Punchdrunk are back after 8 years! I’ve generally stopped writing about other immersive / interactive experiences that I’ve participated in. It’s hard enough to find time to write about my own projects! However, I absolutely have to make an exception for ‘The Burnt City’! I’ve been 3 times. Once to a preview and twice once it was officially open.
We’re incredibly fortunate in the UK to have the world leaders in large-scale immersive performance, Punchdrunk and even more fortunate that they finally have a new show: The Burnt City. It’s been 8 years since The Drowned Man (although technically they did Kabeiroi and The Third Day more recently but they are different types of experience).
Recently opened at the V and A Museum, Elmgreen and Dragset’s Tomorrow is an unrealised film script set in a fake London Apartment. It tells the story of Norman Swann, an elderly failed architect who is on the verge of bankruptcy and having to sell his inherited Kensington apartment in order to survive. On arriving in the Hallway of his apartment you find a pile of abandoned books, which contain the script to this unrealised film. You can explore Norman’s apartment with other house guests who may choose to follow the script or just wander around and enjoy the space.