Inside the making of Punchdrunk’s new immersive ‘gothic fairytale’

“Shhhh,” Helena Bonham Carter is whispering in my ear. “Let me tell you a story, from long, long ago.” I am lying on a mattress in a wallpapered bedroom that seems plucked from the 1990s. There are Keith Haring drawings, Tori Amos posters, and a shelf-full of teddy bears.

Bonham Carter’s voice, coming in through a headset, is talking about a princess named Viola. Her voice—spectral, beguiling—is about to guide me through a dizzying dreamscape of mazes and dark corridors, and it’s all part of a spectacular new show by Punchdrunk.