The Stage

A Dream Play

Published Thursday 17 February 2005 at 15:00 by Peter Hepple

In A Dream Play, Strindberg endeavoured to depict the inconsequence, the ambiguity and the sheer mystery of dreams. It was not, however, except in the most general terms, the same dream as in Caryl Churchill’s version, which has been further added to by Katie Mitchell, the director.

This adaptation, probably a better word than version, does broadly use the same characters, but they are initially the workers in a broker’s office in the fifties, with Alfred, the man whose dream it is, caught up in a nightmare involving both his present and previous wives, his fellow toilers and a whole crop of officials whose main job is to prevent the dream from resolving satisfactorily.

From personal experience of what I remember of my own dreams, this would seem to be a common pattern, that of frustration, and as such it may appear more real to a British audience which must be its justification. Moreover, it is more humorous than anything Strindberg wrote, the situations which keep rising to the surface throughout being familiar. But the intriguing opening sequences gradually lose their impact and, despite the fact that it has been heavily cut, this is something for which, in the end, we are grateful.

What is striking, however, is the fluidity of Katie Mitchell’s production, strongly influenced by ballet and more or less continually accompanied by an eclectic musical score which includes everything from Giselle, La Traviata and Bach’s St John Passion to Willie Nelson’s Crazy. Vicki Mortimer’s design is also worthy of note.

As for the acting, this is true ensemble playing but one has to admire Angus Wright, as Alfred, for his skill in remembering his positioning on stage, let alone the majority of the lines.