Room 55

2013, 25 minutes

Darkly comic with surreal flourishes, Room 55 follows one woman's journey of sensual awakening and self- discovery.

Darkly comic with surreal flourishes, Room 55 follows one woman's journey of sensual awakening and self- discovery. We arrive in 1950s England and spend the night with Alice Lawson – a no-nonsense, self assured wife, mother and celebrated television cook – as she spends an unplanned night alone in a mysterious hotel, following a recipe-related meltdown. Over the course of her stay, Alice gradually realises that beneath the refined appearance of her new surroundings lies something darker and more seductive. Despite her best efforts to resist this world, she finds her curiosity aroused – what are those strange noises coming from the neighbouring room? And what is happening in room 55?  The hotel provides a bolt-hole where guests can forget their troubles and act out their wildest fantasies in safety and secrecy. Alice's night becomes a stirring journey of personal awakening, as she slides in and out of dreams and reality; all the while fighting her instincts to behave 'properly' and stay in control. Once in room 55 - having been anonymously sent a key - Alice finally succumbs to the world of the hotel and allows herself to be tied up in Japanese rope bondage. In doing so, she experiences a moment of pure ecstasy and escapism - physically bound and powerless, she feels alive in a way that she never has before. The encounter is so far removed from anything Alice has experienced before that it allows her to put her own life in perspective; the rules and conventions she's felt so constrained by are not the be all and end all.

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