#Emursive

[localcuttlefish]

Post-canon Lord Macduff, anyone?

Walk with me, let me mindspike you. Parallel between Lady Macbeth frantically trying to wash the blood off her hands, and post-canon Lord Macduff desperately trying to scrub the blood off the sheets and floor until his own hands start to bleed.

Anyways. The murder scene in the mirror in the Macduffs’ residence in Sleep No More, am I right?

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

[scorchedthesnake]

Life and Trust and Plausible Deniability

A simple image can do a lot of the work, can’t it?

There’s perhaps a hypothetical universe where one could assess Life and Trust in a vacuum, a show with no lineage or heritage, that is not opening at the close of a beloved predecessor and step-parent, and not appearing around a year after the closure of its nearest sibling.

But as Vice President Harris might say, Life and Trust did not just fall out of the coconut tree, it exists in the context of all in which it lives and all that came before it. If The Burnt City and its subsequent fate tell us a tale of what Punchdrunk took away from Sleep No More and where they wanted to go next (and how that worked out), then Life and Trust is a parallel tale of the lessons Emursive has taken from their long, successful production of Punchdrunk’s smash hit, and what they viewed as elements that might put lightning in a bottle once again. 

(Significant spoilers to follow).

I start with a couple of provisos. As of this writing, I’ve only seen Life and Trust once, and I know that’s far too little time to have a deep familiarity with everything happening in the building. I have other visits planned still, and look forward to those, because the production is on a massive scale and I know there are some major elements I did not see with my own eyes. I find myself, uncharacteristically for someone who mostly writes about Sleep No More or newer Punchdrunk productions I prebook extensive visits to, in the shoes of an average theatergoer whom Life and Trust has so far had just once opportunity to ensnare, the way Sleep No More lodged itself in my soul in March 2011 and never let me go.

But I also want to note that the last year of loving Sleep No More has been a tumultuous one and I am very eager for it to go away. The news of its intended closure hit like a ton of bricks and the farewell has been long. The repeated extensions have long since expended the good will last November’s news awoke, and I am now, even as one of the original superfans of the New York production, extremely eager to move on. I have said my goodbyes, had one last Porter 1:1 with Paul Zivkovich, I have grown more and more irritated at the lack of a solid end date while my $500 in final weekend tickets loiters in the ether somewhere, bankrolling Emursive’s new venture, I suppose. Like I said a long time ago when I first thought I was done with SNM, my heart now longs for something new.

Nor did I find that at The Burnt City. Punchdrunk’s latest solo offering had many things going for it, but it unfortunately failed to find its audience and failed to establish itself as a long-term lifestyle and entertainment feature. The expertise in doing that, it would seem, lies more with the Emursive side of the house, and left to their own path, Punchdrunk opted for a show that was, as I wrote in my review earlier: 

brooding, sad and full of unceasing lamentation – fitting, perhaps, to our terrible moment in history, and probably edifying – but a night at this museum will never occupy the sort of lifestyle position a night at the McKittrick Hotel continues to be

I am sad that I was correct in that prediction. I love large-format immersive work, and I want it to succeed, even when it’s not exactly my own personal jam. 

So this brings us to Life and Trust, an Emursive production with an entirely different creative team – and including a significant number of notable Punchdrunk performance alumni. Promotion for this new production highlights this lineage: “the producers of Sleep No More bring to you a new theatrical experience of money, power, and desire.” It’s an accurate statement, and Emursive are right to claim a share of the success Sleep No More enjoyed. But you can also imagine the kind of transference that follows: comments on the ads are full of people tagging friends and saying, “new from the Sleep No More people” – unaware that the Sleep No More creative team have nothing to do with this. Punchdrunk themselves have had no hand in this new production, and yet their reputation, by way of the legacy of their previous work, are deeply bound up in it. So there’s inevitably a delicate and potentially uncomfortable intertwining of the two companies even after their partnership ends when Sleep No More finally closes.

To be absolutely clear: I don’t know if that delicate balance involves conflict. I have few sources either way, and because this is to a certain degree an internal family affair, those sources I do have are reluctant to share a view. Further, there’s certainly non-disclosure and non-disparagement terms in place that mean we’ll probably never get an unvarnished view of how the descent and birth of Life and Trust has been received particularly on the Punchdrunk side. For all I know, it has either explicit or implicit blessing to take elements of the Sleep No More format and apply them to an entirely different intellectual property and be used by an entirely different creative team. 

But, and I am merely speculating here, imagine what it might feel like, if you were a long-time Punchdrunk person, whose career had been built in developing and refining a certain theatrical practice and methodology, and gaining widespread acclaim for it. From Faust to several versions of Sleep No More to The Drowned Man and The Burnt City. Imagine what it might feel like to watch that fall into others’ hands – the hope you would have for gentle care for it, the anxiety you would have for its future stewardship and success. Would you wish the hallmarks of your previous work could be, quite literally, trademarks instead, with legal protections and real ownership? Or would you be pleased to see that way of storytelling proliferate well beyond your own limits, and for that matter, beyond your control? In any case, it is surely not just simple and straightforward.

