A Dream Play

Presents
By August Strindberg in a new version by Caryl Churchill

By arrangement with Dominie Drama
Photography by Chris Nash
Copyright Ignite Productions Inc and Danica Kohn 2009
A Dream Play Education Notes

Ignite has pleasure in presenting these Education Notes as a guide for Drama students. While the notes may be seen as a valuable resource for students and teachers, they are not necessarily a definitive study. Instead we offer them as a springboard to a broader exploration of the production and the play text. We hope that students approach A Dream Play analytically and imaginateively in order to experience the work as an evocative and engaging piece of theatre. We encourage students to interpret the production for themselves, to explore its innate theatricality, its relevance to their own and others lives, and to place it in a contemporary independent Australian theatre context.
CONTENTS PAGE
Introduction Ignite Theatre Cast and Creative Team Before the show - Background material. Questions & activities for analysis and discussion Stage and Space Outline After the Show In conversation with Olivia Allen Director Eugyeene Teh and Kat Chan Set & Costume Design Russell Goldsmith Sound Designer A Dream Play Cast Resource List pg 03 pg 04 pg 05 pg 06 pg 12 pg 13 pg 15 pg 16 pg 17 pg 18 pg 26
Olivia Allen and Danica Kohn Ignite Productions Inc. PO BOX 425 Northcote VIC 3070 Mobile 0414 348 884 e: igniteprods@yahoo.com.au w: www.igniteproductions.com.au
Introduction
Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; the imagination spins, weaving new patterns on a flimsy basis of reality: a mixture of memories, experiences, free associations, absurdities and improvisations. August Strindberg, Notes to A Dream Play, 1901
Ignite has developed a reputation for its distinctively brash, bold and irreverent approach to bringing absurdist and non-naturalistic texts to life. Ignite aims to create the spark that sets the audiences imaginations aflame with possibilities that only the theatre can provide. The non-naturalistic styles of Absurdism and surrealism promote creative thinking as they discard and fragment traditional ways of looking at the world. Logical thought is turned on its head. Students are catapulted onto a creative landscape where they must think outside the box. This excites them. They get turned on. They get creative. They engage. It is recommended that students read the play before attending the performance of A Dream Play. It is important that you read the version written by Caryl Churchill in 2005. Note: If you read an English translation of August Strindbergs original by John Calder (1954) you may see the process of the playwright Caryl Churchills distillation of the themes and language into a contemporary context.
Activity - To get you started...

Read the script as a class allocating characters to students OR Break up into groups and allocate a small number of scenes each. (Allow students time to read through each scene in their groups) This will allow students to have a quick practice before reading aloud. Students will be able to make more sense of the play using their own initiative in the first reading. AND Divide the scenes as equally as possible between three groups. Allow the groups time to discuss each of their scenes as a group and present their initial responses / analysis / interpretation to the class.
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Ignite is an exciting collection of theatre-makers, bringing bold and challenging works from the minds of histories most remarkable theatre visionaries to Melbourne. Ignite first hit Melbourne with the acclaimed Australian premiere of the Broadway cult hit Bat Boy: the musical bringing together the talents of Eddie Perfect and Rosie Harris for the first time. (Shane Warne: the Musical). FLAWLESSLY PERFECT THE AGE Followed by the distinctively brash, discombobulating theatrics of Jet of Blood. Surrealist avant-garde perfection THE AGE THREE 2006 GREEN ROOM NOMINATIONS (ENSEMBLE, DIRECTION, & SOUND DESIGN) WINNER 2006 BEST ENSEMBLE MELBOURNE FRINGE A sanguine, irrational, deeply disturbing and superbly bizarre parody, Jet of Blood is an absurdly cruel and cruelly absurd comedy with teeth. Adelaide Theatre Guide. Teachers responses to Ignite: A provocative night in the theatre. - Jim Lawson, President Drama Victoria 2006. Thank you again for such a bold, brash, ballsy and delicious piece of theatre. Im so glad to have been able to open their eyes to work like this. Its inspiring! - Kim Anderson, Drama Coordinator, St. Bedes College. I knew I simply HAD to take my students and it was certainly well worth the 6 hour round trip. Jet of Blood has been very affecting on many levels. - Catherine Mayer, Drama Teacher, Mansfield Secondary College. In 2008 3 Short Absurd Works brought together the creative talents of 3 of the most infamous artists from the Absurdist tradition Eugene Ionesco, Fernando Arrabal and Arthur Adamov for the Ignite for schools program as part of the VCE Theatre Studies syllabus. Now we combine two master playwrights in presenting A Dream Play to youWe hope you enjoy!
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Cast and Creatives Team 2009 Production

Performers Agnes Glacier, Police, Voices, He, Husband, Blind man, Crew, Bishop Officer, Police, Voices, Crew Father, Police, Quarantine Master, Lieutenant, Building Worker, Crew, Chairman Mother, Victoria, Prompter, Police, Kristin, Teacher, Lady, Crew Lina, Singer, Police, Kristin, Alice, Building Worker, Psychoanalyst. Stage Door Keeper, Ballet Dancer, Police, Kristin, She, Wife, Crew Police, Writer Solicitor, Police, Ugly Edith, Scientist. Creatives Director/Producer Sound Design Lighting Design Set and Costume Design Production Manager/Stage Manager Production Assistant Photography Graphic Design Education Notes Assistant Producer Olivia Allen Russell Goldsmith Angela Cole Kat Chan and Eugyeene Teh Amy Bagshaw Kieran Smith Chris Nash Claire Burns Danica Kohn and Olivia Allen Alia Vryens Meredith Penman Nick Dubberley Gary Abrahams Mark Tregonning Karen Roberts Kate Gregory Hannah Norris Heath Miller Michael Finney
This production premiered at the New Ballroom, Bella Union at Trades Hall, 5th of May 2009.
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Before the show

A Dream Play By August Strindberg in a new version by Caryl Churchill A young woman comes from another world to see if life is really as difficult as people make it out to be. In Strindbergs A Dream Play, characters merge into each other, locations change in an instant and a locked door becomes an obsessively recurrent image. A Dream Play was first written in 1901 by August Strindberg and the version used by Ignite was adapted for the National Theatre by Caryl Churchill in 2005. The style of the play is described as Surrealist and/or Expressionist. The non-naturalistic style is used to theatrically represent a dream. The characters split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge. But one consciousness rules them all: the dreamers; for him there are no secrets, no inconsistencies, no scruples and no laws. He does not judge or acquit, he merely relates; and because a dream is usually painful rather than pleasant, a tone of melancholy and compassion for all living creatures permeates the rambling narrative. (August Strindberg, Notes A Dream Play, 1901) Caryl Churchill has created this new version in collaboration with theatre director, Katie Mitchell. As the original play is over 100 years old the adaptation was done to modernise or update the play while staying true to the themes and ideas of the original. These changes enable a modern audience to connect with the content of Strindbergs play. When Strindberg was writing the play a castle was being built in Stockholm and grew over the trees, and the town was full of soldiers. The equivalent fast-growing buildings for us are office towers; a soldier means our current wars to us, not the romantic officer of the play; our city towers are full of businessmen. (Caryl Churchill, 2005)
Read Scene One and Two from Strindbergs original play and Scene One from Caryl Churchills version. In groups, discuss the differences between the beginnings of the two versions. Present your findings to the class. Discuss why these changes may have been made.
Activity:
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August Strindberg, the writer

