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Rarely does a theatrical experience cause such differing interpretations and opinions by the end, but that was exactly what Viola’s Room offered myself and friends who attended Punchdrunk’s latest venture in their new South-East London warehouse venue.

Known often for sprawling sets and experiences (such being the case in last year’s The Burnt City, at the same venue), Viola’s Room is instead intensely intimate and personal (though for us there was a lot of hand-grasping in the dark as we very much experienced the world created around us as a group). Noise-cancelled headphones isolate you from the rest of the world and help you to engage completely with the story as in unfurls. By the end of the experience we all had various notions of how it ended; some frustrated at the slight open-ended nature of it, and others convinced in their reading of the story-within-a-story narrative.

Viola’s Room, conceived and directed by Felix Barrett (Punchdrunk’s Artistic Director) is a reimagining of Barry Pain’s ‘The Moon Slave’, a mysterious gothic tale filled with haunting themes and imagery. It is cleverly interwoven with a modern setting and a coming of age narrative as Viola struggles to navigate growing up and letting go.

Punchdrunk are renowned for their immersive theatre, with Sleep No More a decade-spanning international triumph wherein the story of Macbeth is completely subverted and reinterpreted through a multi-level warehouse. What sets Viola’s Room apart from previous productions though is obvious: there are no actors throughout the production. Instead, the lack of human presence throughout helps to create an eerie and haunting sense of loss and absence as the story develops. Helena Bohem Carter narrates the story, her velvety tones sometimes reaching a crescendo and at other times barely a whisper. Coupled with Gareth Fry’s epic sound design, the result is utterly captivating – to listen to the sound design through the headphones without any of the visual elements would be enough in itself.

Visually, it is stunning. Casey Jay Andrew’s design expertly sews together the two worlds: the modern setting of a young girl’s bedroom, and a gothic Victorian palace and surrounding gardens. Coupled with the sound design, which uses evocative tunes from Massive Attack and Soundgarden to Mozart’s Lacrimosa, as an audience participant you weave in and out of the worlds seamlessly, never knowing what is beyond each door you encounter.

While the energy of the piece wanes in a couple of transitional moments throughout the hour-long experience, for the most part it feels cinematically grand in the right places, and delicately intimate in others. Without giving anything away, the end of the experience did feel slightly abrupt and part of me was hoping for a more significant reveal (I was almost convinced that we would have one moment with actors towards the end), but the lasting effect is chilling and it is an experience that you are left unpicking for days afterwards.

Ultimately, it is a five star production for the sheer immensity of storytelling that is essentially told primarily through engaging the different senses in controlled and creative ways. Being barefoot throughout the experience adds an extra layer of immersion; different settings even conjure up a different smell! If you want a theatrical experience like nothing else currently offered in London, and you want to see Punchdrunk make bold and new choices, this production is for you.  

Viola’s Room is playing in Woolwich, London until the 23rd December.

Tickets and information: https://www.punchdrunk.com/work/violas-room/