And so one cannot come to Life and Trust without wondering how much it relies on its predecessor, and asking how carefully those methods have been applied.

---

It would be deeply, grossly unfair to say Life and Trust is a “rip-off” of Sleep No More – that implies theft that hasn’t happened, and a direct imitation that isn’t intended, desired or even possible given that the material is different. Instead, what we encounter is a network of numerous elements that are structurally analogous, as exactingly as they can be to emulate another, previous mode of experience and calculatedly divergent to deflect critique of that similarity. The experience is very deliberately meant to feel familiar to a Sleep No More audience. There are also layers of variation to ensure you know it is not the same; the differences ought, putatively, to be indicative of what Life and Trust’s creators think you will want more of; and what you will want less of. It is very plainly a response to and mutation of its predecessor.

The masks, as I intimated before, tell a lot of this story. They are larger – as is this show. They are more ornate, in a kind of hellenistic way, and you will indeed enter spaces that are glitzier and glossier than anything you’ve seen before. They are also unnecessarily complicated, with horns that catch on the set and obscure already difficult sightlines; they are black for contradistinction with ‘the other mask show,’ but that choice has significant consequences for the effect they create in the space and what that implies about the meaning of audienceship here. But they do effectively communicate to you: you know how this works, you’ve done this before, you will don this and be silent, clasp your hands behind you and follow the loops.

Familiarity is everywhere when you enter at 69 Beaver Street, but maybe not with what you’re expecting. It’s not the entryway into Sleep No More; it’s the entry landing at Gallow Green. There’s jazz playing and posters (far too few in variety, and not printed full bleed, sadly) advertising the bank. You check in, you wind through recursive hallways (not a dark maze, but) to coat check and phone check, before you head up to Conwell Coffee House. I am a very big fan of Conwell Coffee House, it’s a gorgeous space and a clever daytime front for the show. It is also quite bright, which is helpful because there’s active food and beverage service but also quite a few more sharp edges than Manderley has. It does, however, contrast tonally with what comes later and the divide between the two feels jarringly abrupt. You are issued not a playing card room key but an investor-type classification card. I wish this were some kind of real world object connected to other networks of meaning, rather than these more blunt, functional hermeneutics. Like a lot of features, it was made-for-show, and the artifice requires your buy-in.

From here, a staff member will bring you to a briefing room where you await the arrival of Mr. Conwell. After an introductory narrative, one of his assistants gives pre-flight and distributes masks, then off you go. Pre-flight, you’ll note it’s the same but with different words and some nice period touches.

The framing narrative is, if I have followed this correctly: you’re meeting with bank magnate Conwell on the eve of the stock market crash of 1929. He reveals that yes, 40 years ago he did make a deal with a servant of the devil, an illusionist passing through who gives him a recipe for a general analgesic to help his sister with a bone condition, which becomes the foundation of Conwell’s fortune. The devil’s agents now return to collect his prize but first he will get one night of revisiting the events of 40 years previous, which were, I guess, “revelries.” 

This isn’t strictly how Goethe’s Faust unfolds in any sense, particularly not in that what Faust stood to gain from Mephistopheles was wealth. Faust lends a number of elements to whatever story is being told here, and I admit, I am going to need a few more visits to gather it all up, but from what I did see, a lot of the major plot points are here and are neatly and clearly presented: infatuation with Gretchen, a fight with her brother (as a boxing match, rather than a duel, but an excellent scene nevertheless), Gretchen’s arrest (if there’s infanticide I didn’t see it yet) and eventual condemnation. 

As a quick aside: yes, I am trained as a Germanist, but not specialized in this period. I’ve read Faust a a few times as well as most of Goethe’s other plays; The Elective Affinities, and some essays, but my training is late 19th and early 20th century. So I come at this as someone who knows Faust reasonably well, but not in extreme detail. Instead, I am better equipped to view this through a lens tinted by more recent Faust adaptations, notably Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus, and his son Klaus Mann’s Mephisto – both of which could be interesting intersections with this version, and I can’t rule out that they aren’t – but haven’t seen sufficient signs so far. But believe me I was looking for hetaera esmeralda references and will be delighted should I ever find any.

Life and Trust is certainly more of a, let’s say, nominal Faust adaptation. Gone is the prologue in the theater, or the prologue in heaven. We’ve got Faust’s wager with Mephisto, but I’ve seen no signs yet of the parallel wager between Mephisto and God that gives the play its philosophical, theological, and intellectual direction and significance. As we gather from the finale, Mephistopheles collects Faust’s soul, dons him in a straightjacket and puts him on an elevator to hell – which isn’t even how Faust I ends, let alone Faust II. I don’t think it’s a strike against the show to have taken these liberties with material an audience does not know well. The Drowned Man struggled with the unfamiliarity of Woyzeck to such a degree that they distributed handbills with a plot summary at entry. And since we’re not getting to warp across time and space in Part II in this show, it’s a fair if crude conclusion (but I’ll return to the finale later).

