Here are two poles of British theatre: the aesthetically free-wheeling, and the socially urgent. Despite the ravages of lockdown, things are not looking too bad.
It was time Punchdrunk took a new turning – and they have. Viola’s Room is a departure for the immersive magicians, led by artistic director Felix Barrett. It is not only that, after the spacious grandeur of The Burnt City, this is a surprisingly intimate show. More fundamentally, audiences are not asked to follow performers independently, deducing a story from fragments of action, but are guided into experiencing the same series of events. Everyone should share one version. Actually, it is not quite as simple as that.
