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Synopsis August Strindberg's expressionist masterpiece. Written in 1901, it employs an experimental and dreamlike technique that still seems revolutionary today. The god Indra has sent his daughter on a mortal journey of discovery which we witness refracted through a sequence of extraordinary images in thirteen surrealistic tableaux. Running time 1 hr 40 mins
Dates: Opens 15 February 2005. Feb 24,25,26, Mar 4,5,7,8,14,15,16,24,26,28,29, Apr 14,15,16,22,23,25,26,27,28,9,30, May 6,7,9,10,11 at 19:30. Feb 26, Mar 5,8,16,26,29, Apr 16,23,27, May 7,10 Mats 14:30
Unless it belongs to you or someone with whom you’re intimate, listening to a detailed account of a dream can be tedious. As can seeing it performed on stage.
The detailed account in question here is August Strindberg’s. Or at least it was originally. British dramatist Caryl Churchill adapted Strindberg’s expressionist play and relocated it, for as much as a dream can have a definable ‘setting’, from 1900s’ Sweden to 1950s’ London. Then director Katie Mitchell – taking artistic licence from Strindberg’s own preface to the text – worked with her company of actors to make further cuts and alterations based on their own dream experiences.
The resulting piece, a testament to creative collaboration, departs significantly from Strindberg’s, in which the god Indra sends his daughter down to earth where she embarks on a journey of discovery into the depressing hearts and minds of mankind. Here, the play centres on one mortal character, stockbroker Alfred Green. He becomes the dreamer, through whom all of Strindberg’s surrealistic sequences, and several new ones, are refracted.
Working late one night at the office, Alfred falls asleep and is ‘awakened’ by a quartet of angels, each resembling his secretary Agnes. Over the next hour and 40 minutes, Alfred, with Agnes as his occasional guide, is assaulted by a disjointed “mixture of memories, experiences, free fancies, incongruities and improvisations” (as Strindberg describes a dream). Though it’d be overstatement to call it a plot, by concentrating on Alfred, “the loneliest man in the world”, this new version of A Dream Play does provide some semblance of story by allowing us to pick out details from Alfred’s life, be they real or imagined. A dead mother, two ex-wives, a lost child.
As everyman Alfred, Angus Wright anchors on-stage proceedings and mirrors the audience’s confusion with (and acceptance of) each bizarre and increasingly nightmarish shift of circumstance. One moment, he’s himself as a child hiding under the kitchen table, then an aged man waiting for his fickle performer wife at a stage door, then being knighted by Queen Victoria, then chastised by his teacher for not completing his homework. The rest of the nine-strong ensemble have little to say but much to do in the rapid scene changes and assumption of myriad characters.
On Vicki Mortimer’s set of compressing walls and parallel double doors, Mitchell and her company create some stunning set pieces and visually arresting tableaux. Fittingly in a work that verges on pure dance, with the actors well drilled in Kate Flatt’s prop-driven choreography, the most memorable of these is a recurrent line of pink tutu-ed male and female ballerinas. Yet, despite such riches in Mitchell’s production (top marks too to Simon Allen’s music and Christopher Shutt’s haunting soundscape) and the success of capturing “the inconsequent yet transparently logical shape of a dream” – which still feels experimental more than a century after Strindberg first attempted it – you can’t escape that first-mentioned feeling of tedium and, frankly, pretension.
“What is there to understand? It’s all a load of bollocks!” cries one of “the great and the good” when a cupboard containing the meaning of life is opened to reveal emptiness. I wouldn’t go quite so far as that in judging A Dream Play, but I understand the sentiment. Still, a gorgeous production, even if a frustrating play.
I came away, wondering what it was all about... but I was very impressed by the visual effects. For the cast, it must have been like running a half-marathon, constantly changing in and out of their costumes - and I suspect the backstage crew were kept pretty busy, too. - 193.130.127.205)
29 Mar 05
Katie Mitchell's precision as a director is extraordinary, and her company of actors (including one walking wounded, we were told) astonished me again and again with their versatility and teamwork.
Spellbinding. - 195.144.130.1)
10 Mar 05
Yet another of Katie Mitchell's over-rated revivals. I know the play well. I know Churchill's adaption well, too. This production does neither any justice in my opinion. I'd say it was 75% Mitchell's input. OK, there were two or three impressive moments of clever staging. But not enough for me to leave feeling that I'd received value for money. Wright was excellent as "Alfred", but I must say that I didn't care much for the rest of the cast, especially the actresses playing Agnes and the mother. The sound design was superb. But the setting and overall staging of this play did absolutely nothing for me. Why does Mitchell insist on installing a block in the communication between audience and performance, in the form of a filmic "widescreen" proscenium and a completely UN-inventive use of sidelighting and side entrances? I just don't get it. - 81.154.149.113)
09 Mar 05
After viewing the play as part of my AS Theatre course I had mixed views at the end. I had never encountered Strindberg before and hadn't previously read the play (only a brief synopsis which confused me completely!) so was quite baffled as to what I should expect from the performance. I often became lost in the dream sequences and it took me a while to grasp what was happening but I think even though I did not enjoy the story of the play and completely understand hte plot, I was utterly amazed at the effects. The moving set, lights, the way each and every member of the cast knew what was happening and what they had to bring on and off was fantastic and I was very impressed at the obvious amount of rehearsal time which had been devoted to it so that all went smoothly. Overall I was impressed by the technical elements and acting skills but thought at tiems the plot went off on a tangent. Prepare yourself for the dead babies in the closet - I was disturbed by this. A very good effort on everyone's part though, the play provided an excellent interpretation of a dream. - 80.42.152.116)
01 Mar 05
This is a wonderful production of a play which when I read it thought would be impossible to stage - Katie Mitchell has done the impossible! At first I was a little unsure of the addittions and edits and Churchill's adaptation but ultimately this made it much more accessible and engaging. All of this teamed with Angus Wrights touching and accomplished performance make this worth every penny of the ticket price. - 82.69.37.108)
21 Feb 05
I don't know the play so I don't know how much this is Strindberg or Churchill or Mitchell. What I do know is that it is 100 minutes of inventive staging and great acting. Much of the Strindberg I have seen before has been turgid introspection. This is theatrical magic that is the best representatioon of a dream you will probably ever experience - wierd, funny and disturbing at the same time. - 81.134.144.8)
18 Feb 05
Yet another of Katie Mitchell's outstanding productions. An uncanny theatrical representation of the terrible world of dreams. Utterly engrossing. One of the best ensembles I have seen. Also, a quite brilliant design. - 80.177.231.164)
17 Feb 05
This started promisingly and did quite a good job of portraying on stage the dream state, a tricky thing to do. Two brief initial interludes of consciousness are featured but the play then goes into continuous dream mode and while they manage to sustain this quite well, I found it became a bit wearing and I longed for the semi-surreal imagery to be broken up by some more non-dream episodes. It started to be quite repetitive after a while. I was interested by the idea but was quite glad when it finished. One positive note, the NT continues to produce very readable programmes and the one for this show has some interesting academic notes on the dream state. - 194.82.50.2)
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