Alongside this is what I began to call the immigration subplot - some number of characters, especially down in the industrial and carnival levels, are plainly immigrants of various origin and under surveillance and persecution by something called the American Protection Association, or similar, which keeps extremely spotty files on some of them. Gretchen’s case file indicates her name is Gretchen and her alias Margaret – they don’t seem to know how German diminutives work, and neither do you. I encountered one character in the furnace or mine area who eventually took me up to his room, danced with some clowns, then pulled me for a 1:1. I am going to have to guess it is a placeholder and not yet complete, because it mostly consisted of instructions to not hit my head when leaning back to see a photo he showed me. This sent me on a quest which does not, evidently, lead to his Sicilian mother, much to my disappointment. 

Something that stood out to me in many scenes is that they felt rushed for exposition. Which is to say – a performer would arrive in a space with another and immediately enter dance choreography with them. Accordingly, I found myself having a hard time ascertaining the nature of their relationships and the intention of their interactions. Characterization on the whole – and there are *a lot* of characters, does not yet feel particularly strong, either. I was glad to have just enough anchors in my knowledge of Faust to glean who was Gretchen, who was Valentine, and I knew the always-brilliant Parker Murphy was Conwell / Faust. Mephisto, well, I gathered that from his corset, because as Hamilton taught us, villainy and faggotry are a good pairing. When I saw about ten other people at the finale I hadn’t seen before, I thought: I don’t even know who the people I followed are, who are all of you? I don’t say this to slight the performances of these roles – which are energetic and engaging. Jake Warren, an extremely tall, handsome and wet man, was outstanding as Valentine (mostly I stumbled on him by luck, in a bathtub, but then went with my follow-whoever-is-cutest approach that utterly ruined my first time at The Burnt City – Zagreus, whose loop had not yet been written, alas). Instead, I had the impression the performers have not yet had much time to settle into the space and learn how to best relate to and use it to tell their stories. So, there’s a lot of reason to expect this is something that’s going to improve dramatically as the run goes on. 

The space. My god, the sets. I cannot fathom how much money has been poured into making some of these rooms. Well, I can, as a good chunk of it was my money once. There are some absurdly gorgeous and impressive places and as you descend further and further you wonder, how is this in a 4th level subbasement? Why is this basement nicer than my apartment? What is that glowing obelisk? Am I going to die when I slip on this tile and hit my head on that concrete dais (I almost did)? Is this Poodle Room going to get use? Do Fraggles live in the LED forest? Seriously, I loved that LED forest so much, until I took note of the floor material which jolted me right out of feeling like I was in it. And then I turned the corner and saw more of the tragically ubiquitous MEPHISTO posters that coat – and I absolutely mean coat – many of the transitional hallways. I hope this is just a temporary measure, and judging how the posters are just inkjet printouts, they’re almost doomed to be in the humidity - but it is stunning how some rooms have a degree of finish and opulence that boggles the mind, and others look like a middle school drama club production step and repeat. The set is absolutely the star of this show, except for when it’s not, and when it’s not it’s downright embarrassing. What isn’t there (yet) is the kind of object depth that we’re used to from a Punchdrunk set, where there’s enough detritus of actual life that you’re able to believe people use the space for whatever its fictive intention is. I have heard the set was the cause of a delay in the opening of previews, so perhaps there’s plenty more furnishing still to come. 

Choreographically, don’t expect anything to break your brain or be outside the conventions of contemporary dance. There are only so many ways to roll onto a couch or writhe on a table, we can probably all do it ourselves, laying an inverted arm on a surface and pulling ourselves over it. You know the move, Banquo does it, Boy Witch does it, everybody does it, it must mean something! There are several fight scenes though, and the big Valentine / Mephisto / Conwell boxing match is absolutely spectacular; Dorian Gray and Tall Hot Man in a horse mask was also gorgeously rendered and full of tension (and ‘the gay shit’, which is what we were all searching for). Speaking of which – I also saw a scene of two lesbian lovers divided by a jail cell gate – no idea who the characters are, but their scene together was powerful and gut-wrenching as they were split apart and a guard came and exerted state violence.

Which brings us to the soundscape. I had been spoiled early on that a significant amount of the score is new original composition, and this has been polarizing. For my part, as a bass clarinetist, I actually enjoyed much of what I heard and presumed to be composed for the show. It also needs to be said: bravo for hiring a composer to take on such a task, we need more of that. I think the vibe it created was effective - pressing and a bit frenetic. It did not, unfortunately, feel cinematic in the way we are accustomed to when Stephen Dobbie draws on his vast encyclopedic knowledge of film scores to find utterly perfect cues. I couldn’t help but wonder if this choice was partly about risk mitigation, given that we’ve never had a good conclusive answer as to how thorough a Punchdrunk show is with its licensing arrangements, but in lieu of that unique talent, I actually thought the new music was a good alternative. The unfortunate part is that I can barely remember any of it. 

