Drama: The Drowned Man

We had a relaxing and well-fed time with my mum before heading off for a drowning drama to counterpoint yesterday's (backblip): Punchdrunk’s ‘The Drowned Man’ acted over four floors of a disused post office building next to Paddington station. The play is based on Woyzeck but transported to a 1960s Hollywood cinema studio and the world of hopefuls immediately outside it. As is their hallmark, Punchdrunk had created an intensely elaborate world – you could swish through the costumes in the film studio wardrobe, open drawers to discover money, notebooks or trinkets, or find files and read the contents. The action was fragmented and we were left to discover the scenes and the drama of the two parallel stories going on inside and outside the studios as well as work out what was ‘real’ and what was a film shoot. Some of it was inexplicable – I’m still not sure, despite the play’s title, why one person held another’s head underwater and recorded the gurgling – and I found it hard to piece together. Though perhaps that’s because, as I discovered at the end, I failed to find a large chunk of the action!

Obviously there was no photography allowed inside the ‘theatre’ but I was rewarded with this gas-holder on our way home.