After a hugely successful year-long run, Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable has announced it will close on 6 July after more than 340 performances of the epic show.
Staged in a vast disused building in Paddington, the National Theatre co-production invites audiences into the forgotten world of Temple Studios, a legendary film powerhouse. There the masked audience can delve into the ins and outs of a series of dramatic happenings by exploring the dozens of intricately designed rooms and catching snippets of action by following cast members as they lead you through the dream-like events.
Inspired by Büchner’s fractured masterpiece Woyzeck, The Drowned Man opened in July 2013 making it Punchdrunk’s longest ever run in the city in the innovative theatre company’s acclaimed history.
Since the show began, more than 170,000 audience members have walked through Temple Studios’ doors and found themselves in its hallucinatory world, while a lucky few even got to witness cameo appearances by singer Florence Welch and Spiderman star Andrew Garfield.
The announcement, which follows numerous previous extensions to the show’s run, adds a final extra week for audiences to take in the experience for themselves before Temple Studios calls it a wrap for the very last time on 6 July.