Where I was disappointed, actually, was in uses of familiar material to score scenes. Erik Satie with dejected vaudevillians? Groundbreaking. Bach for a fight scene with the fascist cop? Instantly evoked Kristallnacht in Schindler’s List and its not especially well-received pairing with English Suite No. 2. I have been thinking about the music of Punchdrunk working in a kind of inverted Verfremdungseffekt – the use of familiar sound and potentially text to establish dramatic context when the theatrical modality itself is paradoxically alienating but also operating to create the impression of intimacy. I have also been thinking about what a powerful intertextual indicator soundtrack choices can be – having finally watched Dark City and seeing where the cue that was used for The Burnt City’s loop reset was used in the film, and wow – what an intelligent and meaningful choice. I feel like these are missed opportunities to build a network of meaning around the space and the performances to heighten their impact and broaden their interpretative potential.

Gradually, events culminate and the audience conducts upward to a ballroom sequence, which gradually conducts out a door into an extremely impressive stairway upwards that you have not seen before this point. And *then* it conducts further upward into the actual finale space, which is dark and full of various platforms. The finale then winds on and on and on, nearly interminably, in what I can only describe as a “Banker’s Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation” number. The demonic helpers toss the blood-signed contract between them. The rest of the cast don trenchcoats and bowlers. Dollar bills rain from the sky and money is shredded as Conwell is laced into a straitjacket and disapparated by magic trick into the elevator to hell. For a show that so insisted on punching you in the face about being Faust that they bolded those letters in the logo, the gruesomely literal representation here shouldn’t be surprising, but if you come away from it not feeling talked down to, consider yourself in luck. Disastrous finales aren’t doom – I despised the finale of The Drowned Man, the show I otherwise consider to be the absolute finest in this format, because it massively broke the engagement mode with the performers (and the Riverdance line was just too silly for the tone of the show otherwise, and not in that great haunting A Chorus Line finale kind of way either). They’ll obviously work to refine it, but it’s a place where the big Broadway lineage of the show’s direction becomes very evident. It concludes with applause and an effective curtain call for the cast – I appreciate the chance to recognize them, but when you’re accustomed to the spell not lifting until you’re all the way out, it also feels like a cold shower.

On the way out, I had to speak with a staff member about a bad fall I had taken – backing away from performers who suddenly started to move quickly, I collided with another audience member, tried to move the other direction and tripped over a set feature, narrowly missing its sharp edge with my head as I fell onto my wrist. They took all the details – I assured them this wasn’t about liability but just a note that that fight scene needs a steward since the room has so many hazards – and they listened intently. Customer care at Life and Trust so far has been absolutely excellent, particularly in the wake of my cancelled first performance. This is something where Emursive’s long-term experience on their side of Sleep No More is a tremendous asset. These shows are, after all, mass entertainment. We get so enamored of the art side, and it flatters ourselves to focus on that, that we forget this is entertainment on a vast industrial scale and it takes a particular expertise to make that work effectively. Punchdrunk did not really have it down when Peep opened at The Burnt City, and things had only somewhat improved when I went back at the end. For institutions that need to build a loyal returner audience and good word-of-mouth, it’s indispensable.

---

For a show in its absolute infancy, Life and Trust is quite an achievement: it is operating at a vast and complicated scale relatively smoothly, and with a high level of technical achievement. Emursive’s focus is plainly on impressive scenic engineering and some high-flash spectacular set pieces. The finer details, thus far, are lacking. I think we can grant some grace to a show that has been running a couple of weeks in previews when compared with something that is in the fourteenth year of its third iteration. But if I think to another vast show I spent a lot of time at recently, also when it was in its early previews, I’m struck by a particular hollowness at Life and Trust that I hope my next visit or two will help to cure, but worry is out of its scope. That’s an intellectual and conceptual depth, ambition and vision that I am hoping to see from someone but haven’t got to yet. It’s gorgeous in many ways, but does not advance the state of the immersive art. It echoes and reiterates the state of the immersive art circa 2011 with a patina of more recent aesthetic trends.

For Punchdrunk’s part, Felix Barrett has indicated they intend to do no more new mask shows. I wonder if they watched brand new audience pile into The Burnt City and instantly queue for 1:1s and thought, this isn’t doing it anymore, our audience knows this game all too well. As a company, their DNA is to innovate and defy expectations, and achieve emotional response from their audience with some element of thoughtful, novel intervention. I did not detect any desire for that at Life and Trust, where the idea was plainly, do everything we did before but bigger, in black and with horns on top that you just don’t know why they’re even there. In fact they are counting on their audience knowing this game too well, and seem quite content to keep playing it.

—

The short version:

Should you go? Yes, absolutely. The set alone is worth a visit of its own.

Am I going back? At least once, because it’s being comped, and we’ll see after that.

Is it better than Sleep No More? No, but that might not matter to you, and if you like it more, great! Different tastes are good.

Will it succeed? I hope so, even if I won’t be its biggest cheerleader. It employs a lot of wonderful people and I want big, lavish productions to do well enough that more of them continue to be planned.

