'Sleep No More' invites boldest to uncover hidden tales

In a dimly lit bedroom, you become witness to the most secretive moments of the characters before you.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth whirl in a frenzied dance, consumed by vaulting ambition, right before your eyes. Swayed by her seduction, he storms out of the room to carry out murder, while she remains behind, alone with her madness.

Some masked audience members slip after Macbeth, tracing his descent into bloody deeds. Others stay with Lady Macbeth, captivated by her unhinged solitude. Still others turn away, wandering into another room — into another story.

The choice belongs entirely to each spectator. In this labyrinthine hotel, where stories unfold simultaneously across multiple floors, the narrative depends on whom you follow, which corner you turn and where you choose to linger. With these choices, each audience member crafts an experience that is uniquely their own.

This is the grammar of “Sleep No More,” the groundbreaking immersive work from British theater company Punchdrunk, which opened its official Seoul run on Thursday, following its premiere in London in 2003 and decadelong runs in New York (2011-2023) and Shanghai (since 2016).

The production has transformed the historic former Daehan Cinema into the seven-story McKithan Hotel, with meticulously detailed rooms evoking 1930s Scotland, at a cost of 25 billion won ($18 million).

“Sleep No More” reimagines Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” through the lens of an Alfred Hitchcock noir thriller. There is no dialogue. Instead, the tale of ambition, murder and madness is conveyed entirely through dance, gesture and movement — and through the choices of the audience, who roam freely from scene to scene. This is not a performance to take in from a seat. Spectators walk, run, ascend and descend staircases alongside the actors.

“Immersive theater is not just a show. It’s creating a world, and we plunge the audience into the epicenter of that world,” said co-director Felix Barrett at a press conference in Seoul on Aug. 20. “Once they’re in, it is a living, breathing environment where the narrative unfolds around them and the audience is free to explore it in any way they want.”

That freedom is central to the show’s mythology — and its thrill. Twenty-three performers enact a web of secret subplots and interwoven narratives, repeated in one-hour loops three times over the course of the performance.

Audience members may spend the evening following a single character, or several, or venture into a chilling cemetery, a psychiatric ward or a street of shops. They can sift through desk drawers, letters and bloodied bathtubs, piecing together their own story. Each room, from worn furniture to faded letters and carefully placed props, silently testifies to the reinterpretation of “Macbeth.” No two journeys are alike.

“It’s like being inside a film. It’s not about watching, but about experiencing,” said Park Ju-young, CEO of Ms. Jackson, the company that brought the show to Korea.

The creative team said the performance was designed so that the more actively audience members explore, the more scenes and stories they uncover.

“If there were a strapline (tagline) for the show, it would be ‘Fortune favors the bold,’” Barrett said. “What we ask our audience to do is to explore, and we’ve hidden a whole raft of secrets inside this building that only the most curious will discover. As long as one person finds it, it’s worthwhile.”

Concerns were raised during the press conference about crowd safety, with spectators often jostling for space around central figures such as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Park said ticketing is capped to ensure comfort and safety and they expect the audience will spread out as repeat viewings increase.

“There are so many fascinating characters beyond the leads,” she noted. “Once people come back a second or third time, they’ll begin exploring other perspectives.”

Barrett added, “If a scene does feel too busy, that's fine and you can use that as a prompt to go off and explore another part of the building. I like to think of it as always a counterweight. If there's a busy scene happening over here, then the other half of the building will have a secret waiting for the brave one to discover it.”

The McKithan Hotel for Seoul’s “Sleep No More” will remain open until further notice, limited to adults aged 19 and over.