Set within the fictional "Temple Pictures", The Drowned Man was Punchdrunk's largest theatre installation,[1] covering 200,000 sq ft., catering for up to 600 audience members per show[1] with a cast of nearly 40.

The various locations included a desert, a saloon, a trailer park, a chapel, as well as several dressed sound stages and a Lynchian black and white chequerboard dancefloor.

[3] Many aspects of the narrative were influenced by Georg Buchner's unfinished play Woyzeck, including the main themes of murder, madness and adultery.

[4][9][12] The majority of official media reviews were written at the beginning of the show's run in June 2013, and as a result several changes were made to improve the audience's understanding of the story, including handing out slips of paper with a brief outline of the plot at the start.

[10] Time Out magazine awarded the production 3 out of 5 stars, commenting that "as pure spectacle, Punchdrunk are now operating on a level that makes criticism basically redundant.