Will you start a new Tumblr? I’d call it Too Faust Too Furious and no, it is not 2011 anymore, and never will be again. That’s a good thing.

[exitmurderer]

Something old, something new

The new thing: Life & Trust. My reaction is very similar to what various reviewers, including the venerable Scorched, have said. Afterward, returning to the lobby I walked into an immediate debrief with friends. What did Emursive learn from running SNM for years, and how did they implement it in this show? What were their objectives? The primary one seemed to be: how to make the mask at least ten times worse than the SNM/PD mask. I say this as a glasses wearer who can't use contacts. The spaces were huge and there were many surprises and delights. The set dec itself was much less surreal. Higher style, fewer vibes. The comparison with SNM is impossible to avoid. After my first SNM, even with the old "the men are all dressed alike" problem, I could easily identify the witches, Hecate, Nurse, the Macbeths, Lady Macduff, Banquo's ghost. I could piece out the main story of the show and I could also create one from my own individual journey. With L$T, I don't know that I got a satisfying whole or a satisfying individual character story for anyone. I had just read The Picture of Dorian Gray and I saw literally zero of that content, even though I've heard it's in there. Faust, sure. There was Mephisto, there were various people brandishing paperwork. Yes, you get some info about Conwell in the pre-show, but little or nothing about any other characters. I followed the apothecary/chemist, ably played by Brandin Steffensen, and mostly got that he was doing some experimenting, on himself and possibly on prisoners and other people, with at least a couple different kinds of green fluid. There was also a fizzy purple fluid but it was unclear what that was supposed to be doing. Cops and paperwork and lots of tug-of-war dance battles were involved. Yes, it was interesting that all the characters I saw seemed to have full loops. No Matron or Hecate equivalents, no immediately obvious resident/traveler distinction. I need to think more about whether that's a feature or a bug. Probably a bit of both.

So, did it grab me? Not the way my first SNM did, certainly. Yes, I want to go back, because I want to see more spaces and more characters and I do want to see if I can get coherent character stories and a coherent overall story. I'm looking forward to that. I'm not looking forward to that horror of a mask again. We'll see how show #2 goes soon.

If the SNM double-double I did turns out to be my last time in the McKittrick, I'm very happy with it. There were plenty of the people I admire on, making the magic happen, some of them extreme veterans, some of them new since the reopening. There were some (not all, and you were missed if you weren't there) of the friends I've made in that space there as well. I don't think I need to say anything new or try to recap or even list off names. Good times. I sure will miss that place when it's finally gone.

[nagler]

Life and Trust

I was never a Life and Trust person but I feel horrible how it abruptly closed. The cast, crew, and fans deserved better than that.

In the words of the Permit lawsuits, that's bullshit Arthur.

[te-pu-si-ti]

A moment from Life And Trust

I am standing in a hall of mirrors. I have come here with a slender-framed person with blonde hair, buzzed short, wearing a sailor suit. A fortune teller. A con artist.

They look through the mirror at themselves, and then behind them. Back to the mirror, and they laugh - at us.

They start to leave, then sink to the ground in a swoon. They reach out a hand, and I help them up. They look into my eyes and clutch me tightly, breaking into sobs. My heart breaks...

...And then they stop. Their face goes perfectly blank.

Cold, robotic, they circle around me, staring...

...and then wink theatrically.

I can't help but laugh. I too have been conned. (I love to be lied to. That's why I came here.)

[doctor-who-war-doctor]

I might catch some flack for this but I'm gonna say it:

The original music in Life and Trust is better than the music from Sleep No More

[trustedteller]

Life and Trust Unofficial Cast List

*performer originated role

Notes:

Dates indicate first recorded performance and last recorded performance. (Original cast swings/rehearsal directors are credited with a first performance of 6/17/24.)

Brackets indicate a performer's given swing name.

The characters Alesiter, Sgt. Bryant, Emma, Farouk, Officer Harold, Hella, Isis, Marco, and Woland were retired from the show on 1/26/25.

The characters Comstock, Daeva, LHW, Rafi, and Valdes were added to the show on 1/29/25. (Notes on character updates can be found below the cast list).

Life and Trust Cast List with Portraits

Bria Bacon (Emma*) 6/17/24 - 8/5/24

Collin Baja (JG Conwell, Valentin) 9/30/24 - 4/5/25

Steven Bangerter (Lenny Ned Lyons) 4/16/26 - 4/19/25

Ian Bedford (JG Conwell 1929) 9/25/24 - 1/12/25

Tony Bordonaro (Officer Harold*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Sophie Bortolussi (Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Mikaela Sinclair Brandon (Gretchen) 1/30/25 - 4/19/25

Nathaniel Buchsbaum (Lenny Ned Lyons, Stanford Wagner, Mr. Vaudeville*) 6/17/24 - 2/8/25

Doug Burkhardt (JG Conwell, Comstock, Dr. Kellogg, Mephisto, Valentin) [Cornelius] 11/22/24 - 4/19/25

Marc J Cardarelli (JG Conwell, Dr. Kellogg, Lenny Ned Lyons*) 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Catheryn Clifford (Daeva*, Isis) 11/21/24 - 4/2/25

