Tag Archives: Chloe Myerson

The Interpretation of Dreams – 3 Stars

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Bunker

Reviewed – 12th November

★★★

“unfortunately, it left some a little baffled and others perhaps clapping along in the hope that they had ‘got’ the play”

 

It’s difficult to like a play you don’t understand, it’s even harder when the play doesn’t want to be understood. The Interpretation of Dreams by Monkhead theatre, at the Bunker Theatre, is a cryptic collection of five short pieces based on the Sigmund Freud’s seminal work: The Interpretation of Dreams. The work has been put together in a week by a group of young actors, directors and writers, and reflects their commitment to interesting, tight but befuddling theatre.

Three of the four storylines (making up four of the five pieces) sit comfortably against one another as dreamlike sequences exploring what a dream can mean and should mean and how those dreams can interact with our waking life. The final piece had a lot to say about consumerism and how ideas are captured and bottled, but it so much an appendix that it just confused matters further. The pieces are interspersed with thought-provoking and interesting audiovisual content from Josh Field; carrying an unsettling and disjunctive tone that leaves the audience in a dream-like state without labouring the analogy. A helpful image from the source material of repressed memory as an unruly audience member helps guide the audience into what is otherwise a relatively unclear play.

The set and lighting work well and with each piece set in the same white bourgeois kitchen, it gives them that perfect sense of disconnection from space – deepening the sense that we are right now in a dream. The lighting is congruent and creative if not original with handheld torches being used as much as the house lighting.

‘Clever’ plays don’t lend themselves to kind reviews, and this was a ‘clever’ play – in fact, it was oddly self-aware that some audience members really weren’t getting what was going on. At times the jerky physical theatre and unclear script felt like it was confusing in the hope that this would be interpreted as deep, which left this audience member feeling deeply ignorant. There was a wonderfully poignant representation of anxiety in Would You Let a Stranger Wake You Up? but this was set against the confusing movement which left you thinking that Frued’s work was less inspiration and more required reading.

The quality of acting was genuinely good across the board and stood out in Irma’s Injection in particular. Joshua Jacob (Josh) was noticeable for his enjoyment and energy in a part that would have been boringly cryptic without it.

What this play had in thoughtfulness it lacked in clarity. Perhaps this was an attempt to mirror the source material or caused by an authentic unwillingness to dictate to the audience. Though unfortunately, it left some a little baffled and others perhaps clapping along in the hope that they had ‘got’ the play. Maybe one day these words right now will be mocked by scholars who get to the bottom of the play, but for now, it’s impossible to truly enjoy a show which you can’t break the encryption of.

 

Reviewed by William Nash

Photography courtesy Monkhead Theatre

 


The Interpretation of Dreams

The Bunker – additional date 19th November

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Devil With the Blue Dress | ★★ | April 2018
Reboot:Shorts | ★★★ | April 2018
Conquest | ★★★★ | May 2018
Grotty | ★★★★ | May 2018
Guy | ★★★½ | June 2018
Kiss Chase | ★★★ | June 2018
Libby’s Eyes | ★★★★ | June 2018
Nine Foot Nine | ★★★★ | June 2018
No One is Coming to Save You | ★★★★ | June 2018
Section 2 | ★★★★ | June 2018
Breathe | ★★★★ | August 2018
Eris | ★★★★ | September 2018
Reboot: Shorts 2 | ★★★★ | October 2018
Semites | ★★★ | October 2018

 

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

 

Review of Dead Souls – 4 Stars

Dead Souls thespyinthestalls

Dead Souls

Theatre N16

Opening Night – 5th July 2017

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

“A very interesting adaptation superbly acted”

 

Nikolai Gogol’s satire Dead Souls, in which a civil servant attempts to get rich quick by buying up the rights to recently deceased serfs in order to appear wealthy, has been adapted by Monkhead Theatre which aims to bring ‘the wild rock and roll playfulness of experimental multimedia theatre’ to the Russian classic.

Dead Souls thespyinthestalls

And they have done so successfully. ‘The Machine’, a microphone dangling above a vibrating cymbal which sits centre stage, provides a low-pitch hum throughout the drama to symbolise the ‘impalpable sound’ of the dead serfs who haunt the background of the characters petty, unfeeling, bureaucratic arguments. Video projection is also used, filming the actors as they perform in the pub downstairs. If you enjoy the humour of unaware audience participation, you’ll enjoy these sections. If, like me, you find it a bit cringy, then it can feel laboured. That is not the fault of the acting however: Joshua Jacob (Chichikov and The Minister), Jules Armana (The Prosecutor, Sobkievitch and Plyushkin) and Toby Osmond (Manilov and Nozdryov) are all superb.

Dead Souls thespyinthestalls

Chloe Myerson’s adaptation condenses Gogol’s circuitous novel into a taut hour and thirty minutes. Such a streamlining necessarily means that some of the author’s themes are given more prominence: in this, it is the theme of class. Chichikov is marked by his lower social status and it is here that the costuming comes into its own. Just the shoes of the characters are able to denote their ranking: Chichikov’s are a bashed about pair of slip-ons, whereas the wealthy landowner Nozdryov’s are a shining black leather.

Dead Souls thespyinthestalls

Fortunately, something that is not lost in the adaption is Gogol’s wry humour. It is particularly apparent in Toby Osmond’s brilliant dual portrayals of the gauche Manilov and the boorish Nozdryov, and also in the sardonic descriptions that appear on the projection.

Dead Souls thespyinthestalls

All in all, a very interesting production. If things get a little over-heated at the end (and it was very warm in the small space), that does not dampen the sharpness of this drama.

 

Reviewed by Alice Gray

 

Theatre N16 thespyinthestalls

Dead Souls

is at Theatre N16 until 8th July

 

Monkhead

 

 

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