Anyway, I haven't had a chance to read it yet but I'm pumped. Punchdrunk are a UK outfit that specialise in immersive theatre, and are just starting to bend into the hyper real, which seems to be a natural progression for a few of the groups. This alone is a research question (would I have said this 12 weeks ago?) but is very relevant to my own space.
Anyhow, today I sent off one assignment, finalised (I hope) a presentation and, when I thought it would take another day, almost ended another. It'll be done by afternoon, allowing me time to concentrate on the second to last.
Friday will see a new dawn, with only one to focus on and (theoretically) enough time to make it work, complete with edits.
But aside from reading and writing, Punchdrunk have me. I worked with Daniel Schlusser on another reinterpretation of MacBeth, and together (with 15 others) we made a freakishly engaging show without doing much at all. I just 'got' his aesthetic and he just 'got' my impulse: it was infuriatingly immersive.
Actually, throughout that year I made five shows, all immersive either narratively or otherwise, with varying degrees of immediacy, long before I started writing on the idea. Screaming without sound, crawling through an audience in a hobo-bear suit, flippantly dropping 'cunt' before shooting my friend point-blank, cartwheeling into a mediated rant and making a noise that illicited tears or hideously uncomfortable laughter, there is something in the shock of the unexpected that forces immediacy, pleasant or otherwise that is common in theatre but rare otherwise.
Punchdrunk play with this consistently where other outfits get complacent. I run a company called Grey Matters, where everything we pull is unflinching, even when it seems nice. We've been slow recently because I'm the artistic director who happens to be otherwise engaged, but there is so much more to come and it involves blood, wires and fresh meat - figuratively and literally (says the vegetarian).
But for now, I'll settle for Punchdrunkeness and a hook-up from the magical Tully. And some sleep.
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