Jonathan Colafrancesco (Comstock, Dr. Kellogg, Lenny Ned Lyons, Rafi, Stanford Wagner, Valdes) [Christopher] 12/22/24 - 4/19/25

Aaron Dalla Villa (Aleister, Basil Conwell, Dorian Gray, Lenny Ned Lyons, Mephisto, Mr. Vaudeville) [Ivan] 6/17/24 - 3/2/25

Tiffany Violet de Alba (Con Artist, Gertrude Davenport, Evelyn, Marie Rontgen-Vane, Megaera) [Ines] 6/17/24 - 12/01/24

Erik Debono (Basil Conwell, Dorian, Lenny Ned Lyons, Mephisto, Rafi, Mr. Vaudeville) [James] 11/27/24 - 4/19/25

Victoria DeRenzo (Evelyn) 8/21/24 - 4/16/25

Charles-Alexis Desgagnés (Aleister, Dorian Gray, Officer Harold, JG Conwell, Dr. Kellogg, Stanford Wagner) [Nicholas] 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Cara Diaz (Emma) 8/29/24 - 1/26/25

Mia Dilena (Gretchen, Naima Conwell*, Zavia) 6/17/24 - 4/2/25

Brendan Duggan (Aleister (finale only), Comstock, Farouk, Sgt. F. Bryant, Dr. Kellogg, Megaera (intro only), Valentin, Woland) [Theo] 6/17/24 - 4/13/25

Zachary Eisenstat (Dr. Kellogg, Valentin, Woland*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Raymond Ejiofor (Stanford Wagner*) 6/17/24 - 12/23/24

Leigh-Ann Esty (Daeva, Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane) 1/30/25 - 4/19/25

Lenin Fernandez (Lenny Ned Lyons, Stanford Wagner) 1/30/25 - 4/19/25

Patrick Ferreri (Dr. Kellogg, Valdes) 9/8/24 - 4/19/25

Kim Fischer (Aleister*, Comstock, Lenny Ned Lyons) 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Jennifer Florentino (Gretchen*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Reshma G Gajjar (Hella*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Douglas J Gillespie (Aleister, JG Conwell, Officer Harold, Dr. Kellogg, Stanford Wagner) [Henry] 6/17/24 - 1/25/25

Spencer William Grossman (Mr. Vaudeville, Valdes) 2/6/25 - 4/19/25

Annie Grove (Con Artist*, Zavia) 6/17/24 - 4/14/25

Alonso Guzman (Farouk*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Dorchel Haqq (Emma, Gretchen, Hella, Isis, Naima Conwell, Sibyl Rontgen-Vane) [Angelika] 6/17/24 - 1/25/25

Rachel Harris (Sibyl Rontgen-Vane) 11/25/24 - 3/2/25

Casey Bronwyn Howes (Mrs. Vaudeville*) 6/17/24 - 4/5/25

Mio Ishikawa (Naima Conwell, Gertrude Davenport, Gretchen, Sibyl Rontgen Vane)[Helen] 3/3/25 - 4/19/25

Eriko Jimbo (Con Artist, Gertrude Davenport, Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane, Megaera, Mrs. Vaudeville) [Pantalis] 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Karl Kenzler (JG Conwell 1929*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Andrew Kutryk (Valentin) **Never Debuted

Heather Lang (Evelyn*) 6/17/24 - 8/19/24

Majella Bess Loughran (Gertrude Davenport, Gretchen, Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane, Mrs. Vaudeville) [Marion] 6/17/24 - 1/15/25

Jodi McFadden (Gertrude Davenport*, Evelyn, Megaera) 6/17/24 - 4/6/25

Zach McNally (JG Conwell, Dr. Kellogg, Stanford Wagner, Valdes) 2/28/25 - 4/17/25

Miguel Miranda (Comstock, Basil Conwell, Dorian Gray, Rafi)[Berloiz] 3/2/25 - 4/19/25

Nando Morland (Basil Conwell*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Andrea Murillo (Gertrude Davenport, Evelyn, Megaera, Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane) 2/28/25 - 4/18/25

Jacob Nahor (Basil Conwell, Mr. Vaudeville) 1/10/25 - 4/19/25

Madison Olandt (Con Artist, L.H.W., Sibyl Rontgen-Vane, Mrs. Vaudeville, Zavia) [Juliette] 1/15/25 - 4/19/25

Ny Opong (L.H.W.*, Megaera) 12/15/24 - 4/19/25

Kevin M Pajarillaga (Basil Conwell, Lenny Ned Lyons, Marco, Mephisto, Mr. Vaudeville) [Hector] 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Marla Phelan (Con Artist, Zavia*) 6/17/24 - 4/2/25

Christopher Ralph (Rafi*) 1/30/25 - 4/19/25

Randolph Curtis Rand (JG Conwell 1929*) 6/17/24 - 1/25/25

Luca Renzi (Marco*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Babou Sanneh (Basil Conwell, Dorian, Megaera, Mephsito, Stanford Wagner) [Milton] 3/8/25 - 4/19/25

