Sleep‘s unparalleled fourteen-year run – it launched on March 7, 2011, and is set to conclude on January 5, 2025 – is unlikely to ever be surpassed. If you were one of the lucky ones who caught it, as we did, it’s easy to understand why this immersive theatre phenomenon won over as many as it did. (Even if that fandom sometimes bordered on the obsessive.)

With Sleep finally on its way out, the U.S. producers who imported Sleep all those years ago have, understandably, raced to come up with a substitute, albeit without Punchdrunk’s contribution. So it is that, while Sleep‘s British creators experiment with smaller productions across the pond, New York-based Emursive Productions have gone out and built themselves a whole new Sleep No More.

Is this a craven attempt to cash in on the Sleep brand? Absolutely. Does it suffer from the lack of input from the real geniuses behind Sleep, U.K.-based Punchdrunk Theatre? Of course.

Does Life and Trust nevertheless have something worthwhile to offer the immersive theatre addict? Well, yes, that’s true too.

AGAIN YOU SHOW YOURSELVES

Emursive Productions’ Life and Trust is a reimagining of the Faust fable, here resituated to a Manhattan bank on the eve of Black Thursday, 1929. As in Sleep No More, attendees wear spooky masks (in this case, annoyingly adorned with antlers, making it tough to get a good view whenever a crowd forms). As in Sleep No More, the experience is almost more important than the story itself.

An opening sequence, one of the few with spoken dialogue, sets the stage: it’s October 23, 1929, and wildly successful banker J.G. Conwell has been offered a Faustian bargain: in exchange for, well, y’know, he can become young again, and indulge, if only for one night, in a lifetime’s worth of pleasures and fantasies, “every caress of the flesh, every secret bliss”.

Structurally, Life and Trust is incredible. Taking place across six storeys of a former bank which has been completely retrofitted by the Emursive team, its sprawling, three-hour narrative features a cast of dozens, and a world of quite literally hundreds of rooms, corridors, and other, more secret spaces.

One gets the feeling that even without a cast or a story, it would still be fun to wander through Life and Trust just for exploration’s sake.

YOU WAVERING FORMS

Life and Trust‘s story is well-told, even as it manages to be simultaneously too obvious and yet lacking in clarity.

The obvious bits – a banker named Conwell, a location called “Destiny Park”, a chapel emblazoned with the motto “In God We Trust” – are where the Punchdrunk absence is most sorely felt. Writer Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare at Goats) and director Teddy Bergman have clearly analyzed Sleep No More inside and out, but they don’t have the subtle touch which Punchdrunk honed over years of experimentation.

This also helps explain why Life and Trust is probably too sprawling and unwieldy.

I am the first to admit I haven’t always understood everything Punchdrunk does. But there’s a clarity and rigour to Punchdrunk which is lacking in Life and Trust: there are too many characters, too many rooms, too many storylines, and not enough effort to bring them together into a coherent whole.

By the time Punchdrunk crafted its final mask show The Burnt City, it was so meticulously plotted that, even if you wandered off into its darkest corners, the combination of sound, light, and choreography would ensure you experienced at least some of its big moments. Life and Trust, on the other hand, feels like several disparate threads which occasionally intersect, but never entirely come together.

A fictional newspaper, available in the waiting area, goes some way to address this, providing a breakdown of the dizzying array of characters and thinly-drawn motiviations. Still, Life and Trust has the unfortunate tendency to live down to the Sleep No More reputation for obscurity which, in Punchdrunk’s case, was never entirely fair.

REVEALED, AS YOU ONCE WERE

Evaluated on its own – which is admittedly tough to do – Life and Trust is still a very good time at the theatre.

The world Emursive has created is truly spectacular, ranging from dark and foreboding subterranean corridors, to luxurious turn-of-the-century apartments, to areas which borrow from the science fiction and fantasy of the era. There were a handful of moments where I was truly blown away by an environment I’d discovered, and, comparing notes with others who’ve experienced Life and Trust, they feel much the same way.