Johann August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a Swedish playwright and writer. He wrote over 50 plays and many books. He is arguably the most influential and most important of all Swedish authors, and one of the most influential Scandinavian authors, along with Henrik Ibsen, Sren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen. Strindberg is known as one of the fathers of modern theatre. His plays were usually naturalistic in style, the most famous being Miss Julie, written in 1888, and dealt with the issues of the time (such as materialism and class and gender struggle). A Dream Play (1901) signified a change in style for Strindberg and he wrote it after a near psychotic episode and the breakdown of one his marriages. Strindberg referred to the play as the child of my greatest pain . Other non-naturalistic works are the To Damascus trilogy (1898-1902) The Dance of Death (1900) and The Ghost Sonata (1907). Strindbergs work has influenced many great writers and his shift in interest to the subconscious has since generated more interest than his naturalistic plays. Strindberg was the third son of Carl Oscar Strindberg, a shipping agent, and Ulrika Eleonora (Nora) Norling. Ulrika was twelve years Carls junior and of humble origin, called a domestic servant woman by Strindberg. As a young student, Strindberg worked as an assistant in a chemists shop in the university town of Lund in southern Sweden. In 1868 he worked as a schoolteacher, but then studied chemistry for some time at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm in preparation for medical studies, later working as a private tutor before becoming an extra at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm. He returned to Uppsala in January 1870 to study and work on a set of plays, the first of which opened at the Royal Theatre in September 1870. In Uppsala, he started Runa, a small literary club with friends who all took pseudonyms from Nordic mythology; Strindberg called himself Fr after the god of fertility. The rise and fall of the Paris Commune in 1871 led to a political awakening for the young Strindberg, and he started to see politics as a conflict between the upper- and lower classes Strindberg was admired by the Swedish working class as a radical writer. He was a socialist, but Strindbergs political views nevertheless shifted considerably within this spectrum over the years, and he was never primarily a political writer. Nor was he often found campaigning for any one issue, preferring instead to pour literary and manifesto-style scorn over his enemies en massethe military, the church, the monarchy, the politicians, the stingy publishers, the incompetent reviewers, the narrow-minded, the idiotsand he was loyal to no party or ideology. Many of his works however carried at least some political colouring and sometimes an abundance of it. They often displayed the conviction that life and the prevailing system was profoundly unjust and injurious to ordinary citizens. In satirizing Swedish societyin particular the upper classes, the cultural and political establishment, and his many personal and professional foeshe could be bitingly confrontational, with scarcely concealed caricatures of political opponents. This could take the form of brutal character assassination or open mockery, and while the presentation was invariably skilful and hard-hitting, it was not necessarily subtle. A multi-faceted author, Strindberg was often extreme. His novel The Red Room (Rda rummet) (1879) brought him fame. His early plays were written in the Naturalistic style. His works from this time are often compared with the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Strindbergs best-known play from this period is Miss Julie (Frken Julie). Strindberg wanted to attain what he called Greater Naturalism. He did not prefer expository character backgrounds seen in the work of Ibsen, or write plays that gave his audiences a slice of life because he felt that these plays were mundane and uninteresting. Strindberg felt that true naturalism was a psychological battle of brains (hjrnornas kamp). Two people who hate each other in the immediate moment and strive to drive the other to doom is the type of mental hostility that Strindberg strove to capture. Furthermore, he intended his plays to be impartial and objective, citing a desire to make literature somewhat of a science.
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Later, he underwent a time of inner turmoil known as the Inferno Period, which culminated in the production of a book written in French, Inferno. He also exchanged a few cryptic letters with Nietzsche. Strindberg subsequently broke with Naturalism and began to produce works informed by Symbolism. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Modern European stage and Expressionism. The Dance of Death (Ddsdansen), A Dream Play (Ett drmspel) and The Ghost Sonata (Spksonaten) are well-known plays from this period. Strindberg, something of a polymath, was also a telegrapher, painter, photographer and alchemist. Strindberg was married three times, to Siri von Essen (1850-1912), Frida Uhl (1872-1943), and Harriet Bosse (1878-1961). He had children with all his wives, but his hypersensitive, neurotic character led to bitter divorces. Strindbergs relationships with women were troubled and have often been interpreted as misogynistic by contemporaries and modern readers. Most acknowledge, however, that he had uncommon insight into the hypocrisy of his societys gender roles and sexual morality. Marriage and the family were under stress in Strindbergs lifetime as Sweden industrialized and urbanized at a rapid pace. Problems of prostitution and poverty were debated heatedly among writers, critics and politicians. His early writing often dealt with the traditional roles of the sexes imposed by society, which he criticized as unjust. At Christmas 1911, Strindberg became sick with pneumonia, and he never fully recovered. At this time he also started to suffer from a stomach disease, presumably cancer. He died in May 1912 at the age of 63. (Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Strindberg) Questions: How is Strindbergs Life similar to A Dream Play? What themes do we see in his life and in the play? What do Caryl Churchill and August Strindberg have in common as playwrights?
Caryl Churchill, the writer

Caryl Churchill (b1938) is an English playwright. She has written many plays for theatre, radio and television. She is known for being a writer who deals with political and feminist issues and also for using non-naturalistic techniques. Her work is frequently compared to the work of Brecht and Artaud and uses Epic theatre techniques including fragmented structure and surrealistic narrative. Some of her well-known work includes Cloud Nine (1979), Top Girls (1982) and The Skriker (1994). Churchill was approached by theatre director, Katie Mitchell to create a new version of A Dream Play. She had the original Strindberg version translated literally from Swedish. She then shaped the play. In the process she edited and revised some of the elements of the play, at the same time staying very faithful to other elements of the original (including stage directions). Like other plays she has worked on she used a process of improvisational workshops in the development of the play. She made important decisions in relation to religious references, out-dated language and imagery and decided to cut quite a lot of text. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer. Her early work developed Brechts modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of Epic theatre to explore issues around gender and sexuality. From A Mouthful of Birds (1986) onwards, she began to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Artaud with his Theatre of Cruelty. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterizes her work as postmodernist. Questions: Why might Caryl Churchill be attracted to A Dream Play and August Strindberg? The meeting of a renowned feminist with a reputed misogynist?
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Non-Naturalism, the style

Definition Non-naturalism : n. the meta-ethical doctrine that moral properties exist but are not reducible to natural , empirical, or supernatural ones, and that moral judgments therefore state a special kind of fact. (Collins English Dictionary) Definition Non-naturalism is the manipulation of time, place, object and/or character to create theatre which does not seek to re-create real life as it is lived. It is, by its very nature eclectic and is the juxtaposition of a number of theatre styles, theatrical conventions, dramatic and stagecraft elements, which combine to create impressions, feelings and aspects of our real or imagined lives. Together they culminate to make dramatic statements and theatre that is new, challenging and vibrant. This style of theatre has a variety of forms, is closely associated with the twentieth century and has many practitioners, most notably Jerzy Grotowski, Berthold Brecht, Antonin Artaud and more recently Peter Brook and Arianne Mnouchkine. Interpretation is focused more on passing comment on, or responding to, aspects of the real world rather than merely reflecting the world as it is. Some conventions of non-naturalistic style include the alienation devices of Bertolt Brecht. (VCE Drama Study Design) A Dream Play has been classified as a Surrealist or Expressionistic play. In 1901, it is one of the first pieces of writing to explore non-naturalism as we think of it now. Here are some definitions and examples that may help. Definition Surrealism: n. a movement in art and literature in the 1920s, which developed esp. from dada, characterised by the evocative juxtaposition of incongruous images in order to include unconscious and dream elements. (Collins English Dictionary)
Activity:
Individually or in groups find an example of some work by the following surrealists and share the pieces with the class. Salvador Dali (find an image of The Persistence of Memory, 1931) Andre Breton (search for quotations from The Surrealist Manifesto,1924 and 1929) Joan Miro (find an image of The Tilled Field, 1923-24) Australian artist James Gleeson (it is a good idea to select which images may or may not be ap propriate for your class) Antonin Artaud (search for quotations or poetry)
Definition Expressionism: n. an artistic and literary movement originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, which sought to express emotions rather than to represent external reality: characterised by the use of symbolism and of exaggeration and distortion. (Collins English Dictionary)
Activity:
Individually or in groups discuss the following Expressionistic artworks. Edvard Munch (The Scream, 1893) Sidney Nolan (the Trial, 1947) Egon Schiele )portrain of Eduard Kosmack, 1910)
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Questions for Analysis and Discussion