Andrea Farley Shimota (Daeva, Naima Conwell, Mrs. Vaudeville, Sibyl Rontgen-Vane ) 2/28/25 - 4/19/25

Gabriella Sibeko (Naima Conwell, Sibyl Rontgen-Vane*, Mrs. Vaudeville) 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Tori Sparks (Evelyn, Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane, Megaera*) 6/17/24 - 3/2/25

Brandin S Steffensen (Dr. Kellogg*) 6/17/24 - 9/2/24

Hannah Straney (Naima Conwell, Gertrude Davenport, Evelyn, Gretchen, L.H.W., Dr. Marie Rontgen-Vane) [Nicoletta] 1/5/25 - 4/19/25

Derek Tabada (Dorian Gray, Sgt. F. Bryant, Farouk, Marco, Rafi, Valentin, Woland) [Adrian] 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Tony Torn (JG Conwell 1929*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Mike Tyus (Mephisto*) 6/17/24 - 12/22/24

Robert Vail (Dorian Gray*) 6/17/24 - 10/30/24

Ryan VanCompernolle (Con Artist, Isis*, L.H.W., Mrs. Vaudeville, Zavia) 6/17/24 - 4/17/25

Jacob Michael Warren (Comstock, Valentin*) 6/17/24 - 3/23/25

Maleek M Washington (Sgt. F. Bryant*) 6/17/24 - 1/26/25

Madeline A Wright (Daeva, Emma, Evelyn, Gretchen, Hella, Isis, Naima, Sibyl Rontgen-Vane, Zavia) [Vera] 6/17/24 - 4/19/25

Resident Directors/Vacation Swings:

Steven Apicello (Aleister, Mephisto, Woland)

Evelyn Chen (Hella, Megaera)

Christopher “Cree” Grant (Stanford Wagner)

Jesse Kovarsky (Mr. Vaudeville)

Zach Martens (Valdes)

Parker Murphy (JG Conwell*, Mephisto, Valdes, Valentin)

Guests:

Andrew Barth Feldman 10/28/24

Ephiram Sykes

Daniel K. Isaac

Notes on Character Changes:

Comstock is inspired by and includes elements from Sgt. Bryant (created by Maleek Washington) and Officer Harold (created by Tony Bordonaro)

Daeva is inspired by and includes elements from Hella (created by Reshma Gajjar) and Aleister (created by Kim Fischer)

LHW is inspired by and includes elements from Emma (created by Bria Bacon) and Isis (created by Ryan VanCompernolle)

Rafi is inspired by and includes elements from Marco (created by Luca Renzi) and Farouk (created by Alonso Guzman)

Valdes is inspired by and includes elements from Woland (created by Zachary Eisenstat) and Aleister (created by Kim Fischer)

[white-throated-packrat]

So which characters did you follow at Life & Trust this time?

current dilemma: very badly wanna go to new york in october for one last Sleep No More (unless they extend it again, lol) but cannot really justify the $$$ of 2 nights in a hotel

in theory I could just stay overnight but if I’m going all that way I wanna do Life & Trust too, so that means 2 nights

I was hoping going midweek would make it semi-affordable but. nah

[spookiesloop]

Idk if there’s many other NYC theater people who follow me here that I don’t already know irl but. It’s so funny to me that Saw the Musical has had a longer run than Life & Trust wound up getting. Rip

[greenlikethesea]

had a job interview today! i think it went well. it would be a really great opportunity to be on the production team for a huge summer arts festival in the berkshires. pay's a little low but i think that i can get them to jack it up a little. also they're trying immersive stuff a la emursive (sleep no more, etc) which should be a fabulous challenge.

[localcuttlefish]

PORTER PIPE BOMB. YAYYY

See below the cut for the blank version and the close up of Porter!

Lyrics altered and thieved from Valentine Shanty.

[scorchedthesnake]

Just a quick note to say I still do plan to finish my series of SNM memories, along with two other posts to wrap things up. The repeated postponement of the closing has taken some of the urgency out of things.

This week I am seeing LiFe And trUST, and will post my thoughts about that next.

[5nake-eater]

I wish a better company produced Sleep No More in NYC, I love that show with all my heart but Emursive truly screwed the pooch with that one. Glad Punchdrunk is partnering with the Shed for Viola’s Room, if we ever get another masked show I hope they find a different partner to bring it here

[nagler]

Sleep No More Is Closing

It feels like my 20s are actually over.

(Alex, you're married and 35)

LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I WENT TO MANDERLEY AGAIN

For years, Sleep No More was my go-to answer for What To Do for birthdays, Halloween, Christmas gifts, and out of town recommendations. I missed that first year, 2011, when everything was new and magical and things were not horribly expensive, but there was still plenty of wonder between 2012 and 2016. There wasn't just the show there were the Salons, the Follies, the parties, the roof, all the opportunities. I still do not remember everything that happened for Halloween of 2012, other than I lost a pair of glasses, was carried from the door to my bed by my sister's friends, and somehow rallied to attend the opera the following evening.

