The Shed and Punchdrunk (Sleep No More) will stage the North American premiere of Viola's Room, an immersive theatrical experience, later this summer. The 18-week engagement will begin June 17 at The Shed, and run through October 19.
Conceived and directed by Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett, the piece is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. Viola鈥檚 Room invites audience members into an audio-driven adventure that reimagines Barry Pain's 1901 gothic short story The Moon-Slave for a modern audience.
鈥淓ver since we opened Sleep No More back in 2011, New York has been our second home, so I鈥檓 elated that Viola鈥檚 Room will have its international premiere at The Shed this year,鈥� said Barrett. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the most intimate and distilled form of a Punchdrunk experience we鈥檝e created: an invitation to step inside a teenage daydream and surrender to the unknown. In a non-stop world of screens and tech this is an invitation to succumb to a live, tactile and fully sensory journey. I鈥檓 so excited that New York audiences will soon be able to immerse themselves within the labyrinth of Viola鈥檚 Room.鈥�
Audience members will walk barefoot through the maze-like installation in The Shed鈥檚 Level 4 Gallery, in groups of up to six people. Each audience member will receive headphones from Bowers & Wilkins to be guided by an unseen narrator on the 50-minute sensory journey.
鈥淭he Shed was designed for the future of art making, embracing flexibility and scale to offer both intimate and monumental experiences with interdisciplinarity at its core,鈥� said Meredith 鈥淢ax鈥� Hodges, The Shed鈥檚 CEO. 鈥淲e've seen audiences crave the immersive and inventive, as with the art carnival Luna Luna, Tom谩s Saraceno鈥檚 aerial installation, and Ryuichi Sakamoto in Tin Drum's mixed-reality concert Kagami. Punchdrunk's Viola's Room perfectly embodies this, offering an enchanting experience that blurs the lines between audience and art. It鈥檚 exactly the kind of production The Shed is built to deliver."
Viola鈥檚 Room was originally produced in London by Punchdrunk at their Woolwich location and ran May through December 2024. For more information, visit .