Background: As you may only be seeing a performance of A Dream Play only once, you may find it very useful to consider some of the following questions to set you on your way into a dream world. August Strindberg What do you know about August Strindberg? What conditions do you think he may have been living in as an artist in turn of the century Europe? (20th Century) What major world events were happening at the time of his writing A Dream Play (1901)? Caryl Churchill What do you know about Caryl Churchill? What do you imagine some of the challenges are when a playwright writes a new version of an existing text? What different concerns do you think may exist for a contemporary, female playwright? What particular preoccupations is Caryl Churchill known for having? How do you imagine that she might bring them to the fore in A Dream Play? Imagining How do you imagine the set will look? What images from the story do you think will be crucial in staging A Dream Play? From your reading of the play how do you imagine that the actors will create different characters? How do you imagine the costumes, lighting and sound?
In accordance with the VCE Study Design Outcome 3 (to analyse and evaluate a nonnaturalistic performance from the prescribed play list) we have created the following Questions and Activities to stimulate the students.
Ways in which performance styles that are not dependent on life-like representations of everyday life and theatrical conventions are used in performance hen writing the play Strindbergs intention was to create a piece of non-naturalistic dream theatre. Try W performing a scene from the play as naturalistically as possible. Reflect on the difficulty of translating this piece into naturalism. What are the advantages / disadvantages of using non-naturalism in theatre?
Ways in which dramatic elements, theatrical conventions and stagecraft are manipulated to enhance nonnaturalistic performance Using the text, list the different settings or environments in A Dream Play. Create a naturalistic set design and then a non-naturalistic one. It may help to look at surrealistic images online or in art books/ magazines. Choose a character and create a costume sketch for her / him. What sort of fabric or colour would they wear? What parts of the body would they accentuate? As the play is non-naturalistic it is important to think outside the square. How could a characters costume be symbolic or surreal?
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H ave you ever seen a non-naturalistic theatre performance before? Which one? What were your impressions? How did it differ from a naturalistic performance? W hat non naturalistic conventions do think will be used in this production of A Dream Play? What stage craft elements do you think will be most important to the production?How do you think dramatic elements will be used to manipulate the audience? The language of drama associated with performance styles, traditions, and practitioners from contemporary and/or cultural traditions relevant to non-naturalistic performance R esearch non-naturalistic theatre practitioners in Australia and overseas. You can find excerpts from theatre productions and conversations with theatre directors on youtube.com. Some directors and companies to look up are: Robert Wilson, Robert LePage, Barrie Kosky, Benedict Andrews, Improbable, Forced Entertainment and Complicite. Ways in which characters are represented in non-naturalistic performance through the actors use of expressive skills including voice, movement, facial expression and gesture Create a character profile for one of the characters in A Dream Play. Improvise in pairs and find which expressive skills work best for that character. (Expressive skills should include voice, movement, facial expression, gesture, etc) Write a journal entry about your findings. Analyse the representation of characters within a non-naturalistic performance S trindberg and Churchill made very clear and considered choices with character. When the new version was created by Churchill she made some changes to the characters. Do you think she did this to connect with a contemporary audience? How?
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VENUE: BELLA UNION TRADES HALL
PRODUCTION:
A DREAM PLAY
DRAW/SKETCH THE SPACE AND SET DESIGN FOR THIS SHOW. INCLUDE AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE.
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After the show...

Ways in which performance styles that are not dependent on life-like representations of everyday life and theatrical conventions are used in performance L ist some non-naturalistic theatrical conventions that are used in this production of A Dream Play. How do they support the writers intention? I n small groups, tell each other a vivid dream. Choose one of the dreams to interpret and present as a nonnaturalistic scene. Focus on using dramatic elements of conflict, tensing, timing etc. Ways in which dramatic elements, theatrical conventions and stagecraft are manipulated to enhance nonnaturalistic performance T he director is responsible for leading the audience through the story. How has the director used dramatic elements, theatrical conventions and stagecraft to enhance the performance? L ist some of the dramatic elements the director has used to create a surrealistic piece of theatre. Some examples of dramatic elements are space, rhythm, contrast, symbols, mood, focus, tension etc. Be specific about how the director has used the elements to heighten the theatrical experience. N on-naturalistic conventions are used to create a dream-like or surreal atmosphere. What conventions were used and how did the director use them to evoke a mood or atmosphere? Does this mood affect the audiences understanding of the play? What were your first impressions of the set? How did the set give shape to the actors performances? C lose your eyes and picture the first moment you saw one of the characters from the production. Think about how their costume influenced your feelings about them. Did the colour or texture evoke a certain mood or determine certain character traits? Was the costume lit in an effective way? Do you think the choice of costume assisted the actor to play their part well? L ighting and sound are very important in non-naturalistic theatre. They may signify shifts in time and place, or create an atmosphere that is eerie, warm, comforting, frightening, etc. How did the designers use sound and lighting to present a non-naturalistic atmosphere? The language of drama associated with performance styles, traditions, and practitioners from contemporary and/or cultural traditions relevant to non-naturalistic performance The notes on non-naturalism and the interviews will help in developing the appropriate language for the task. Ways in which characters are represented in non-naturalistic performance through the actors use of expressive skills including voice, movement, facial expression and gesture C hoose one of the characters from the production and create a character profile based on the choices that the actor made in presenting their character to the audience. Analyse the effectiveness of their choices. Were their choices predictable? Or were there huge surprises in how they presented the character? Analyse the representation of characters within a non-naturalistic performance In groups, list 5 characters and discuss why those characters were chosen for the play? What do you think those characters could symbolically represent to the audience?
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Some more questions...

Do you think the design has had an impact on how the script has been realised? Consider the casting choices for the play. Did you imagine the characters differently? What particular directorial choices struck you as being powerful / surreal / dramatic / comic? What production elements do you consider to be dream-like? What sounds did you hear in the production? In what ways did the sound create mood? Time? Place? An underscore? What sorts of lighting states are used to enhance the non-naturalistic performance? How is language used in the play? Is it poetic, nonsense, lyrical, realistic?
And finally...
How does this production explore the ideas of the play? Does it draw any conclusions or present any answers? Is there hope in the play? Where is it evoked for you? In particular characters? In particular actions? In what ways do sound and design elements help to tell a story? Consider the plays structure. Is it linear? Is it disjointed? Can you find any logic? How does the plays structure challenge you as an audience?
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In Conversation with Olivia Allen, director of A Dream Play

