Total Immersion: Hamlet

Slipstream's Hamlet

Live Action Set (LAS) and Dangerous Productions mounted an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime And Punishment (C&P) in the industrial basement of the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, a 17,400sq-ft. space with 12,000sq-ft. available for the performance. Patrons wandered through a St. Petersburg slum, choosing their own adventures in some 30 rooms that a team of designers created within the basement’s three structurally-divided spaces. More than 20 performers presented 12 story lines simultaneously, some through physical theatre or dance as well as in dramatic scenes. Each patron was cast as the novel’s protagonist, Raskolnikov, and was required to wear a mask for the entire performance and be silent while interacting with the environment. Patrons were able to interact by touching objects or reading a character’s diary. Play money could be earned by sweeping a room or carrying a crate from one place to another and allowed them to make purchases at a liquor store and market. Some described the event as a video game, with each spectator as the protagonist.

The Slipstream Theatre Initiative performed an adaptation of Hamlet in two rooms of a storefront near Detroit. The main room was less than 900sq-ft., accommodating a seating area and about 500sq-ft. of playing space; a second room was a little larger. Spectators were cast as psychiatric experts who were at the Elsinore Asylum to evaluate inmates as they presented the Shakespeare play. Visitors were warned that, although “security measures are in place, these are girls who have severe mental disorders and many have a background of violent crimes,” and asked to remain in their seats, later required to move quickly to the second room as a safety measure. Spectators not only had blood on their hands when they left, but some had blood splashed on their clothes.  

LAS did a fully immersive production loosely based on a novel, while Slipstream did an adaptation of a play, employing just a few immersive techniques. Read Total Immersion: Crime And Punishment.

Hamlet: Psychological Immersion

Slipstream's Hamlet

In Bailey Boudreau’s take on Hamlet, which transpires in a women’s insane asylum where inmates perform the Shakespearean play, an actor pretends to be an inmate who pretends to be Hamlet who pretends to go insane. The all-female production takes liberties with Shakespeare; in fact, all of the characters are women, so we have Claudia, not Claudius, Polly, not Polonius. Still, the dialogue and story come mainly out of Shakespeare, but with unbalanced characters playing Shakespeare’s characters, audiences didn’t know what twists and turns were in store. In other words, they saw a play they knew well, but they wondered what would happen next.

 A room full of light went dark suddenly, a perfume was sprayed through the space, and spectators could hear offstage rumblings as the girls fought, congratulated one another on performances, or shouted missed cues. The audience was lit completely by overhead lighting and sat just inches from the actors.  

As the end-of-play slaughter begins, a doctor tells spectators to evacuate into the next room. They stand along one wall as characters fall dead before them in the final blood bath. “The change of scenery itself is creepy,” says Slipstream artistic director Boudreau, who also directed and designed costumes. “There’s nothing separating you from the fight, and you have no choice.” While LAS used immersion to give spectators many choices, Slipstream, which wanted a structured script, used limited immersion to deprive them of any.  

Slipstream's Hamlet

Initially, the team had designed the show for a larger space with several rooms and planned a more immersive event. “The audience was intended to travel and follow Hamlet on her journey. Looking back, I can’t say for sure whether or not it would have been more beneficial for us, had we the budget, to use a larger space and have produced a completely immersive production,” Boudreau says. “The immersion became much more of a psychological one rather than a physical one,” he says.

Associate artistic director Luna Alexander, who appeared as Hamlet, cut the script. Steve Xander Carson did the fight choreography and helped direct. Ryan Ernst was assistant director and technical director.  

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