A Dream Play

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.

Our Review:

16 February 2005

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...

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Latest User Review

193.130.127.205) - 29 March 2005:

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. ...

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