Do you have a particular connection with A Dream Play? I love plays that are about philosophy. They are a collective statement about how and the way we live our lives. Caryl Churchill and August Strindberg are sensitive souls who are attuned to the sadness that people feel in their lives. There is so much pressure to be amazing but when you are something can still seem missing the green bucket syndrome. The play also has an inherent theatricality to it. I have a preference for extremely physical theatre this has a lot of text for me. But the text is so precise and resonant that it is a joy AND certainly a challenge to create a physical world which compliments the text, the verbal world. Why did you chose to direct Caryl Churchills version of A Dream Play instead of the original by August Strindberg? What are the significant differences between the two? I love the precision of this text. It certainly is sparse and poignant as one of the English reviewers said of its London premiere. I also like that she has focused on the social realities of the characters. She has prioritised the human aspect of the dream world rather than the god and mythic elements. But she has managed to provide a clearly dreamlike absurd world and still has moments of pathos and connection. When we had the first reading we sighed collectively at certain moments when that happens in a reading you know that there is magic in the words. It made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. It is very tender despite Strindbergs gruff reputation. How does Caryl Churchill change the contexts of the play? (Social, historical, political, cultural) So there are changes in the emphasis on religion and myth. There is an emphasis on Academia that Strindberg was very sceptical of. He had a very bad time at University it seemed and was very vocal in critising Academics. But it was a particularly formidable institution in his era ruled of course by class so you can see the reasons why he might have been a bit shirty. The most significant cut is the meaning of life. It is a smart move because contemporary audiences dont really like the play explained to them certainly not given to them on a platter. So the meaning is filtered through the play as it was by Strindberg until Agnes tells the Writer. What is the difference in directing a non-naturalistic piece of theatre as opposed to a naturalistic one? Actors usually need meaning, as they should. We all have a conscious or unconscious purpose for everything we do. But in non-naturalistic pieces meaning has a different context. It is multi-layered; it has another set of rules. It may never mean the one thing. It is very subjective. So we look at and work with that in mind. It is hard sometimes to say to an actor dont try and naturalise or look for meaning. It is still there but we make choices that leave a conclusion as difficult as possible. Does your approach in the rehearsal room differ greatly? I hope I encourage more play. I leave the room open to as many suggestions as possible and make choices as late as possible, because we are all making the world together. It is highly collaborative. I see my role as the outside eye in the true sense of the word. The one who sees what things look like in the bigger thematic and theatrical picture. In working with a naturalistic text time is spent mostly working on motivation, and meaning and then action and rhythm, tempo and mood. In this case a good portion of time is spent on the latter. It seems to make more sense when you stretch the possible extremes of rhythm, tempo and mood. In what way have you collaborated with the creative team in making A Dream Play? The actors have bought in a lot of ideas that we have played with as well as the designers (set, costume, lighting and sound) it is important to be on the same page with the theatrical concept of a play. So I describe the feelings or vision I have about specific things and the designers then have freedom to credit within those limitations. But there is a usually very expansive space to move in between those limitations. What do you think is the directors role? To facilitate a creative environment which means, coaxing, bullying, encouraging and a lot of other tactics to get the performers to stretch themselves. I am a sounding board. A councillor. I also provide the playground I like to think of it like that. The play is the playground. The kids are the cast and creatives and we just jump all over the pace and find nooks and crannies to play in and invent other worlds and stories. I also act as the annoyed neighbour sometimes who gets the kids to settle down and focus. It is important to keep an eye on the bigger picture all the time. I often say to myself how do I want the audience to feel when they leave the theatre. And I shoot for that.
A Dream Play Education Notes pg 15
How would you describe the world that you are creating onstage for this production? At times perplexing. Always intriguing. A land where anything is possible and probable. How do you hope audiences will engage with the production? On all levels by the theatrical event as well as by the beautiful philosophy of the play how wonderful it would be if audiences were inspired to do a nice deed for someone the day after seeing it!!
In Conversation with Eugyeene Teh and Kat Chan, set and costume designers for A Dream Play
As a designer what process did you go through to create the set and costume for A Dream Play? Eugyeene: Read the script, made some notes, did some research which includes history, context, research into the period of the writer. Started to form some ideas based on the research and anything that was related to it. Then communicated these with the director and discussed what we all felt was relevant to the world of the play, and then participated in conversations with the actors in a series of scene studies, dream analyses and other ideas. And then started drawing and modelling. Kat: The process for this production of A Dream Play has been slightly unconventional as usually the set would have been designed before we get into rehearsals, but with the sheer enormity of Churchill/ Strindbergs world its been good to be able to discover the play and its meanings along with the actors. After reading the script several times and going to rehearsals, Eugyeene and I researched (together and individually) what this play meant to us and what Olivia wanted and envisaged. Its been a gradual process and continually evolving. How did you initially respond to the play? Were you familiar with August Strindbergs A Dream Play? Eugyeene: I was not familiar with the play. After reading it I got quite excited with the prospect of designing a surreal landscape. Kat: I hadnt read A Dream Play before, but I knew Strindberg was a heavyweight in the world of theatre; Ive designed a Churchill play before and knew it would be a crazy ride. My initial response to the play was sheer enthusiasm - the script is laden with meaning and I thought it would be such a challenge to interpret it visually. It is really a designers dream to get such a script. Are you familiar with designing for non-naturalistic theatre? Eugyeene: Yes. In fact, Im uncomfortable with designing for naturalistic theatre as I have not had much experience of it. My design methodology is stylized and expressionistic, and as such does not find naturalism necessary. Kat: I would have to say my style is predominantly non-naturalistic. I have had experience designing naturalistic plays (as naturalistic as a theatre set can be!), but find that I would prefer my designs to evoke more from audiences - to make them use their imagination. What role does the set play in the overall production of the piece? Eugyeene: The set has to aid in the storytelling process by complementing and quite possibly accentuating the director and writers vision and intention. Kat: Essentially the world we create onstage is an illusion, and along with the other design disciplines, the set is crucial in forming this environment. The set has to be a place where the actors feel comfortable to perform and inhabit for it is in that space and in that moment that another world is conjured. What are some of the key ideas or images have you included in your design? Eugyeene: The dream analysis process with the actors helped us create a world that was genuinely dreamlike; fuzzy, fluid landscape without the sense of location. It is also a commentary on Strindbergs frustration and nihilist view of life. Kat: From the outset, Olivia had the idea of having a billboard onstage and a series of latches, peepholes and doors for the actors to appear from. We have managed to integrate this image with our idea of threads of consciousness networking across the stage, eliciting that feeling between waking and sleeping.
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How would you describe the world created onstage in A Dream Play? Eugyeene: Stark with a sense of urgency offset by certain playfulness. Kat: Its a world of ambiguity, mutation and permutation. How have the costumes assisted in creating the characters of the play? Eugyeene: The costumes present actors as preconceived archetypal characters that perpetuate the setting as created by the writers. Kat: The costumes weve designed are modern yet timeless and non-specific, they allude to the everydream , the interchangeable nature of people and characters in our dreams. There are also elements of the ridiculous - as in our dreams - there are inexplicable circumstances or characters that appear but are accepted as normal. It is rare that there is a design team working together on a theatre production. How did this come into being? How did you work together? Eugyeene: I thought it would make the design process a lot more enjoyable. Kat: Eugyeene and I have always been each others sounding board since we met at university over ten years ago, and have a similar design sensibility. Over the years, this has naturally progressed to a plan of starting a business and working together. So when we were approached separately by Olivia to design for this production, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to collaborate instead. With such a short timeframe to design, we have worked well together which is a testament to being so familiar with each others work methodology and style. We complement each others strengths and weaknesses.
In Conversation with Russell Goldsmith, sound designer for A Dream Play

What was your initial response to Caryl Churchills A Dream Play? Were you familiar with August Strindbergs original? I was not at all familiar with Strindbergs original A Dream Play, and was extremely intrigued by Churchills recent adaptation of the piece. It immediately presented a huge opportunity for sound to play a significant role in the story telling and the realisation of the fantasy contained in the text. My hope with this piece that the sound can exist in the non-literal domain, where it need not have a direct connection to the spoken text, but can be used to represent the subtext, and accompany the performance on stage. Briefly describe the process for creating the sound design for the production. How did you begin? Did you do research? What was your principle inspiration? My starting point for any production I work on is to read the script. The first time I read it I take no notes and try to read it from front to back in one sitting. I then re-visit the script a few days later, noting my impressions of sounds, tempos and emotion as they occur to me. This is all conveyed to the director, and I then start construction of the sound cues based on their input and how I feel the scenes should sound. Each piece involves a slightly different process for me. Sometimes I will delve deep into researching elements of the setting of the piece, or machinery and environments from the time the play is set, or even source movie reels and radio transmissions from the time. In the case of A Dream Play, the nature of the work allows me to operate in an abstract domain, and to really imagine what I wish to represent audibly, and how I wish to do so. How does the sound influence the style or world of the play? In this case I believe that sound helps to establish the ethereal nature of the world that the play takes place in. It also allows for sharp contrasts in setting and mood, and for us to provide emphasis to certain elements within the piece. I always endeavor to provide a parallel narrative to the written text, and to accompany the performers on stage, providing support for their text, and a credible world in which they belong. I have long believed in replacing the ambience of the playing space with one of my own making, allowing me to control the environment of the theatre, and choose the sound that exists in it. Theatre audiences are really very tolerant of less than ideal acoustic conditions, from amplifiers and air conditioners whirring, to mobile phones going off, people coughing and wriggling in their seats and traffic on the streets around the theatre. Sometimes these things break through the wall we establish when we suspend our disbelief and watch a theatre piece, and they become something we are unable to tune out. I always aim to have my sounds exist in the space in preference to the environmental sound, and hopefully provide the audience with fuller theatrical experience in the process.
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When August Strindberg first wrote the play the technology of sound was very different. How do you think modern technology helps create a non-naturalistic world? One of the great things about writers like Strindberg, who possessed such extraordinary theatrical imagination, is that they never felt constrained by the theatrical realities that existed in their time. Whether or not their theatrical vision could be executed by others was not their concern, and they set out purely to express themselves and convey their message as they desired. It is our challenge, in a time when we have embraced technology and apply it to many aspects of theatrical presentation, to be as creative as we can in interpreting the wishes of the author and conveying their wishes as elegantly as possible. We now have at our disposal, particularly in the world of sound design, many more tools than existed just a decade ago. Sound design is no longer limited to the occasional doorbell or gunshot sound effect played off cassette, and much work goes in to crafting a sonic world in which the production takes place. The technology we use allows for extraordinarily detailed and textured soundscapes to be created that flow with the action onstage, and ultimately help to tell the story. In a piece like A Dream Play, this means that non-naturalistic settings can be created and erased, contradicted, misrepresented and perverted, all in aid of honouring Strindbergs (and the directors!) intentions. If you were a sound designer in 1901 what resources would you have? And what do you imagine your sound design would be like? Early incarnations of the microphone and the phonogram recorder were invented during the same period of time in the mid 1870s. The moving voice-coil speaker was invented in the late 1890s. These technologies eventually infiltrated the mainstream, and morphed into equipment found in todays theatres. However, in 1901 this technology existed mainly in the laboratory, and would not have been utilised in a theatrical context for many decades. It in fact wasnt until the 1920s that sound reproduction was commonly found in the cinema. We do know that sound was used to accompany productions of Greek Tragedies, and certainly a role existed within early Shakespearian companies for someone to make sounds to follow the action and create atmosphere. Therefore I would think that early productions of A Dream Play would have featured musical accompaniment by live musicians, and sound effects provided by a foley artist. This would have served a multitude of purposes, but it would also have been used carefully, to aid in the story telling, heighten action and drama, and lend some credibility to the performance on stage. It is my hope that my sound design for A Dream Play in 2009 serves the same purpose.
In Conversation with the cast of A Dream Play

