Punchdrunk: The Drowned Man

The Best Theatrical Experience.

The Drowned Man, by Punchdrunk has become somewhat of a legend among aspiring theater students as it is not only entirely unconventional, but is also an entirely interactive and immersive experience. 

From before you even enter the studios where the piece is set, you feel the buzz and excitement all around you from the other audience members, all apprehensive, nervous and yet strangely excited. You have to queue to get in and they require you to leave all bags in their bag storage area, for reasons which become obvious once you enter the main stage performance space.

The studio is built up of four different floors. You enter the performance via the elevator after being given a mask which you are to wear for the duration of the performance. The Gatekeeper gives you a bit of an idea of what you are about to experience whilst encouraging you to stay away from friends and experience this performance by yourself. This may seem daunting, given the creepy music and dark hallways, however I found it to be highly beneficial to split up from my friends as this helped add to the realistic feel of the performance. 

The first floor, from what I could see was only props which you were allowed to touch and examine as you liked. The belonged to the characters of the play and every detail was absolute perfection. You could spend hours trawling through the different rooms, exploring the lives of the characters through their possessions.

However the main action happened on the upper floors. Characters were scattered around the building in different rooms and each of them had their own, highly detailed story. There were two 'main' storylines, the William and Mary story, and the Marshal and Wendy story, one of which was an inversion of the other. 

The characters all interacted with each other at one point or another, using a mixture of dialogue and contemporary dance to convey the emotions and aims of each scene before they would split off. The wonderful thing about this was that you could follow any characters you liked!

After examining the first floor for a length of time, I then found William and Mary and decided to follow their story line for a while, swapping between following William and Mary and some other of the main characters until that storyline was finished (each story looped 3 times). After that, I followed random characters, which turned out to be highly confusing at first, as I had no idea who they were in relation to anyone else, but somehow found Marshal, entirely by accident, and managed to catch the end of his story with Wendy before everyone was gathered together for a truly haunting ending.

The experience was entirely amazing. Props, set, costume, performance... everything was done in so much detail that the world and stories truly came alive in that space. I would say that it is not only one of the best performances, but also one of the best experiences I have ever had and has also given me an idea for a new project I would like to do! (When I eventually get money that is...)

Anyway, The Drowned Man is only on for another few performances, so if I were you, I'd get down there straight away!

Tickets can be found HERE.

Other than that, that's all from me for today. Catch you soon :)

xxx

The May Ball~

Because everyone needs a Cinderella Moment for their life, right?

And this was mine :) The annual May Ball is an event which combines the Computer Science students with Languages and Religion&Theology students to create one hell of a party! 

As you may have already guessed, the theme this year was Midnight Masquerade and, well, with my obsession with dressing up along with pretty masks, I knew I wouldn't be able to risk attending this year! (Also, great food...) :p

For my outfit, I didn't really have a huge amount of time or the money to go out and find the 'perfect dress', so I decided to shove a mishmash of lace and puffy skirts together with a corset. And luckily, having been to Venice the previous year, I already had a mask handy! (see above). The shoes I bought in a huge rush on the day from New Look, and they are possibly the best buy I've done in a while. And just to add a little more 'fancy' to the dress, I added a pair of pattered knee high socks (Primark) over the tights, just for that little extra detail! As for my hair, I initially tried to copy Danaerys Targarean but soon discovered that was a feat too impossible to achieve with my mere mortal hands, so decided to opt for the simple, yet classic 'half up-half down' hairstyle :p

And here it is! drum roll please...

                         

And as I was lucky enough to catch myself a date from the Computer Science department, here we are!

After that, we took the oh so glamorous Magic Bus to our location, the Midland Hotel, an amazing hotel, just off of Deansgate and simply beautiful to be in! We were greeted by a professional photographer!

(My course mates and I!)

We were soon rushed past the actual guests of the Hotel and swiftly into a reception where we were served with some lovely Buck's Fizz whilst we all observed each other's outfits and masks. It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone get all dressed up into beautiful dresses and masks and just to see everyone so happy after our last stressful week of classes!

After this, we were finally led into the main room where we were served a delightful array of food! And yes, this is the point where I post pictures of my food and gush about it. (Food has really become my life - you should see my Instagram!)

Menu:

Starter- a lovely chicken and mushroom pie 

Main- roasted steak with potatoes, carrots and delicious gravy!

Desert - a wonderful creamy trifle-type thing with some chocolates and tea to wash it down :)

All of this was served against the background of a brilliant live Jazz band, who played hits such as Nat King Cole's 'LO-V-E' and Frank Sinatra's 'Fly me to the Moon', two of my absolute favourite songs ever! The singer was brilliant and had a good sense of humour too! 

The staff had also provided us with some Champagne bubbles, to keep up entertained whilst we were waiting for food. I must admit, I was a little too amused by this and spent the majority of my meal time messing around with the bubbles too! :p

(Not that I was the only one...)

After that, we hit the dance floor where my favourite Kesha's 'Timber' was played a lot, along with the Killer's 'Mr Brightside' and 'the Cha Cha Slide'! So there really was something for everyone! The jazz band came back on for a brief period as well!

(caught on the dance floor!)

The night on whole was a complete success and I found was just such a great way to just get out and relax after such a stressful term! The food and music was all supreme and just relaxing with my friends (and meeting new ones!) was really really fun. 

So I just wanted to say a big thank you to the committee who organised it and hope that everyone else who attended had as much fun as I did! 

Other than that, it's time for me to go, so see you next time!

xxx