Carel Struycken as Lurch in The Addams Family film (1991). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night Mike took me to Sleep No More as a belated birthday present. It’s a haunted house meets modern dance meets the orgy scene in Eyes Wide Shut. Oh and a hint of the Shinning as well. The coolest aspect of the show is that everyone sees something different – you are in complete control of your experience.

When you first walk in, you feel like you’ve stumbled into a 1920s speakeasy where flapper girls are offering you shots of absinthe, and a boozed up man on the stage is rattling off incoherent beat poetry (I guess that’s a bit anachronistic). After you get a little tipsy, you’re separated from anyone you know, given a mask, crammed into an old elevator, and told to explore the Mckittrick Hotel. By the way, the hotel operator looks like Lurch from the Addam’s family, and he let’s everyone off on different floors, and you can’t even tell if the elevator’s going up or down.

I ended up getting off on in graveyard by myself. I felt completely lost and scared and I started running just to find someone else. I ended up a child’s bedroom and I started opening all the draws and pulling papers out from under the mattress. In my mad rush to find something to make sense of, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and could barely recognized the masked figure who was ransacking some random person’s bedroom. It’s strange how wearing a mask makes you feel like you can do anything you want.

I won’t go into much more detail; the less you know the better. There is a show going on during the whole time, but you have to chase it. I will warn you that there’s a lot of running up and down stairs so don’t go if you’re out of shape. Or maybe this will be a good excuse to get into good shape. I would recommend going soon because Gossip girl is reportedly going to film there soon, and it will be much harder to get tickets after that. It’s truly a unique experience, and it’s only limited by your curiosity!

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