Would you go to Woolwich in southeast London to have Helena Bonham Carter murmur a “gothic bedtime yarn” in your ear? That’s basically what’s on offer at immersive theatre company Punchdrunk’s latest show, “Viola’s Room”.
Small groups of “barefoot punters” are led through an otherworldly “labyrinth of corridors and antechambers”, said Nick Curtis in the London Evening Standard, as the actor’s “honeyed voice” pours through headphones, narrating the story of an orphaned princess, Viola.
The show takes place at Punchdrunk’s London venue in the former Woolwich Arsenal buildings. In 2022, the company showed off its new home with “The Burnt City” – an ambitious production inspired by the fall of Troy. “Viola’s Room”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph, sees Punchdrunk “veer off” in a different, “far less sprawling” direction with this enchanting show.
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The eerie tale, written by Booker-shortlisted novelist Daisy Johnson, is based on Barry Pain’s 1901 short story “The Moon-Slave”. As her wedding to Prince Hugo edges closer, Viola “slips away” to dance freely under the “moon’s spell”.
Directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett, along with Hector Harkness, the “darkly alluring production” floats delicately between “fairytale, children’s game and nightmare”, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Audience members roam through “exquisitely detailed” rooms peppered with “dazzling” miniature models and silhouette cut-outs.
“The original story is quite slight,” said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times, but the creative team have pulled off a show that is both “haunting and mysterious”. Everything comes together to create a compelling experience that feels akin to “falling through a disturbing dream”.
Things get off to a fairly slow start and you can’t help feeling “distanced” from it all, as if you’re in a “very posh audiobook”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. However, a second visit to Viola’s bedroom brings a dramatic change of pace and the show becomes “vastly more immersive”.
Indeed, there are times when you feel “as possessed as Viola herself” and sound designer Gareth Fry’s “extraordinary” soundtrack features a sequence set to Massive Attack’s “Angel” that is “pretty much the best recorded music I’ve ever encountered in the theatre”.
Despite being “barely an hour long”, said Akbar in The Guardian, the show inspires so much “puzzling wonder” that you’ll want to dive straight back in, immersing yourself once again in Viola’s dream-like world.
At One Cartridge Place, London, until 18 August