The story of Life and Trust is also quite interesting. If anything lends itself to an immersive adaptation, surely the original 15th century devil’s bargain must be top of the list. There have been a lot of Fausts – some, like Goethe’s 1808 poem or Gounod’s 1859 opera, are the pinnacles of their respective genres – while others – David Mamet’s little-seen 2004 Faustus, Brian De Palma’s cult-classic film Phantom of the Paradise – failed to make the most of its irresistible premise. Life and Trust lies somewhere in the middle: the concept is captivating enough, but it’s occasionally lacking in execution.

Unsurprisingly, Life and Trust is heavy on allusion, with shout-outs not only to most of the above, but to other Faustian classics like Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Emursive even finds time for a few nods to Sleep No More, which feels a bit like the snake eating its own tail, but is fun nevertheless.

TO CLOUDED VISION

If its world design is where Life and Trust really shines, it’s in its final moments that the show finally, if belatedly, demonstrates its ability to stand on its own.

Dancing around spoilers, I can only commend the Emursive team for crafting a Sleep No More-like finale which has all the spark and razzamatazz one should expect from a Yankee remake. It’s almost as if Emursive realized at the last that if they can’t be artful, they can at least deliver on spectacle. It’s hardly a profound ending – I didn’t cry like I did at the end of Sleep No More – but it’s gloriously entertaining, and unmistakeably its own thing.

It’s too bad, then, that so much else in Life and Trust plays like a Punchdrunk greatest hits. Costumes, décor, dance choreography, even the design of the hidden spaces – all these are intended not merely to remind us of Sleep No More, but to reassure us there are still ways to get your Punchdrunk fix even after Punchdrunk leaves New York.

It’s perhaps appropriate that a show about the stock market should be so derivative. It’s perhaps even more appropriate that it was made with such shamelessly capitalistic instincts in mind.

***
Life and Trust runs now until, who knows, fourteen more years, at the Life and Trust Bank, 69 Beaver St, New York. Tickets available here.

The post Life and Trust (Immersive Theatre) Review: Stocks and Derivative appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

From operatic classics to bold new Shakespeare productions, read on for our guide to New York’s best offerings of Fall 2024.

The Metropolitan Opera’s spectacular 2024-25 season brings a trifecta of world-class productions this November, celebrating a Puccini centenary and a timeless Verdi classic.

A perennial fan-favourite, Verdi’s Il trovatore (1853) has one great aria – “Di quella pira” (“Of that pyre”) – one great chorus – the so-called “Anvil Chorus” – and a whole lot of bleak horrors otherwise. I cannot pretend Trovatore has ever been one of my personal favourites, with its surprisingly disturbing subject matter – curses, infanticide, fratricide all loom large – and fewer memorable tunes than those two excerpts might suggest. Still, the Trovatore, and especially the Met’s current production, is at its best whenever its two female leads are on stage: Rachel Willis-Sørensen is fantastic as Leonora, while Olesya Petrova steals the show as Azucena, a mother sworn to revenge.

I have written before of my love for Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca (1900), the extraordinary, sweepingly dramatic tale of star-crossed lovers swept up in turbulent times. Set in Rome on the eve of Napoleon’s invasion of what was then part of the Kingdom of Naples, the action plays out over the course of two days and two nights in June 1800. In the Met’s production, rising star tenor Freddie De Tommaso is stellar as the artist Cavadarossi, whose love for Tosca (Norwegian superstar soprano Lise Davidsen) is threatened by the jealous machinations of sadistic police chief Scarpia (the always-excellent Quinn Kelsey). Perfect renditions of opera favourites – “E lucevan le stelle” for de Tomasso and “Vissi d’arte” for Davidsen – make this one of the Met’s biggest draws in recent years.

Also a major, if recurring draw, is fellow Puccini masterpiece La bohème (1895). Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 staging, perhaps the most successful staging of any opera in history, returns this year on the occasion of the centenary of Puccini’s death. The hype surrounding the Zeffirelli Bohème is absolutely warranted, eliciting applause from audiences blown away by its Act 2 recreation of Paris’s Latin Quarter… and struck dumb by the beauty of the third-act winter scene. This year’s remount, with the superb soprano Ailyn Pérez as title character Mimi, is a reminder of what makes this opera – and this specific production – such timeless classics. Pérez’s “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” (They Call Me Mimi) is nearly as touching as tenor Dmytro Popov’s “O soave fanciulla” (Oh Gentle Maiden) in the role of romantic lead Rodolfo.

Kenneth Branagh makes a rare Broadway appearance in this severely truncated King Lear, imported from Wyndham’s Theatre in London.

Co-directed by Branagh, Rob Ashford, and Lucy Skilbeck, this adaptation strives for the cinematic, whittling the play down from four hours to two, and deploying leading-edge audio-visual tech for its (admittedly impressive) space age/prehistoric design. (Check out that eyeball staring down at you from above.)

But what this Lear gains in momentum it loses in structure, with subplots and character motivations so thinly drawn it’s often unclear who is doing what, or why. Branagh is great, as always, but an incomplete Lear is still an incomplete Lear.

Branagh and Ashford’s previous collaboration, the stellar Macbeth for the Manchester International Festival, was far more interesting. King Lear runs through December 15, 2024, at The Shed.

Right now, visitors to London are making their way in droves to the National Gallery’s Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, the undisputed blockbuster art event of the season. But next year, it will be Siena: The Rise of Painting: 1300–1350 which brings Londoners in.

Lucky for us then, over this side of the pond, Siena makes its debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, running now through January 26, 2025. Celebrating an exceptional moment in the history of European art, it features early Renaissance artists such as Duccio, Pietro, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Simone Martini, and is an extraordinary showcase for the glittery, innovative works that arose in the northern Italian city… until the plague wiped out most of its population, including several of the artists featured here.

Highlights include several reconstructed altarpieces, pieced together from collections all across the globe, as well as Barna da Siena’s “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine” (MFA Boston).

Any trip to New York is incomplete without a visit to Carnegie Hall. November’s highlights include superstar violinist Maxim Vengerov, super-superstar pianist Mitsuko Uchida, and guest appearances from two of the world’s Top Five orchestras. While we sadly missed out on the Royal Concertgebouw earlier this month, we were lucky enough to catch the Berlin Philharmonic with violinist Vilde Frang.

Frang, subbing in last-minute for an injured Hillary Hahn, was simply marvellous in a performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto (1945). Better known in his lifetime as a film composer – he won two Oscars and has been cited as an inspiration by John Williams (also recently seen at Carnegie) – Korngold’s Violin Concerto remixes several of his Hollywood themes to great effect.

Also excellent was the Philharmonic’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead (1909/1929). Inspired by the 19th century painting Die Toteninsel by Arnold Böcklin – which sits on permanent display at the Met – the Isle is eerie, dramatic, and a symphonic showcase.

But the showstopper of the program was no less than Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, B. 141 (1885), widely regarded as one of the great symphonies of all time. While I remain partial to Dvořák’s Ninth (the “New World Symphony”), there’s no question that the 7th is a remarkable accomplishment. Dramatic, but with space to breathe in its quieter moments, there’s a reason it’s considered among the best of the form.

WHAT’S NEXT

The hottest new theatrical event of the year is, once again, a New York-based immersive theatre installation. Stay tuned for our thoughts on Life & Trust, on now until 1929…

The post Oh Gentle Maiden: New York Classical Guide for Fall 2024 appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

And yet, Merrye Olde Englande still retains much of its old charm. And London, one of the truly great cities of the world, remains one of our favourite places to visit – a city of music, of art, of theatre, and yes, even of food (there’s more to life than blood pudding!).

During our latest visit to London, we managed to take in no less than seven shows, six galleries/museums, and at least one journey to the sky – all within the space of a week. Read on for the highlights of London 2023 – the things you should definitely check out if you make your way across the pond in the coming year.

