It's a very individual experience and I don't necessarily recommend sticking with a group or even following a crowd (though you'll likely see more of the main scenes this way). It's also nearly impossible to have the same experience twice.
My time at the McKittrick Hotel, which hosts "Sleep No More", began with my arrival at 6:00pm for a 7:00pm entrance. I was quickly checked in and told to walk through a nearly pitch black maze until I reached a small lounge and bar set in 1939. Though the show itself isn't scary, it's set up to be disorienting.
Lights are low and it's a little difficult to see inside unless a spot light comes down on a performer. Even then, some of the actors are out of sight and are only seen when they want to be seen. At 7:00 I was called to a small room, where I was given a mask, which I was told to keep on at all times "for my protection". Suddenly I was thrust into the movie "Eyes Wide Shut" and I became a voyeur to the activity in the hotel.
Voyeur is one of the words I'd use to express my time at the McKittrick Hotel. It was voyeuristic, dreamlike or better yet a nightmare, erotic at times, and perverse. We, the attendees in the white masks, weren't supposed to speak, but we could rifle through papers, open drawers, and even get a lot closer than I normally would to the performers.
The majority of the performance is silent - told in dance and wild gestures. Occasionally there is dialogue. In fact, I was lucky enough to be chosen for one of the coveted one-on-one scenes. During one of the major scenes in the ballroom, the Matron character asked me to come with her to a side room. She took off my mask and that's when I jumped from voyeur to character. I was now a part of the experience I had only before been casually observing.
The Matron took my hand and told me that she'd been waiting for me. She said that she, another woman (though I never discovered who), and I were in a lesbian relationship. She gave me a white box tied with a red ribbon. Slowly we opened the box and as we did, she described how the gift was meant to symbolize me. Inside was a rose. She made me promise to look after the third mystery woman, then kissed my forehead, and put my mask back on. She led me back out to the ballroom, which is where we parted.
It was an intense, intimate, and very unexpected series of events.
Most of my time was spent wandering around the many sets that are located throughout the five floors you're allowed to explore. Occasionally I'd stumble upon a scene and I might follow one of the actors to another area.
That was how I ended up seeing one of the most disturbing scenes in the whole show. It was basically an orgy with witches and the devil - who was wearing a goat's head - scene. There was a strobe light that distorted the dancer's movements and reminded me of stop motion animation. It was amazing and highly disorienting.
I also wasn't ready for the extreme nudity.
There are a lot of naked people in this performance. Some of it is like the orgy scene I described above. Other times it's someone taking a bath, trying to wash blood off their body. There was one moment where the person was simply changing their clothes.
If you want to experience this performance, be ready for a lot of full frontal naked people.
You guys might have noticed that I haven't mentioned what the plot is. That's because the plot is incredibly confusing if you go in without doing any research beforehand. All I knew going in was that it was largely based off of Du Maurier's Rebecca (as well as the Hitchcock adaptation by the same name) and Shakespeare's Macbeth. I was only able to discern certain scenes because of my familiarity with both sources.
However, there were some scenes that I got an entirely different vibe one. There's a pregnant woman (Lady Macduff) who becomes obsessed with drinking milk from a maid. From the descriptions of the characters I was able to find, the maid is trying to poison Lady Macduff and her unborn baby. I, however, got a creepy "Rosemary's Baby" vibe from the dance scenes. It was super creepy.
There also were characters that I saw maybe once for half a second before they disappeared from my experience. In fact, I'm not even certain I met all of the characters present that night. A few times I didn't even notice that I was standing in front of or behind a character until the light fell on them or they turned around.
The performance goes in three hour long cycles until the finale, which I will not be spoiling. It's an intense scene and I somehow ended up right in the very front of the ending performance. My only reaction was to gasp, though a few people did scream.
We were then ushered back into the bar area where there was live music. If you had wanted a table, you had to pay for a reserved seat - not worth it in my opinion - and though the drinks were cool sounding, they were also expensive (but what isn't in New York City). I don't drink, so I can't judge their taste.
The commitment to atmosphere and time period is on point. The actors, dancers, and helpers make certain that audience members are kept safe without breaking character. The audience is also just as important as the performers and our commitment to not speaking is very important. I did see one or two people take off their masks, if only because it was hot at times and the masks caused some of us to sweat.
And there will be naked people.
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Until next week.
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