What is The Burnt City?

The play draws from a multitude of theatrical, literary and cinematic references and aesthetics, with the core story being based on ‘Agamemnon’ by Aeschylus (specifically Ted Hughes’ edition of ‘The Oresteia’), and ‘Hecuba’ by Euripides. However, the play also pays tribute stylistically and thematically to both Fritz Lang’s 1927 German Expressionist sci-fi epic Metropolis, as well as Philip K. Dick’s 1968 dystopian classic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Agamemnon tells of the murder of the titular King of the Greeks, at the hands of his vengeful wife Queen Clytemnestra and her equally embittered lover Aegisthus, as revenge for his sacrificing of her daughter Iphigenia, as a means of claiming victory over the long-standing war to win the city of Troy.

Similarly, Hecuba details the extreme grief of the titular Queen of (a now fallen) Troy at the tragic deaths of her two children, Polyxena and Polydorus, (with the latter being murdered at the hands of the very man entrusted with his safekeeping – the treacherous Polymestor) – upon discovery of his betrayal, Hecuba enacts her revenge by blinding him.

The play takes place across two opposing cities surrounding the Trojan War, with events spanning across the two buildings, with one representing the fallen Troy, and the other the homeland of the invading Greeks – Mycenae. Interestingly though, there is also a deep meta-narrative at play throughout The Burnt City, as although on the surface it may appear that the location is relatively straightforward, all is not what it seems…

Throughout the set there are many references to the Ancient Greek depictions of Hell, from the various signage across Troy denoting to Dante’s Inferno, to the more blatant appearances of mythological characters such as Hades, Persephone, Kampe and Hecate, to which it becomes clear to audiences that this is not in fact the ‘real’ Troy, but in actuality a fictionalised (or perhaps restaged) version, enacted by lost souls within The Underworld.

Most notably this story serves as a template for Persephone’s Loop, and in her journey to unlock the secrets to the City with the various keys she acquires from Hades, but additionally Bartók’s music itself features heavily throughout the show.

How does The Burnt City work?

As with most Punchdrunk productions, The Burnt City lasts approximately 3 hours in length, consisting of a triple loop structure, wherein each character’s individual storyline starts and ends within 1 hour, before repeating a further two times, in what is referred to as a ‘loop’. However it is with this show that Punchdrunk launched a first for their format; the introduction of two characters who run on a time structure independent of all others, allowing them to complete one singular 3 hour loop, as opposed to a thrice repeated one. These two characters are Hades and Persephone – their longer, single loops also serve to demonstrate their growing awareness of the looping nature of their surroundings (unlike every other character who seemingly ‘resets’ and forgets the previous loop, after each hour), furthering the show’s meta-narrative exploring the in-world character’s awareness of the fact that they are parts within a show, and are being observed by an audience at all times.

The rules on when a WM can and cannot be seen have become slightly blurred overtime, with many performers straying from the traditional Punchdrunk rule of thumb, stating that characters can become aware of audience members only when they are “drunk, mad, dead, or supernatural”, with many opting to include both scripted and non-scripted moments of interactivity with WMs, ranging from extended meaningful eye contact, to directly conversing with audience members. This has led to many unique performer-specific interactions, leading to an overall more richly detailed, and varied number of potential in-show experiences to be gained from repeat follows.

There are a total of 30 characters within the show, with 16 confined exclusively to Troy, 2 exclusively to Mycenae, and the remaining 12 having loops involving travelling between the two spaces. Each character is divided into one of two categories based on their activity level (labelled as either a travelling or resident character), with most performers taking up one of either category – traditionally resident roles would be considered less dance-heavy, and be played by a performer on their rest days, to avoid exhaustion throughout the show week, however this is not so reliable a definition due to the abundance of technically resident characters with a highly active loop. As a result, characters can also be categorised as active or rest roles, depending on how physically demanding they are to play.

By the final night, the production had hosted over 100 cast members, including 95 core performers and 12 guest musicians, however not every cast member was present for the entirety of the run, with several ending contracts early to pursue other work. The first major contract ended in early January 2023, resulting in a wide-scale cast change across many key roles. The terms C1 and C2 (Cast 1 and Cast 2) are often used to refer to the contracted performers at different points in the run – with C1 referring to the April 2022-January 2023 contract, and C2 referring to January 2023-September 2023.

Across the two buildings, there are approximately 100 rooms in total, across 2 floors, with around 17 of said rooms being secret spaces only available for audiences to view and explore when invited into a specific 1:1 scene with a performer.

Each character’s loop consists of 12 scenes, however the first loop always begins with the 4th scene. For the sake of more cohesive reading, I have started each loop account with the reset, resulting in each scene shifting up a number, by one.

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