The Masque Of The Red Death

The Masque of the Red Death was an original theatre production by British theatre company Punchdrunk, in collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre that ran from September 2007 to April 2008 Overview The Masque of the Red Death was a major theatre production by British company Punchdrunk, following their production of Faust in 2006 and echoing the format of that show. It played for a 7-month sold-out run, and was seen by more than 40,000 people, involving a cast of around 35 and utilising almost all of the space within the Battersea Arts Centre building. The narrative was based on the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, including but not limited to "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842). The production fell within several genres of theatre, including site-specific theatre, promenade theatre, interactive theatre and immersive theatre. The audience members, who were free to roam around the sets at will, wore white masks to distinguish themselves from the cast who were maskless and the stewards/staff who wore discreet black masks. The narrative was communicated through a series of overlapping scenes blending the mediums of interpretive dance, contemporary dance and traditional acting. Following the show on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the run were "Red Death Lates", an open after-party for show attendees and others, involving members of the cast together with changing external entertainment. The move from the main theatre show through to the afterparty was handled seamlessly by virtue of the fact that the final scene in The Masque of the Red Death involved a party in the main hall in celebration of the passing of the eponymous plague. Although the main elements of the show were a collaboration between Punchdrunk and the Battersea Arts Centre, the production also commissioned other artists and groups to create hidden set pieces within the performance in response to themes of the main show, including Kneehigh, Blind Summit, Julian Fox, Kazuko Hohki, Hannah Ringham and BAC's Young People's Theatre.