One of our favourite things to do, every time we visit London, is to scope out all our favourite actors appearing on stage. Anyone planning a UK vacation in 2024, for example, should keep in mind that Logan Roy himself, Brian Cox, will be appearing in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Which is not to suggest, of course, that star power is the only reason to see British theatre: home to Billy S., the UK has probably the greatest single concentration of theatrical talent in the world. Whether it’s in the West End or in the exurbs of London, there’s always something new and exciting to see. Speaking of which…

Punchdrunk Entertainment’s unique brand of immersive theatrical experiences reaches its apotheosis in The Burnt City, a loose adaptation of several mythological incidents surrounding the Trojan War. Situated in an enormous, multi-storey former armory on the outskirts of London, the three-hour experience sees audiences don ghostlike masks and set free to explore an intricately detailed, labyrinthine set populated by dozens of actors, and dozens more rooms, alleyways, secret passages to find them in. Those up on their Euripides will likely make the most of Punchdrunk’s dazzlingly inventive retelling of Greek mythology, but for sheer spectacle alone there is little else that compares. (Except, of course, Punchdrunk’s own Sleep No More, playing slightly closer to home in New York City.)

Comedian Lenny Henry is less of a familiar name on these shores, even as his Chef! and The Lenny Henry Show remain some of the most beloved (and hilarious) British TV series of the 80s and 90s. Henry’s relatively recent transition to stage work, including highly acclaimed performances in Othello and The Comedy of Errors, has only further cemented his status as a British national treasure. Now, with his new play August in England, a deeply personal one-man show (written by Henry in his playwriting debut), he has created a powerful, very funny, and also very heartbreaking account of the “Windrush Generation” of Caribbean immigrants who arrived in the UK in the postwar era. August may have sadly come to a close, but the dynamic Bush Theatre, which presents daring, inventive new works by contemporary playwrights, is definitely worth putting on your itinerary.

Comedy nerds will know Tom Hollander from his turns in In the Loop and The White Lotus, but the star of Peter Morgan’s new play Patriots is also an interesting character actor with dramatic talent as well. His starring turn in Patriots, as the late Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who claimed to have “created” Putin, and who died in exile in London in 2013, is a rare opportunity for Hollander to take centre stage. He handles the role with aplomb, leaning into the inherent absurdity of a billionaire who self-styled as a champion of the people, and who had a habit of making friends (and enemies) of those who later wound up dead or disappeared. Will Keen is excellent as the devil incarnate, Vladimir Putin.

Filmmaker Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) also happens to be one of the most interesting stage directors working today. Although his direction of Jack Thorne’s new play The Motive and the Cue is perhaps more conservative than it needs to be, he elicits (mostly) strong performances from a starry cast, in this behind-the-scenes account of Broadway’s fabled 1964 Gielgud-Burton production of Hamlet. Mark Gatiss (Sherlock‘s Mycroft Holmes) is excellent as John Gielgud, the actor-turned-director whose old-school sensibilities clash with the approach (and ego) of the then-world’s biggest star, Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn). Though the play sometimes leans into cliché – Elizabeth Taylor (Tuppence Middleton), for all her tabloid scandal, deserves better than the reductive “boorish American” depiction she gets here – there are some genuinely touching moments. Canadians will be glad to see Hume Cronyn (Allan Corduner) show up as a supporting character – he played Polonius to Burton’s Hamlet in ’64.

In between dashing from one play to the next, we also found time to check out quite a few art exhibitions, featuring the best of old and new.

For the classics, the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance is the definition of a blockbuster event. Showcasing one of the finest sculptors who ever lived, the exhibition pulls together examples from across different forms – monumental sculpture, bas-reliefs, decorative work – and insightfully positions Donatello alongside other artists of the era. The works of Donatello, who died in 1466, remain fresh and vital today, with standouts including the colossal Carafa Horse and Donatello’s lesser-known, but no less impressive bronze David. With Donatello winding down, more information about upcoming V&A exhibitions and its main collection – which includes a fine array of Rodin sculptures – can be found here.