What initially interested you in being involved in this production? Karen: I was interested in working with Olivia and the kind of theatre she makes, also I really like Caryl Churchill. Kate: First to work on a play that has been created by two amazing writers, it is always a blessing to work on a piece that has been well crafted with flowing dialogue, clear and vivid imagery and interesting characters. The subject matter is also very inspiring with its endless possibilities and scope for interpretation. The chance to work with a reasonably large cast is also pretty special. Gary: I thought the script very beautiful and very, very funny when I first read it. Its themes and its exploration of love, suffering, and the hopelessness (and hopefulness) of the human experience spoke deeply to me. I was also surprised at how easily and clearly the script read considering the abstract nature of the piece, and was excited by the performance possibilities inherent in approaching work of this nature. The director (Olivia Allen) has a great reputation and I was eager to have the opportunity to work with her. There were also members of the cast I was keen to work with again having worked with them on prior projects. I also liked the prospect of working within a large ensemble, something that seldom happens within independent theatre. The last project I worked on (earlier this year) was a strongly naturalistic piece of theatre, and I enjoy having the opportunity to work on projects that allow me to explore varying modes of performance styles. Meredith: I was drawn in by the expanse of the text. There seemed to be limitless possibility, and the calibre of people on board creatively was something I was keen to throw myself into. Heath: I had seen a previous Ignite production, Jet of Blood and had wanted to work with Olivia since then. Additionally Ive always enjoyed the challenges inherent in bringing a classic text to the stage. Mark: I wanted to work with Ignite again as I feel its artistic vision is similar to mine. I read the script and loved its compassionate, melancholy nature and how it takes you into another, strange world. Hannah: I worked with Olivia last year on 3 Short Absurd Works which was a rare triple bill of The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco, Professeur Taranne by Arthur Adamov and Picnic at the Battlefield by Fernando Arrabal. At high school, I really enjoyed absurdist works, and remember reading Strindbergs A Dream Play in Year 12 so was excited that this new version was being done in Melbourne. Michael: The main reason for my interest in this production of A Dream Play was my involvement in a previous Ignite production. The production was 3 Short Absurd Works, and included was Eugene Ionescos The Lesson. I really enjoyed Olivias directorial approach to the Surreal and Absurd nature
of the text. So many times as an actor in todays theatre industry you never get the chance to be involved in these classic Absurd Works. What was your initial response to Caryl Churchills A Dream Play? Michael: I hadnt previously read the play, and I was exposed to an earlier translation at the same time, and the older one to me felt dated. Churchills translation is quite stripped back, without losing any of the strength in its themes. Also, the theatricality of these themes can be explored more openly in rehearsal due to this paring back of the language . Kate: To be honest, at first I found it hard to crack. I think that she has striped it back a lot from the original leaving it with a slightly more distanced feel, observational almost. I also struggled to find the humour in it and it wasnt until the first read through that I heard it. We as a cast are good at laughing at ourselves and empathising with other peoples misery in a tongue in cheek way. Gary: I hadnt read August Strindbergs version before, but I was aware of it. But I am a long time fan of Caryl Churchills work. I love the brutal sparseness of her writing in this play, her ability to convey very rich and complex ideas in very few words. I also feel she has managed to transpose a very contemporary humour on the original work that makes the scenarios, characters and themes very accessible to a contemporary audience. She allows plenty of space for the actors and creative team to interrogate and explore the play, ultimately allowing us to take full ownership over our version or interpretation of the play. I have, of course, now read much earlier translations of Strindbergs play and feel strongly that Churchills contemporary adaptation captures, embellishes and makes relevant the ideas Strindberg himself was attempting. Heath: I was very impressed with it. Anything that breaks down the barriers between the audience and the story is a good thing in my book. I think Caryls new version clears away some of the obstructions that had accumulated over the years, as well as counterbalancing the distancing effect a translated work can often have. It is a very contemporary, vital, stripped-back, immediate version that Caryl has given us to work with. Hannah: I had to read it again straight away because so much weird stuff happens, I was trying to work out who was who and what was going on, but with a second read I had a better idea of the world and the events. I was definitely curious as to how some of the stage directions and set descriptions were going to be brought to life. Meredith: When Agnes identifies why the Billsticker is so desperately disappointed about his bucket - green but not exactly that green, thats it for me. Its the same as when she shows the solicitor that this world is a copy of an original, brighter version. Both the billsticker and the solicitor seem to know implicitly what she is saying and dont require a quantified reasoning, it simply is. I read the play as if Id dreamt it. Mark: I thought that it presented us with a parallel world to ours that is very similar but just a little bit skewed - or else someones very unique view of the world we live in. I liked how it seems to bring all the people in the world together, like we are all dreaming the same dream. Nicholas: What the hell is this thing? How on earth are we going get this to be engaging? Why would anyone want to watch this? I really like the more recent work of Caryl Churchill, but the disjointed and dreamlike structure of the piece struck me as a bit of a challenge. Did you do any particular research for this production? Karen: Yes and still doing it. Went to the library and read as much about Strindberg as possible to learn about what was happening in his life when he wrote it and a bit of the history. Kate: The first thing I did was try to remember my own dreams, something that I very rarely do. Then you find yourself reading up about all sorts of aspects, from the obvious like reading about the authors, past productions, dreams, psychology, etc - to more character specific tangents your mind might head off on like mythology, slavery, music, animals and time periods. Its an ongoing, ever evolving process. Michael: We covered many topics as an ensemble when researching for this production, but I think the most important thing was the research into our own dreams and giving the world of dreams a clear, identifiable vocabulary we could all draw on to communicate with each other in the rehearsal room. Heath: We did general research on Strindberg, his life and his times, as well as the production history of the play itself. We also did some delving into our own personal thoughts and experiences of dreams and dreaming. Additionally I did a lot of digging around into the biographies of poets and writers whose lives and writings I might use to help me find a way into the character of the Writer. Gary: I find peoples attitudes to research very interesting, especially what certain people deem to be correct or proper research. I always feel that the term research conjures up images of intensive studying, and ploughing through numerous historical documents, as if the research was the necessary slog one should endure before getting to the fun part of rehearsal. For me the entire rehearsal and creation process is one and the same as the research period. And what that entails
depends entirely on the production you are working on. Of course we all read an older translation of the play, and brought in information about Strindberg and the time period he was writing this work. But for me it was always clear that we were not attempting a historical staging of the play, or indeed basing the play in a historical context. The work we were creating was to be contemporary and of our time and therefore the bulk of our research sprung from very fun and casual conversations about dreams, our own dreams and common dreams we all share, and our own ideas about life, love, the universe and the human experience. The great thing about working in a large ensemble is that you have so many different minds all sharing and gathering information, all of us concerned with different aspects of the play and choosing to share many different things that we had found on the internet, or in books, etc. For myself, my continuing research, has been to pay attention to the nature of my own dreams; how I experience them, the images my subconscious conjures up, the emotional experiences I recall from dreaming, the seeming profundity of dream logic. Married with this is the constant exploring of the physicalisation of the text and the performance styles I might attempt to inhabit in order to help create the world of the play and my character in particular. Ultimately for me, the ongoing research, always, is that of observing people, understanding them within their habitats with a compassionate and non-judgmental eye, and observing myself and the way I exist in the world. Meredith: Oh yes of course. You could research tomes for each scene of the play. Strindberg seems to be investigating different versions of life/pain in each scene. His life itself was a good start, his environment, his lusts and disappointments, his drive and intellect. Agnes provides an interesting character to research, a version of a rebel angel with roots in Indian mythology and Churchills quietly Christian play. Asking people about their dreams, particularly recurring dreams, was my favourite part, it invites honesty and intimacy straight away! Mark: I looked into Quarantines throughout history, and also did a little research into the concept of a Royal Commission . The whole cast talked at length about different research each had done and shared it with each other. Nicholas: I started reading Freuds The Interpretation of Dreams but found it slightly too dry and academic to be any use in the construction of characters. As a company we all shared our dreams during the early stages and the images within those dreams have been a helpful reference point to feed some of the offers in rehearsal. Apart from that, I had a look at the original productions education notes and skimming through Strindbergs version. What kind of world is being created onstage in this production of A Dream Play? Karen: We are making a surreal world where the logic follows many different lines. Ultimately very playful. Michael: Churchill has a wonderful touch as a writer which enables her to change little in terms of the characters age, occupation and general feeling, but still make them all identifiable and accessible due to the dialogue between them. Kate: A slippery, scary, evocative, elusive one. Hannah: One where anything can happen - and usually does! Michael: The theatre of Dreams has allowed us to create a weird and wonderful world that is unexpected, strangely familiar, and sometimes all too real. But above all, I think its a lot of fun. Heath: Well, it is still very much taking shape as I write this and is not a fixed form yet but I think we are creating a liminal, transformative space where characters and places can shift and change as per Strindbergs own notes on the play. I think what may be unique or specific about the direction our production has taken, at least for me, is that the world is a grimy kind of place, filled with all the detritus and debris of people living their lives and dreaming their dreams. A kind of backstage onstage. Gary: I think it is the world of a dream, but a dream that is filtered specifically through our own eyes and experiences and theatrical aesthetic tastes. It is a heightened world in which anything is possible and everything is surprising, yet it is all held together by an intangible logic that always allows the work to be accessible to our audience. At present we are exploring the physical style of the piece, and trying to understand and share a common physical language; that is we are trying to find a mode of performance that is shared by the ensemble that is exaggerated, heightened and very specific and prevents us from falling into the dull traps of naturalism. Meredith: Hopefully something that the audience can recognize but also be kept on their feet. Hilarity and pain are two words which come to mind. Mark: A world where there is a lot happening all at once, where things occur what may seem illogically, but actually have a logic of its own. A scary world, a dislocating world, a world where people struggle to be good and do good. Nicholas: Wow, thats hard to articulate! The best way I can describe it is: a dark, dirty dream.
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How does Caryl Churchill make the characters contemporary? Karen: The truths about love and the hardships of existence make it contemporary to any human of anytime. Hannah: For me its less about who the characters are and represent but more in the way that they speak. Even though it is dreamlike and some of the characters are not the type of people we are familiar with in our everyday worlds, it is the way that they speak that makes it contemporary. Kate: By finding what may be the modern equivalent of Strindbergs more archetypal characters. She also changes their language quite significantly making it more relaxed and colloquial. Heath: Changing the Poet to the Writer springs to mind as a useful example. The label poet has so many connotations in our culture and many of them not so relevant to the character as he is in A Dream Play. For one we perhaps dont think of poets as the revolutionaries and anarchists they may have represented in 1901. Also I dont think poets demand the cultural attention they might have had in the past. Writer for me, opens up rather than limits the possibilities. Gary: I think more than makes the characters contemporary she makes the language contemporary. And by doing that she automatically makes the world of the play contemporary. And by contemporary I mean timeless in a way. These characters and the language are not contemporary in the way that we see obvious figures from contemporary Australian life (skateboarders, emo kids, pop stars etc) on stage, but rather characters that represent archetypes that the audience can clearly identify as people that they might recognize from their own life. Because the language is contemporary we are never allowed to feel that we are watching characters and scenarios that have nothing to do with us, or that are removed from us, or belong in a different world to ours. And this language frees up many of the design choices that can be made. Because the characters talk like us we can dress them up in period costume if we choose to, and the language they speak stops their appearance from alienating us as an audience. Meredith: Churchill allows a lot of scope for slippage in style in this version of Strindbergs play. At times it seems like we are in an ethereal period piece and then we shift to a nightmare of very contemporary measure. The text and language she adopts doesnt sit comfortably in any one genre and she herself has acknowledged that anachronism was something they werent afraid of. I love when Churchill allows her angel to swear! She keeps us on our toes and doesnt ever let us sink into one mode. Mark: Sometimes she doesnt need to, as sometimes Strindbergs is writing about something we have right now - like perhaps the young lovers. Other times she changes a profession to fit our current times, and she also makes the language more contemporary, although keeping a sense of formality in it. Nicholas: She cuts down on a lot of the flowery language used in the original and makes the whole thing a bit more vital and immediate from a textual perspective. As actors, do you have particular processes that you use in preparing for a role? Karen: Yes but I think it varies to suit the various styles of theatre you are working in. Always have to do as much script work as possible to nut out what is the main anchor of the characters world. Hannah: I believe that I can find everything I need to know in the script with some back-up from my imagination. So really, I read the script a lot and try to get a sense of what life might be like for the characters Im playing outside of the play and the scenes that theyre in to round them out. However, as there is a definite performance style for this piece, we are doing work as an ensemble on physicality and character in order that we create a cohesive world. Kate: It varies depending on the play, the role, and the director and rehearsal process. Some characters evolve very freely and easily and others can be more elusive needing a different approach to find your way into them. Karen: In this play I think a lot. In other ways of working physical shifts can also do the same. Heath: Yes, we do. Each actor approaches this from a different perspective I would say, based on their training, their experience what has worked for them in the past and what they think might work for them on the particular show or a particular character. Michael: Personally, my process is one of no process. I try not to place any rules on myself when approaching a character, because I feel this will limit me. I generally just use my intuition and let the character find me, rather than the other way round. Gary: As I alluded to earlier, my process depends entirely on the project but there are certain aspects that dont really change for me when working in theatre. I will preface this by saying that I when I work in television or film my process is very different. In theatre I spend a lot of my time outside the rehearsal room thinking about the work and my lines in my day to day life; on the tram, washing the dishes, watching TV, etc. But as an actor I try never to make decisions too early on the rehearsal process. As scary as it is, I like to approach every rehearsal from a place of not knowing. This
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allows me to make important discoveries on the floor in the act of doing. I cant learn my lines and decide away from the rehearsal room how I might play a scene, or what a line might mean. I need to approach the rehearsal empty in a sense, and therefore I can play with my fellow actors, and be affected by the offers they make, and feel free and in tune with my own impulses in order to surprise myself and my fellow actors. It takes me quite a long time before I start to concretely set any decisions I might make in terms of how I play a scene. I like to explore different possibilities for as long as possible, and gradually things start to make sense and inform me as to what choices might work best. For me its also really important to gain a sense of what the piece or play might be as a whole before I can start to fine tune my own work within it. There is no point in me making very strong decisions too early on, only to find that the rest of the play has gone in a different direction to the one I was on for my own character. Every actor and character is a piece of the puzzle along with the lights, sound, script, movement etc. its really important to make sure that you are a piece in the same puzzle as everyone else. Meredith: Yes! They necessarily change with each process, however, to develop something entirely unique within the specific cast and creative team on the project. Mark: Some of the processes I use in nearly every show - like the way I learn lines, or let myself dream about the character, or try out voices and movement. But many processes change depending on the type of production & what the director wants. In this show you need to be sensitive as a group rather than simply an individual, as it is a very group show. Nicholas: Yes, but I can tell you now, Ive had to develop a bit of a new process with this show. Approaching this text with a naturalistic Stanislavsky type process (while useful in parts) really doesnt cut it in terms of realising the imaginative possibilities of A Dream Play. Ive been re introduced to a lot of physical stuff that I havent done since drama school that has been really helpful. But at the end of the day each new show does require a different approach. Thats what makes acting exciting! How do you think costume will assist in creating and defining character and type? Kate: Costume can have a huge effect on character and can sometimes either hinder or conflict with