A Dream Play

For three consecutive nights (10th, 11th and 12th November) a small audience was treated to what was, for most members, a unique and totally unforgettable experience when they went to see A Dream Play, performed at The Manor.

The play (written by August Strindberg) is essentially a dream, in which Agnes, the daughter of the Gods, comes down to earth to see what it's like to be a human being. In doing so, she meets a variety of different people with different attitudes and she sees all the negative aspects of being a human, before she finally goes home. The play is existentialist and explores the meaning of life.

Rather than have the audience as mere onlookers, the cast and crew used the working methods of Antonin Artaud, who believed that the audience should really feel what the characters are feeling. The Manor provided the perfect backdrop for the play, and, using three rooms, the audience moved through the dream, with the intention of making them feel some truly heightened emotions including fear, excitement, boredom, stress .... all feelings the heroine Agnes experienced coming down to earth.

Members of the audience were all given things which, if they chose to, could affect the performance. In one room they were given bubbles, which seemed to provide no end of nostalgic fun, in another room some torches and some glasses with different coloured lenses so they could choose to view the performance in a different colour. Director Miss Naomi Wilson said "I hope the play was disorientating and different, but most importantly (to Artaud and Strindberg) I hope it gave the audience something to talk about."

The play was dirceted by Miss Naomi Wilson, the assistant director was pupil Flora Longley Cook and the cast, who devised a lot of the play, consisted of pupils throughout the School (from First Form through to Upper SIxth). Congratulations to all of them for producing such an unusual and interactive play. This is the second play this term that has involved a pupil as assistant director. Delirium in October saw Sixth Form pupil Anais Seager as assistant director to Mr Matt Herring.