Reviewed by:

• The Burnt City by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle
• Jonathan Chambers

Over the course of the last twenty years, Punch-drunk has proven itself a producer of immersive theatre par excellence. Under the direction of founder Felix Barrett, the company’s works might best be described as events that invite audiences to actively engage with fantastic worlds. Historically, Punchdrunk’s worlds have been conjured in exquisitely re-imagined and artfully lit found spaces. Often inspired by Barrett’s imaginative reading of source texts like Macbeth, Woyzeck, and the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Punchdrunk’s productions offer promenading audiences visuals that are simultaneously epic and meticulous and sounds that are pulsating and atmospheric. A Punchdrunk show is sensorially dense; audiences are asked to choose from the many fragmented narrative threads and personas that make up the world of the performance. Each member of the audience constructs the narrative based on their sensory experience of that world. They do so not only by experiencing the plethora of visual and aural stimuli present at any given moment, but also by way of touch, taste, and in some cases, smell. In so doing, Punchdrunk performances challenge audiences’ habits of perception, as well as the conventional view that theatre communicates only through sight and sound.

Sprawling across two repurposed munitions warehouses on the outskirts of London (which also serve as Punchdrunk headquarters), The Burnt City is a continuation of Punchdrunk’s immersive and interactive aesthetic practice, taking as its impetus the story of the Trojan War as elucidated in The Iliad, Hecuba, and Agamemnon. Upon arriving at the venue, I was directed to lock my phone in a bag that blocked cellular signals; I carried this bag with me for the rest of the evening. I was then put into a group with five other audience members and ushered into a small room that evoked a nineteenth-century hall of antiquities, where I was asked to don a Punchdrunk mask (a variation of El Capitano from the commedia dell’arte) and encouraged by a host-cum-carnival barker to follow my own path. His ominous yet inviting words ringing in my ears, I was sent alone through an unmarked door.

On the other side, I found myself in a maze of tents. As I wandered, coming across vignette after vignette evocative of a military encampment, I thought, “Am I with Agamemnon in Aulis?” Though seemingly uninhabited at that point, the encampment was replete with signs of life: disheveled bedrolls; cups and glasses of drink half consumed; recently extinguished cigarettes; letters, photos, and other ephemera littered about. Recalling the invitation to touch what I found, I came upon pieces of text by Euripides, Aeschylus, and Homer, squirreled into apothecary bottles and scribbled in the pages of a journal. In the distance, I heard murmuring and an occasional scream, underscored by an adrenalized dream soundtrack, superbly composed by Stephen Dobbie. Nearing the end of the encampment, I came upon a room with hammocks hung high and low. A lone performer dressed in military fatigues that suggested the great wars of the twentieth century entered as if being chased, and then moved from one hammock to the next, in a tightly choreographed and complex dance. He seemed like a fish caught in a net. As I moved on through this warren of tents, I repeatedly stumbled on the sandbags that covered the floor. This challenge to my physical equilibrium was consonant with my overall somatic and intellectual experience for the two-and-a-half hours that followed. [End Page 555]

Vinicius Salles in The Burnt City. Photo: Julian Abrams.

[End Page 556]

Exiting the tent area, I found myself in an enormous room, with a large staircase at one end leading to a second-floor balcony that ran the length of the space. In this vast room, as well as in out-of-the-way corners and side areas, snippets of the larger story of Agamemnon in Mycenae played out in spectacular fashion. This included the sacrifice of...

审阅者：

• 菲利克斯·巴雷特和玛克辛·多伊尔的《被烧毁的城市》
• 乔纳森·钱伯斯

在过去的二十年里，Punch-drunk 已经证明了自己是卓越的沉浸式戏剧制作人。在创始人菲利克斯·巴雷特 (Felix Barrett) 的指导下，该公司的作品最好被描述为邀请观众积极参与奇幻世界的活动。从历史上看，Punchdrunk 的世界是在精心重新想象和巧妙照明的空间中召唤出来的。Punchdrunk 的作品经常受到巴雷特对《麦克白》、《沃伊采克》等源文本以及埃德加·爱伦·坡的短篇小说的富有想象力的阅读的启发，为漫步的观众提供了史诗般和细致的视觉效果以及脉动和氛围的声音。Punchdrunk 的表演感官丰富；观众被要求从构成表演世界的许多支离破碎的叙事线索和角色中进行选择。每个观众都根据他们对那个世界的感官体验来构建叙事。他们不仅通过体验任何特定时刻存在的大量视觉和听觉刺激来做到这一点，还通过触摸、味觉，在某些情况下还通过嗅觉来实现。通过这样做，《醉拳》的表演挑战了观众的感知习惯，以及戏剧仅通过视觉和声音进行交流的传统观点。

《烧毁的城市》横跨伦敦郊区的两个改建的军火仓库（同时也是 Punchdrunk 的总部），是 Punchdrunk 沉浸式互动美学实践的延续，以《伊利亚特》中阐述的特洛伊战争故事为动力，赫卡柏和阿伽门农。到达会场后，我被要求将手机锁在一个阻挡手机信号的袋子里；整个晚上我都带着这个包。然后我和其他五名观众被分成一组，并被带进一个小房间，让人想起十九世纪的古物大厅，在那里我被要求戴上醉酒面具（即兴喜剧《El Capitano》的变体）并受到一位主持人兼嘉年华叫卖者的鼓励，走我自己的路。他那不祥而又诱人的话语在我耳边响起，我被独自送进一扇没有标记的门。

在另一边，我发现自己身处迷宫般的帐篷里。当我漫步时，看到一个又一个让人想起军事营地的小插曲，我想：“我和阿伽门农一起在奥利斯吗？” 尽管当时营地似乎无人居住，但营地里却充满了生命的迹象：凌乱的铺盖卷；喝了一半的饮料；最近熄灭的香烟；信件、照片和其他散落在各处的蜉蝣。回想起触摸我发现的东西的邀请，我看到了欧里庇得斯、埃斯库罗斯和荷马的文字片段，它们被塞在药剂瓶里，并潦草地写在日记的页面上。在远处，我听到低语声和偶尔的尖叫声，由斯蒂芬·多比精心创作的令人肾上腺素的梦幻配乐凸显了这一点。快到营地的尽头时，我来到一个房间，吊床高高低低地挂着。一位身着军装的孤独表演者，暗示二十世纪的伟大战争就像被追赶一样进入，然后从一个吊床移到另一个吊床，以精心编排和复杂的舞蹈。他就像一条被网捕获的鱼。当我穿过这片拥挤的帐篷时，我不断地被覆盖在地板上的沙袋绊倒。这种对我身体平衡的挑战与我接下来两个半小时的整体躯体和智力体验是一致的。[完页 555]

维尼修斯·塞勒斯在《燃烧之城》中。照片：朱利安·艾布拉姆斯。

[完第556页]

离开帐篷区，我发现自己身处一个巨大的房间，一端有一个大楼梯，通往二楼的阳台，阳台贯穿整个空间。在这个巨大的房间里，以及在偏僻的角落和侧面，迈锡尼阿伽门农的更大故事的片段以壮观的方式上演。这包括牺牲...