Robert Lepage was invited to direct August Strindberg’s play A Dream Play in 1994. It is one of Strindberg’s most influential dramas, focusing on both expressionism and surrealism. In Lepage’s adaptation he used a three-sided hollow cube which floated in mid-air. We are really keen on using a cube for our performance as it closes the audience in and is something that had never been done in the LPAC before in the multimedia module. Although, for our performance the set was not floating, we took inspiration from his set. “All the action took place in a three-sided cube, which would rotate, and which the actors would climb into and out of. The surrounding stage was all in darkness” (Adams 2007, p., 42). For our final piece we want the outside to be darkened as well, this is to show that the life only exists within the cube, and that the audience needs to create their own setting of the cube from their imaginations and the projections shown throughout the piece. In Lepage’s adaptation he used “images projected onto the walls of the cube indicated scenery or place, not too distant from Strindberg’s own stage instructions” (Adams 2007, p., 42). This is another similarity we have with Strindberg’s original piece and Lepage’s adaptation. “To Lepage, technology answered the need to create a multidimensional theatre space. The projections onto the walls of the cube would morph, mutate and transform the scenery, very much in line with Strindberg’s intentions for A Dream Play” (Adams 2007, p., 42). This is exactly what we want to achieve with our performance. It is important to us that the audience is immersed in to the setting and that they understand the intention of our piece.
We wanted to create an enclosed environment to make the audience feel entrapped and immersed in the space. “The scenery (according to Strindberg’s wishes) is provided by projections which dissolve in and out of one another, imbuing the action, at any rate some of the time, with an uplifting sense of transparency and weightlessness; and as the projections change, the half-cube rotates, so that what was the floor is now a wall, and a window has become a trap-door.” (The Independent, 1995). This is what we really wanted to achieve with our performance. We are currently producing footage which can be presented on each wall of the cube. This includes features like stop motion which we used as an experimental form of media. We also wanted footage to set the scene, we filmed the sky and the sun which is going at the beginning and the moon at the end of our performance. the transition from day to night would coincide with our progress throughout the performance. This use of technology footage is similar to Lepage’s version of A Dream Play as he used a large amount of multimedia technology.
In Lepage’s version of A Dream Play, he offered constant references to the world outside the dreamer. In our piece we are wanting to bring the dream to the audience. Our idea is to create a world in which an audience can believe they are in with us. “A Dream Play has a structure and form that invites an approach with experimental ideas” (Adams 2007, p., 41). We could see resemblances with A Dream Play in both idea and design, this encouraged us to become more experimental with our piece and think of more progressed ideas which we could add to the performance.
Olivia Clephane and Luke Talbott
Adams, A. (2007) From Dream Play to Doomsday: Enter Lepage, Wilson. Stagings of A Dream Play 1994-2007: North-west Passage
Hanks, R. (1995) Lepage’s Dream Play moves more than heaven and earth, Online: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/lepages-dream-play-moves-more-than-heaven-and-earth-1621498.html. (Accessed on: March 20th 2013)