Though operating in a different medium, the (sadly now-shuttered) Thin Air at London’s “The Beams” venue is the only other London experience that rivalled The Burnt City for immersive spectacle this year. Similarly situated in an enormous, multi-room warehouse, Thin Air featured a series of light-based installations, typically accompanied by evocative (and loud!) soundtracks. Standing in the centre of a cavernous warehouse while red strobe lights flicker and the low thrum of overpowered speakers shakes your body, Thin Air delivered up synesthesia of the highest order. UK-bound travellers should stay tuned to The Beams website for the latest on this most happening of art spaces.

Finally, the National Gallery’s After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art offered an interesting, if incohesive overview of various European art movements that flourished in the ill-defined period of “everything after van Gogh, we guess”. I truly, deeply love the National Gallery, which is perhaps my favourite museum in the whole world, but the scattershot approach – a Mondrian here, a Klimt there – never really coalesces around a clear theme. That said, fans of the great late 19th-early 20th century artists will find much to love here, including undisputed masterpieces from Matisse, Kandinsky, and a plethora of works from Cezanne, who takes an unexpectedly central role in this story of the “birth” of modern art.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of what there is to see and do in London. The greenery – despite its dull gray reputation, London is home to dozens of parks, from the stately Hyde Park to the rolling hills of Greenwich Park (where visitors can stand at the Prime Meridian) – and architecture – both St. Paul’s and Westminster are a must-visit – make for a charming summer’s day out, not to mention the views from Tower Bridge over the Thames.

Speaking of views, the London Eye, which, when it opened in 2000 was the world’s largest Ferris Wheel, still remains the best way to see one of the finest cities i̶n̶ ̶E̶u̶r̶o̶p̶e̶ from a bird’s eye view. The half-hour circuit gives you wonderful views of Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, plenty of churches, and of course the teeny tiny boats floating along the Thames. Go at sunset, and you’ll get a lovely view of the golden hour as the sun sets over the city, though you may have to jostle for position with amorous couples and happy families looking for the best selfie. The London skyline may not be as iconic as, say, Manhattan, but it’s just as impressive.

We’re also partial to the London food scene, starting with the excellent South Asian (predominantly Bangladeshi) cuisine found along Brick Lane in the east end. The Ottolenghi-brand restaurant NOPI is another star attraction; at a relatively affordable price, you get a feast’s worth of Mediterranean-inspired sharing plates. Yotam Ottolenghi’s bestselling cookbook Jerusalem remains a staple of modern kitchens, and a visit to any of his restaurants is worth your time.

Royal-watchers (ugh, sigh) will, I guess, also find reason to visit. Windsor Castle, just outside London, is arguably the nicest of the royal palaces, while visitors should bear in mind that Buckingham Palace is only open for tours from July to September (along with select dates in Fall/Winter). The Tower of London is, despite its macabre reputation, also worth the visit: though best known as the prison where some rather interesting names spent some time, it was predominantly used as a royal residence, and is home to the Crown Jewels of England.

CHEERIO AND PIP-PIP (FOR NOW)

Honestly, it wasn’t so long ago that we were reluctant to visit the UK.

Continental Europe, with its diverse languages, beautiful beaches, and some of the best dining in the world, seemed more appealing. But ever since our first jaunt over, we’ve fallen in love with this city that is overflowing with things to do. Go to London for the arts scene. Or the theatre. Or the food (nearly 70 Michelin star restaurants). Or the history. Or the beautiful parks. Or the music.

There’s always something to see, and do, and eat, and drink in London. And if you have the time, there’s a whole sceptred isle – Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s grave!), Liverpool (The Beatles’ digs), Edinburgh (peaty scotch whiskey!) – to explore while you’re over there.

***
For more Toronto Guardian travel advice, check out our features on the Canadian weekend, a visit to India, and summer in Croatia.

The post This Sceptred Isle: A Traveller’s Guide to London, UK appeared first on Toronto Guardian.