an idea you have developed for a role or it can really clarify and enhance something. Most obviously are the physical restrictions a costume might have on you. Costumes may be tight, baggy, short, long, heavy, flimsy - even itchy and these aspects will always effect how you move. The one thing I like to know early is what kind of foot ware Ill be wearing as this can really help with the feel of a character. Michael: Because of the quality and feel of the environment we have created, costume is very important. If the character is uptight and stifled, then having clothing that is restricting or too small will speak volumes to the audience even before the character has uttered even a single word. Hannah: From what I understand of the design, it seems to me that it will really be a key for the audience to understand what is going on and who we are at different times. Most of us are playing multiple characters and the audience need to know who they are so costume will be a real signifier in that respect. Heath: Costume has a huge effect. Both on the audience in identifying and enhancing the character and (for me at least) in finding the character as an actor. I am usually thinking about costume from day one of rehearsal. How it will effect my movement, what it says about how the character wants other people to see him, what it says about the characters social position, his role in society etc. Gary: I actually dont see costume as all that different to the various other aspects that make a piece of theatre. I am just as influenced by the lights, the sound and the physical score as I am by costume. I think its very important that designers work closely with the actors so that the costume design can be as organic a process as the creating of the performance is itself. Its a ying/yang approach for me. I feel the physicality I start to develop should influence the costume designer, and then their designs will in turn start to affect my physicality. It is an awful experience for an actor to spend ages developing a character, only to at the last minute be put into a costume that bears absolutely no common thread to the character you thought you were creating. But ultimately its essential for an actor to make their costume work, to adapt their own character development so that it can live inside their costume, because for an audience, the costume they see will be their first clue as to what or who the character they are viewing is. Meredith: I am hoping Agnes will arrive the moment she steps into her dusty shoes! Its really easy to rely heavily on the aesthetic of a show, especially when you are finding a scene difficult - the whole smoke and mirrors effect, but my job is to focus on what goes on inside that too. Mark: A lot of the characters are named after their profession. This is not of course all they are, but it gives a clue. Costume will be able to mark out that characters place in the world, but also any particular colourings we want to give it - for example is this quarantine master a quiet man or a boisterous one?
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How is the process different for an actor when finding a character in a non-naturalistic style? How do you use your voice, movement and gesture differently? Kate: I dont find my process varies that much, you are simply more free to make varied choices. There are far less limitations on what is appropriate or acceptable so your character has a larger range of tools at their disposal but I still feel that any choices must have a logical impetus, even if this may not be obvious to the audience. Impulses become much more important and the freedom to express these impulses to their limits no matter how large or loud the outcome. Heath: Wow, this is a difficult question. I dont really see it as an entirely different process. The results may be markedly different but I still approach it in the same way, trying to find the whys of each line, investigating the possibilities of each situation/scene. With perhaps the different that I might work more from an outside-in approach, letting external physical choices inform the intention, mood and meaning of the role and the text rather than the other way around. Michael: Its different for each actor, but for me, when dealing with non-naturalism I start by just heightening everything. Voice, physicality, movement and gesture, then slowly finding what works and what doesnt, with the directors guiding eye. Hannah: That is all to be explored throughout rehearsal. One thing Ive learnt though is that Olivia doesnt want us to do accents as the easy way in to character - even though my French accent was genius! Gary: I find this question very interesting because it suggests that there is a type of theatre that is naturalistic (real) and a type of theatre that is non-naturalistic (not real but somehow other). I think all theatre is non-naturalistic; theatre is an artifice, it is by its nature fake, not real, pretend, fantasy. Even the most natural plays are heightened and very far from actual life; everything in them is rehearsed, decided upon, strictly organized to relate a story and a set of relationships. For me, the process of developing a character doesnt alter that much because a play might be deemed naturalistic or abstract. In both styles I still have to discover and create a physicality for a character that is different from my own, as well as a voice (which can include accent, vocal patterns, the way a character might breathe between thoughts and sentences, etc) its just that in a more naturalistic style these shifts and changes are sometimes more subtle, depending on how close a character is to my actual self. I always take my cues from the director and my cast mates. If the director is attempting to construct a theatrical world that is more heightened they will encourage me to make my physical and vocal offers more extreme or exaggerated. The rhythms of the play will also be worked on so that the actors on stage dont relate to each other in the mundane way we do in actual life. Always, as a company, you are working together to develop a shared physical language so that all the actors are existing within the same space. In this play, we are still in the process of discovering what this is. In doing so we are encouraged to pay close attention to how we use our bodies, how the tension might sit in our bodies, how we use our gaze. For example, in my normal life I am quite fidgety and I often look around the room while I am talking, my point of focus shifts a lot. But in this play I need to limit my gaze, to be very clear not to let it shift when I speak, and limit the way my body moves to be precise and quite held. I can also allow myself to explore more grotesque shapes with my body and seek to develop ways of exaggerating through physical form my characters emotional expression. Meredith: Well, there are no rules, for a start. I love that about this play and the open direction Olivia inspires. I like to throw stuff out there and just generally embarrass myself in a rehearsal room, but thats an important part of finding it. At this stage Olivia is happy with whatever we offer, no matter how big or bizarre, well start to compose the whole depending on what the piece needs. Mark: Even for naturalism, being on stage is different from being in real life. There is a certain heightened nature to just having to tell your story from the stage. However when we move away from naturalism we explore even more what the essence of a moment, or gesture is, sometimes by exaggerating it, or repeating it, or have many characters do it at once. We perhaps draw more from other arts like dance or physical theatre or musicals, to create a heightened world. Nicholas: For instance my choice of physicality for the Billsticker character first started with ideas of a small child. But due to my size and the general nature of the choice, it wasnt working. So I then just thought, what about a broken gorilla? Its not a human choice, its sort of abstracted. How playing in a non naturalistic style differs in performance from naturalism? Kate: Working on a naturalistic play you need to consider many contextual elements of the text. There are many more boundaries that need to be adhered to, acceptable human behaviour varies from generation to generation. Language, social rituals, physicality and use of body language all vary. Non-naturalistic theatre in theory can remove all those boundaries and the cast and director can use what ever elements they chose to create the world of the play. Hannah: Performance is performance. So long as you are being true to the world of the play, then I dont think actual performing differs that much. It is still always for the audience.
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Michael: The most noticeable difference from a performers point of view is the amount of energy needed in non-naturalism I think. Gary: It doesnt. In both forms I play out a strictly developed and rehearsed series of movements and adhere to the performance laws established in the rehearsal room. If those laws dictate that the world should appear naturalistic and that the characters should be seen to move as people do on the street then any new impulses I might have in performance need to stay true to that. I cant suddenly choose to start exaggerating my expressions on a whim in front of the audience. And vice versa for more stylized works. Ultimately though, a performance is a performance and as the actor you stay true to what has been developed in rehearsal. This doesnt mean that in performance you cant find new things, in fact as actors you are constantly looking at improving and tweaking moments, it just means that regardless of the style you have to keep your performance in tune with the aims of the director and company. Heath: Another hard question. I guess naturalism is characterised by the sort of movement, vocal delivery you might see in an everyday situation. This doesnt mean that a more heightened, exaggerated, or perhaps surreal performance style is less realistic necessarily, just that it is operating in a different context. In this particular play the context of dreams, which could hardly be said to be realistic. Meredith: Nothing is static. Is there a wall? Push it over. See a face in the audience? Talk to them. Speak for the winds and the waves? Sure, of course. Naturalism depends on conflict and resolution a lot of the time and Strindberg constantly denies his audience this satisfaction. I know Im going down the wrong track with this play