Word: dreaming
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...course of the play's flowing dream-like sequences, Indra's Daughter meets three suffering males--an imprisoned Army Officer (Matthew Schuerman), a stuffed-shirt Lawyer (Seth Sanders) whom she later marries, and a flighty Poet (Mark Karnow), all of whom are knowingly trapped within their limited existence as men. She becomes a sexual object, wife and mother--all of the everyday trappings of human femininity--before she is allowed to rise up and rejoin the gods...
Around these pivotal figures the rest of the dream players form a cohesive ensemble and also grapple well with their unusual individual roles. Each plays up to six characters--usually of the opposite sex. Roland Davis, for instance, is cast as the Mother, the female Doorkeeper, and the "Voice of Victoria," and practically steals the show with his high-pitched feminine squawking...
Also of special note is the lighting, which effectively highlights the dramatic tension of this Strindbergian nightmare. Prascak takes into account not only the lighting's immediate effects on each scene but the resulting shadow play as well. Without such creative lighting, the dream-like quality of the play could have failed--20-second blackout sequences are no fun when you expect a seamless transition from one scene to the next...
What, then, are we to make of Indra's Daughter's experiences among the suffering humans? She can escape this dreadful life and we, miserable human beings, can't. Fortunately, though, we have such imaginative production as A Dream Play to help us laugh through the muck as we live through this life in Hell...
...ultimately vocalize truth, as the safe routine of daily life is stripped bare by the solitude of night. Long Day's Journey Into Night also challenges the uniquely American emphasis on ambition and moneymaking as the driving forces of life, asking the question, At what price is the American dream achieved...