The Shed and Punchdrunk (Sleep No More) will stage the North American premiere of Viola's Room, an immersive theatrical experience, later this summer. The 18-week engagement will begin June 17 at The Shed, and run through October 19.
Conceived and directed by Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett, the piece is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. Viola’s Room invites audience members into an audio-driven adventure that reimagines Barry Pain's 1901 gothic short story The Moon-Slave for a modern audience.
“Ever since we opened Sleep No More back in 2011, New York has been our second home, so I’m elated that Viola’s Room will have its international premiere at The Shed this year,” said Barrett. “It’s the most intimate and distilled form of a Punchdrunk experience we’ve created: an invitation to step inside a teenage daydream and surrender to the unknown. In a non-stop world of screens and tech this is an invitation to succumb to a live, tactile and fully sensory journey. I’m so excited that New York audiences will soon be able to immerse themselves within the labyrinth of Viola’s Room.”
Audience members will walk barefoot through the maze-like installation in The Shed’s Level 4 Gallery, in groups of up to six people. Each audience member will receive headphones from Bowers & Wilkins to be guided by an unseen narrator on the 50-minute sensory journey.
“The Shed was designed for the future of art making, embracing flexibility and scale to offer both intimate and monumental experiences with interdisciplinarity at its core,” said Meredith “Max” Hodges, The Shed’s CEO. “We've seen audiences crave the immersive and inventive, as with the art carnival Luna Luna, Tomás Saraceno’s aerial installation, and Ryuichi Sakamoto in Tin Drum's mixed-reality concert Kagami. Punchdrunk's Viola's Room perfectly embodies this, offering an enchanting experience that blurs the lines between audience and art. It’s exactly the kind of production The Shed is built to deliver."
Viola’s Room was originally produced in London by Punchdrunk at their Woolwich location and ran May through December 2024. For more information, visit TheShed.org.
