Eiderdown, and Against Captain’s Orders, a family adventure created in partnership with the National Maritime Museum. An extensive professional development programme and on-site projects for primary schools were run alongside The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable. Recent projects include Greenhive Green created with staff and residents of a care home in Peckham including those with dementia, commissioned by intergenerational arts charity Magic Me.
Punchdrunk International (Co-Producer)
Punchdrunk International produces artistic works created by Felix Barrett and the Punchdrunk creative team. In addition, the Company produces a selection of Punchdrunk’s commercial productions for national and international audiences. It also creates innovation-led partnerships with selected organisations on a bespoke basis.
www.punchdrunk.com
Punchdrunk Global Ltd trading as Punchdrunk International.
“Punchdrunk” is the registered trade mark of Punchdrunk (a registered charity number: 1113741) and is used under licence. Punchdrunk Global Ltd UK Company Number: 9302561. UK VAT Registration Number: 232 4800 38.
SMG Live
Presents
Punchdrunk’s
SLEEP NO MORE
Directed by Felix Barrett & Maxine Doyle
Designed by Felix Barrett, Livi Vaughan & Beatrice Minns
Choreography by Maxine Doyle
Sound Design by Stephen Dobbie
Lighting Design by Felix Barrett
Costume Design by David Israel Reynoso
Creative Producer – Colin Nightingale
Associate Choreographer / Associate Director – Conor Doyle
Rehearsal Directors – Eric Bradley, Anna Finkel, Emily Terndrup, Paul Zivkovich
Production Consultant – Ben Hosford
Lead Design Consultant – Claire Karoff
Design Consultants – Hebe George, Maito Jobbe-Duval
Lighting Consultant – Evan Gannon
For Punchdrunk International:
Artistic Director – Felix Barrett
Sleep No More, Executive Co-Creators – Felix Barrett & Maxine Doyle
Executive Producer – Despina Tsatsas Creative Producer – Colin Nightingale
Producer, Sleep No More, Shanghai – Stephen Makin General Managers – Jennifer Taylor, Lucy Whitby
Finance Manager – Judith Glynne
Administrator & Projects Assistant – Victoria Eyton
Production Credits:
Sleep No More, Shanghai General Management Consultancy – Mark Rubinstein Ltd
Public Relations – The Corner Shop PR
Legal – Harbottle & Lewis
Accountants – Saffrey Champness
SMG Live (Co-Producer)
SMG Performing Arts Group (SMG Live) is a subsidiary of SMG. As a leader in the industry it links business services like theatre management, artist management, performance marketing and industrial investment with performing arts development and live entertainment. The group supports a wide variety of companies making work in the arts including in drama, dance, acrobatics, symphonies, farces, Huaiju opera, Pingtan, puppet, light music and many other opera styles. Their theatres include the Shanghai Majestic Theatre, Shanghai Lyceum Theatre, Shanghai Art Theatre, Wanping Theatre, Shanghai People’s Grand Theatre and ET Space. They also own a number of professional training schools, performing and acting agencies, stage design centres and ticketing companies.
SMG Live has presented over 10,000 performances a year for the past six years and its annual income has also exceeded 250 million RMB five years in a row. In 2012, it was announced as a national leader in cultural system reform. In 2013, it was one of the top 30 national cultural enterprises. In 2014, it became one of the three best performing companies in China. More than 300 plays are available to show on stage, such as the stage play Lord Shang, a piece of national fine art; ERA---Intersection of Time, a multimedia acrobatics fantasy show; and Red Clouds In the Horizon, a poetic drama which won the Best Works Award appraised by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPC. Major plays that SMG Live produced in 2015 include the drama The Boss; Crested Ibis, a ballet; Tiny Times, a music drama and Battle Steed, a stage work in Chinese.
Felix Barrett MBE
Artistic Director of Punchdrunk and a graduate and Honorary Fellow in Drama, University of Exeter, Felix has conceived, and directed all of Punchdrunk’s productions since founding the company in 2000. He is a Critics’ Circle Drama Award winner and one of the first recipients of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Fund Award, which supports exceptional arts practitioners in the development of their vision. His work with Punchdrunk includes: The Firebird Ball; Faust; The Masque Of The Red Death; It Felt Like A Kiss (a collaboration between Punchdrunk, documentary film-maker Adam Curtis, and musician Damon Albarn for Manchester International Festival); Sleep No More (a collaboration with American Repertory Theatre); The Duchess Of Malfi (with English National Opera); The Crash Of The Elysium (for Manchester International Festival and the 2012 Cultural Olympiad); The Borough (a co-production with Aldeburgh Music). Felix also directed the company's award-winning New York debut production of Sleep No More, which recently celebrated its fifth birthday and has been playing to sell out audiences since 2011. Most recently, Felix directed Punchdrunk’s largest production to date, The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable. Other work includes co-direction of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre).
Maxine Doyle
Maxine is an independent choreographer and director. She is also Associate Director and Choreographer for Punchdrunk, with whom she co-directed the multi-award winning Sleep No More (London, Boston, New York, Shanghai), The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable, The House Where Winter Lives, The Firebird Ball, Faust, Masque of the Red Death, Tunnel 228, The Duchess of Malfi (an operatic collaboration with English National Opera and Thorsten Rasch), The Yellow Wallpaper.
Maxine has an MA in choreography from the Laban centre and is a recipient of the Bonnie Bird choreography award. She was Artistic Director of First Person Dance Company from 1996 - 2003 touring works such as Deja Deux, In the Face of a Stranger, Plastic Chill and It's Only a Gameshow. In 2006 she was a Place Prize semi-finalist with Forest.
Her work for theatre includes Evening at the Talk House (NT), Electra (Old Vic), The Changeling (Young Vic), Hamlet (Young Vic), The Children’s Hour (The West End), Timon of Athens (The Globe) and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre). Opera includes Faust (Baden Baden) and The Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne). Work for brands includes Luis Vuitton and Selfridges.
Maxine’s new dance theatre creation After Lethe premiered at Staastheater Kassel in May, 2016. Recently Maxine was a principle artist at Springboard Danse Montreal where she began the first part of a new work Electric Sheep and a guest teacher at b12 festival Berlin. Future projects include a new creation with Struct Dance, Perth Australia for 2018. Maxine’s international workshop series Tension States: Amplifications of the Human Condition will continue in 2017.