I stopped attending as much in 2016 for [reasons], but the New Years Eve of 2017 into 2018 opened me for possibility that wound up being manifested two weeks later when I met Hilary. I brought her to a dinner party that August, which wound up the first photo we posted together, when I knew I had something worth sharing. We celebrated together for a COVID-free New Years Eve of 2021 into 2022 where we looked at one another and said fuck it why aren't we engaged? Once again, two weeks later that manifested into a proposal (or a mutually agreed upon decision to propose), which turned into our wedding this past July.

There weren't really as many trips in between that dinner and now. I celebrated my birthday in 2019, which may have given Hilary a small anxiety attack as the hotel had never been her speed, but that was it until that New Years Eve. COVID obviously saw to nothing in 2020 and 2021, and it may have had the last laugh here as well with the closure of the hotel. I saw the soft reopen in February of 2022 along with the real reopening on Valentine's Day, but my knees, the cost of planning a wedding, and my persistent need to say "I'm Sleepy!" (thanks hun) kept me from becoming a regular returning customer. But I had my memories. And I had the Discord server, where I could hear all the new news of the hotel, the parties, and the joy of those discovering it for the first time.

I'm going on Sunday afternoon for a full visit and an after-show Salon, which no doubt will feature a good deal of commiserating. The raven himself will be hoarse. We will attempt tickets for the final show, where the nightingale will sing in Berkeley Square one last time.

[te-pu-si-ti]

What do we know about Life And Trust?

last updated 6 June 2024

Life and Trust is a new show in New York City from Emursive - the producers of Sleep No More. Punchdrunk, the creative team of Sleep No More from whom Emursive license SNM, are not involved.

Official website: https://lifeandtrustnyc.com/

Tickets are currently on sale for 17 June - 4 August 2024.

The show is dark on Tuesdays, and weekdays have evening shows and Saturday & Sunday have an evening and a matinee.

The venue is variously referred to as 20 Exchange Place, 69 Beaver Street, 6 Hanover Street, Conwell Tower.

It is a mostly residential skyscraper with a long history, including indeed formerly being home to a bank. The show will be taking place on the basement/sub-cellar floors.

6 Hanover Street is the home of Conwell Coffee Hall https://conwellcoffeehall.com/ a cafe which is connected to the show. There is a gorgeous mural which may contain hints to the show lore.

The show is inspired by Faust. "Experience a tale of money, sex, and power in the heart of the Financial District."

It has been in production for many years, since pre-pandemic.

The show will have dancers.

Directed by Teddy Bergman, choreography by the Kuperman Brothers, with Casting and Movement Director Stefanie Batten Bland.

Other SNM cast are rumoured to be involved but this is not confirmed.

The cast list is now online and includes many SNM alums alongside many fresh new faces.

The ticket order confirmation is extremely similar to Sleep No More.

Life And Trust will use masks.

Sensible shoes are encouraged, it is likely to be free-roaming promenade like SNM

"Please be aware that Life And Trust guests may encounter scenes with nudity and depictions of violence, sexuality and intense psychological scenarios"

and

despire the scant information available... I've booked a trip to New York to go see it.

If Punchdrunk have given up on the Mask Show as a form, and other companies are going to run with it, I want to see what they do with it.

[theconfessionofawhitemask-blog]

So long, Conwell Tower

It has been over 72 hours since I learnt life and trust is closed, abruptly, in nyc. I am trying to make some sense out of it and searched everywhere I can to understand what actually happened, but all in vain. I guess this is goodbye then, both to Conwell tower and to Emursive.

I have unfortunately only been to the Conwell tower once during my trip in nyc. Granted storyline wise, it is not as well developed as SNM and the whole format screaming SNM, but I am pleasantly surprised as to the scale of the show, the design of the venue and more importantly the performers. With my disappointment of Mckinnon, I was so happy to see a show where performers can actually dance and all the interaction actually make sense. I never need any 1-1 to like a show, and that's how I felt about Conwell tower, a show that is developing and though not very original, entertaining. I. am eager to go back and discover more. It is like the first time I went to Mckittrick or Mckinnon, I finally got a new building to explore and a new storyline to live in. I am not sure how much I can understand, but I felt inspired, satisfied and longing for more.

I don't know if anyone can understand the shock and anger I felt the moment I heard the news. I am fine to see my favorite show close but not like this. Granted the ending for SNM is a bit prolonged as it has been extended multiple times, yet the final week and the after party is so well planned. It gave the show a proper ending, and our fans a good memory. It is the opposite for life and trust. The show got shut down without any prior notice, and from what I have read so far, the performers only learnt it one hour before the news went public. Good job Emursive as thanks to you, I don't think I can watch immersive theatre again in a very long time. I have never felt so small in my life as so far, I still can't find an answer or a closure on this sudden ending. I miss Conwell Tower and the magical night I had there. Like an outsider, I could not quiet figure out the story, and like an outsider, I am forever forbidden to go back again...