Wednesday 14 November 2007

HOT: The Masque of the Red Death at Battersea Arts Centre

This is the most incredible theatre-going experience I've ever attended. You put on a Clockwork Orange mask and silently enter the macabre world of Battersea Arts Centre, transformed into the set of a gothic Edgar Allen Poe story. Inside, a maze of dark and eerie rooms to explore, every door holds a surprise, and you discover parts of the storyline as you chase the characters along tiled corridors, dark crypts and ballrooms. I’m asked by the owner of the opium den to pass a message to the ‘Tailor’ who then gives me a black cloak, the apothecarist presses some perfumed mud in my hand and whispers ‘this is for your protection only’, the fat Frenchman serves me wine called the Red Death and the servant draws me into the laundry and tries to kill me after sitting me on a chamberpot. The show is sold out but there are returns available - steal or kill to get a ticket.

No comments: