What I really love about Punchdrunk shows is the way that I, as an audience member, am a different person depending on how I'm experiencing the show. I don't think that's what makes it immersive, but I do think it's a feeling you can only get with genuinely immersive theatre.
The best example I have of what I mean, regarding The Burnt City in particular, is one brief scene in Troy that comes shortly after the halfway point of a loop.
An invading soldier, separated from his comrades, stumbles through the semi-abandoned tenements, desperation etched across his face. He needs a drink - he's looking for water but he'll take what he can get. A young woman, frantically searching through stacks of books and papers, is interrupted when the soldier bursts in. She's terrified, she knows he's a killer; she's kind, she can see he's distressed. They freeze, looking at each other across a too-small table. After a pause, she offers him a towel; he wipes the blood off his hands. She passes him a bottle; he drinks. He gets up to leave; she flinches back against the wall. And then he is gone, and the moment is over.
And when I'm following Neoptolemus, I know that he's having a real stressful day. I've seen him unwittingly leave a trail of dead women from Mycenae to Troy, and I've seen his despair building. He never wanted to hurt anyone in the first place, he is definitely not looking to add anyone else to his death toll. And as an audience member, I want to convey this to Eurydice; I desperately want to reassure her but I know that it's not my place to try, so instead I move slowly, I stand non-threateningly, I look at her with tenderness, understanding that neither Neoptolemus nor I could make her feel safe even if we were to try so the best we can do right now is just not make it worse.
And when I'm following Eurydice, WE KNOW WHO THAT GUY IS, THAT GUY CAME HERE TO MURDER A ROYAL PRINCESS OF TROY, FUCK THAT GUY, WE ARE GOING ON HIGH ALERT AND I WILL SMACK HIM WITH MY WATER BOTTLE TO DEFEND EURY IF I HAVE TO
If I've built an emotional connection to the character I'm following (which doesn't always happen, sometimes I've just got too much of the real world scratching around inside my head for me to be able to leave it behind), it just shows itself in the various different ways I feel when I'm following a character. Whether I'm implacably stomping around with Kronos, or hanging out with my buddy Hades, or mourning far too many unnecessary deaths with Hecuba, you get options of how you're going to receive the story, and the options you go for are going to affect you directly. There's much less opportunity for this personal connection in more traditionally-staged shows, so considering the same story from different characters' perspectives just doesn't come as organically. Which is a real shame for traditionally-staged theatre, but an absolutely wonderful USP for us unfortunate Punchdrunk addicts 🧡