when I start questioning why. Reason simply doesnt apply. Mark: Hmmmm. Playing in a non-naturalistic style may require you to work more simply physically rather than follow what would be called a normal emotional path. For example, you may have to go from being very happy to being very sad in a moment; you cant let yourself think of this as a natural progression, you just have to make the leap. Nicholas: Within the naturalistic style its a lot easier to engage with other performers without having to put effort into creating another abstract layer on top. Having to create something from an abstract and then make it real and believable is probably the most challenging thing for an actor to do. How important is non-verbal communication? Kate: Extremely. The smallest gesture or shift in balance can show a characters change in action, even on stage. A glance can speak words too hard to vocalise, a breath can be enough to show a decision made. Hannah: If my answer to that question is non-verbal then you tell me...! Michael: In A Dream Play, and especially Caryl Churchills economic and stripped bare translation, the need to be specific in this non-verbal communication is extremely vital to telling the story. Heath: Very. As important as the words, sometimes more so. Samuel Becketts quote about theatre is that it should have the maximum of verbal presence and the maximum of corporal presence. I agree with this completely. The one thing that the stage has over a film, a television show or a computer game is a breathing actor sharing the space with the audience. Gary: Essential. In my view it is the most important ingredient in creating a theatre work. Especially in contemporary society, with modern audiences, the images created and the physical relationships between characters portrayed convey a depth of meaning that can sometimes be lost in the words. Modern audiences are far more used to watching and receiving visual information, than listening and receiving the information. Im not saying that this shouldnt be challenged, I have seen some incredible plays that contained plenty of text and very little movement or physicalisation. I do however think that special attention needs to be paid to the images created on stage, no matter how subtle. For example; how characters are placed around the space, their physical proximity to other characters, the gestures they use, the way the bodies can convey psychological states and emotions. For example, lets say you have a man and a woman on stage. They stand close together, they look at each other and he says I love you. That tells a story. If, however you have the same man and woman onstage, but he stands upstage, and she stands downstage, far away from him. She looks at him, he doesnt look at her. He is wringing his hands. She is clutching and unclutching her dress, maybe even digging her fingers into her leg. He says I love you . She turns away, and he begins to wring his hands more desperately. This image, with the same words and the same characters, tells a very different story indeed! Meredith: Essential. I never want to see the script been spoken on stage. I like to work through text quite physically. Sometimes it takes a while to get to know other actors bodies, but once that trust is established the text can soar to new levels. Mark: Verbal communication is just one of the tools of the theatre, albeit arguably the main tool for spoken theatre. Strindberg & Churchill have set out a lot of the verbal communication through the words, but the non-verbal is much more up to us as a company to decide on. In that way it is very important.
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Nicholas: I personally think it is what makes up the majority of the performance so, yeah, without it (in this production) youd be at a huge loss. I mean I have nothing against radio plays, but this is theatre and its primarily physical. What is the biggest challenge when working in a surrealist or expressionist style? Kate: For me its about making relevant choices. It can be very tempting to get swept up in the freedom of the style but we still have the responsibility of telling the story and making it not just comprehensible to the audience but effecting and rewarding. Heath: For me it would be finding and retaining a truthful interpretation of the text even though you may be in an extremely heightened, exaggerated, abstract form as part of realising the work. Its about not getting lost in the extreme actorlyness of it all. Michael: I think the biggest challenge is to not censor yourself as an actor and allow yourself to go anywhere and everywhere the character wants to go. Hannah: Making sure the style is cohesive I think. Which is really up to the director, and luckily Olivia has a very clear vision and is good at communicating what she sees and imagines. We as actors, need to make sure that we do work as an ensemble and that we are finding a similar result in our performance styles. It doesnt really matter what our individual processes are so long as when we perform we are all on the same page. Gary: Its about making sure that the whole company is sharing a physical score and performing within the same style. Another challenge is making sure that no matter how crazy or avant-garde your presentation of the material may be, it still has its roots firmly set within a recognizable emotional and psychological reality. I truly believe audiences coming to the theatre want to be able to recognize and connect to the characters onstage. Even the most exaggerated and stylized representation needs to be recognizably human. In fact, heightening or exaggerating a character is never about disguising that characters humanity, it indeed does the opposite, making more obvious and clear the characters faults, flaws, charms, humour and heart. Meredith: Getting off track! The play invites so many tangential ideas, experiences, theories, which we have all brought to the floor, but there IS a spine to it and we have to remind ourselves of the whole. Mark: The biggest challenge is not holding on too much to your own interpretation of the script. There is a great freedom in how a script like this gets brought to life and I think its best found as a group, as you go along. Nicholas: Most definitely having to strip back the extraneous layers created by naturalistic performance and heightening each characters emotional response in not a necessarily human way. It can be a very intellectual exercise at the beginning of rehearsal that takes quite a bit of time to become connected and real. What do you enjoy most about it? Kate: The chance to play! Hannah: In Australia, most acting we do and see in the professional world is naturalism so its really great to explore different performance styles and create something that can be quite weird and wonderful. Gary: HmmmmI guess there is a certain freedom in working in more heightened styles, more permission to be a little crazy and courageous in your choices. I also like the physical demands it requires of me. Performing in a highly stylized piece can be quite a work out, its exhausting, but in a good way, like exercise. Michael: I think the most enjoyable thing about working in this style is being as intense, silly and crazy as you like in the process and exploration of finding your character and how they relate to the other characters in the script. Meredith: As with all great texts, my horizons have been broken open! Heath: That this style of theatre perhaps gets at the truth in a way naturalism cant, a deeper, more intuitive kind of meaning, Mark: I enjoy working with these groups of people and being crazy within a crazy world. Nicholas: The release of not being bound by naturalistic conventions. This style of theatre really is theatre of the imagination. You can give ANYTHING a go, even if it has no function in the real world.
iGNITE presents
by August Strindberg In a new version by Caryl Churchill and Ignite By arrangement with Dominie Drama
pg 25
Resources
Plays Churchill, C. A Dream Play, Nick Hearn Books, 2005 Strindberg, A. Five Plays: The Father, Miss Julie, The Dance of Death, A Dream Play, The Ghost Sonata, University of California Press, 1981 Strindberg, A. Strindberg, Selected Plays and Prose, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964 Churchill, C. The Skriker, Nick Hearn Books, 1994 Websites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dream_Play http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Strindberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Churchill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism http://www.theatrelinks.com/ www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Books Quigley, A. The Modern Stage and Other Worlds, Methuen Inc, 1985 Esslin, M. The Theatre of the Absurd, Doubleday, 1969 Brecht, B. On Theatre, Methuen Publishing Ltd, 1978 Styan, J. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 2: Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd, Cambridge University Press, 1981 Films The Dance of Death (1968) directed by David Giles The Father (1969) directed by Alf Sjoberg Miss Julie (1960) directed by Alf Sjoberg Miss Julie (1999) directed by Mike Figgis Labyrinth (1986) directed by Jim Henson Eraserhead (1977) directed by David Lynch 2047 (2004) directed by Kar Wai Wong
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Presents

By August Strindberg in a new version by Caryl Churchill

Photography by Chris Nash

Copyright Ignite Productions Inc and Danica Kohn 2009

A Dream Play Education Notes

Activity - To get you started...

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

Cast and Creatives Team 2009 Production

A Dream Play Education Notes

Before the show

A Dream Play Education Notes

August Strindberg, the writer

A Dream Play Education Notes

Caryl Churchill, the writer

A Dream Play Education Notes

Non-Naturalism, the style

A Dream Play Education Notes

Questions for Analysis and Discussion

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

VENUE: BELLA UNION TRADES HALL

A Dream Play Education Notes

After the show...

A Dream Play Education Notes

Some more questions...

A Dream Play Education Notes

In Conversation with Olivia Allen, director of A Dream Play

A Dream Play Education Notes

In Conversation with Russell Goldsmith, sound designer for A Dream Play

A Dream Play Education Notes

In Conversation with the cast of A Dream Play

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

A Dream Play Education Notes

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