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

Libby’s Eyes | ★★★★ | June 2018

Nine Foot Nine | ★★★★ | June 2018

No One is Coming to Save You | ★★★★ | June 2018

Reboot: Shorts 2 | ★★★★ | October 2018

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

★★★

“Though actors and creative team deserve credit for an interesting idea and some powerful moments, the outcome is occasionally gauche”

Before taking their seats at The Bunker, audience members are asked by the play’s co-lead, Lara Sawalha, to hand over their shoes. Surprisingly, most do. Once the audience is settled with their shoes lined up on stage, Sawalha and Ben Nathan, her co-performer and the play’s creator, begin the first interchange of verbatim testimonies taken from Israeli and Palestinian farmers, students, professionals and ex-combatants. These views reach an antagonistic climax, then the lights are back up and Nathan explains the development of Semites, a project triggered by a heated, anti-Israel audience Q&A he had experienced in 2011, which led to him questioning his natural loyalty to Israel as a British Jew and organising a tour of the territories.

The performance then resumes with a challenge to the audience; a show of hands tests our knowledge of our neighbours and how often we mingle with those of opposing views, before the lights go down and the testimonies continue with Sawalha presenting the words of Palestinians, Nathan, those of Jewish respondents.

These three strands, verbatim theatre, audience participation and the actors’ personal accounts, interweave across the hour. Lighting demarcates the changes and our shoes are brought into play in pools of light to create immediacy and empathy with those whose stories are told. Sawalha’s characterisations are particularly good, while Nathan’s candid telling of his personal journey drives the narrative. The sound department backs them both with ambient sounds of cafes and roads to great effect.

The stories are occasionally searing. An Israeli soldier describes with chilling detachment how he watched a Palestinian father beat up his son to protect him from a worse fate at the soldier’s hands. But some methodologies are not so illuminating. Being asked to shut your eyes during a show of hands is a pretty empty experience. A sketch in which the actors imagine a dividing wall in Yorkshire is borderline patronising. Preceding this with a running joke apologising in advance for the Northern accents is cute but punctures the mood so close to genuine testimony of horrific experiences.

So, by the far the most successful part of the show is the oral history – informative, engaging and we could have done with more. Nathan spoke with only 45 people around Hebron and Biet Jala, suggesting a lack of reach and resources may have played a part in the evening’s reliance on theatrics, and this dilution undermines his good intentions. Though actors and creative team deserve credit for an interesting idea and some powerful moments, the outcome is occasionally gauche. In one of the last audience participations, we’re asked to display support for lines of testimony by holding up cards, a notion out of keeping with the non-judgemental concept. Thankfully, most don’t.

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Mark Senior

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”

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.

Reviewed by William Nash

Photography courtesy Monkhead Theatre

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Bunker – additional date 19th November

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Bunker

Reviewed – 31st October 2018

★★★

“Though actors and creative team deserve credit for an interesting idea and some powerful moments, the outcome is occasionally gauche”

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Mark Senior

Semites

The Bunker until 3rd November

Previously reviewed at this venue: