BFLifeisaDream

Brett Finlay Life is a Dream Critique

“Life is a Dream” was started off as an incredibly confusing play. I had a very hard time following what was going on since the play went from a modern day scene to a virtual world in a play. When I first saw the picture they used for the advertisement for the play I thought the play itself would be more serious since it pictured a man bound in chains. I understand where the picture came from in the play but there was a lot of comic relief within the play gave an unexpected tone to things. I felt like most of the characters aside from the few that were spotlighted had a silly awkward demeanor throughout the play.

I liked how a lot of what was going on was mimed so you had to imagine what was going on, like when the musicians were playing imaginary instruments, but I felt that a lot of what was said was unclear and I did not really get what was going on until a good ways into the play within the play. The singing seemed kind of a strange fit in this play and there was not any real music other than the a cappella singing which was not meant to all be perfect I suppose since the people performing the play were supposed to be random and just suddenly know all of the lines and choreography oddly enough. Our Segismundo was supposed to be thought of as a random audience member, in fact, so it was weird that they made it seem like it was an impromptu play in which everyone knew what to do for reasons unknown. This does not take into account the parts where people were pushed into the scene because they were supposed to enter and say their lines but “did not know it”. I also found it funny that sometimes the actors would ask for clarification for what they were supposed to be doing too. I thought it was amusing that they created their own sound effects by beating on weird blocks for footsteps and other noises and by actually having someone make whooshing noises to mimic the wind as well as make bird calls and other various sounds that one would have heard if the play was actually happening with real props and the like.

The set to me was very minimalistic, with all of the props and costumes in a trunk or hung on hooks to the right of the stage. The entire time the set was almost all black; black folding chairs, black walls behind and around the stage. I felt that this focused in on the virtual reality concept and the idea that you had to imagine what was there and going on since even props not in this virtual reality world were not there sometimes. I found it interesting that the props they had were plastic and cheap looking like the sword or easy to come by like the “chains” that were really just some colorful fabric made to be a sort of braided rope. I like how they used the door to the theatre as a window and how all of the actors would stay on the stage the entire time. They also used actors as props when they had two people holding the Segismundo’s “chains”. Also, they used the trunk the props and costumes were in as a prop in itself; it was supposed to be boulders that Clarion hid behind.

The costumes were just as minimalistic as the set and it was very confusing to understand who was who the whole time even though they had certain colors they wore to identify themselves by which country they came from I assume or by allegiance or family (it was unclear) and the royalty had a gold trim on their vests or skirts other than the animal skin vest of Segismundo identifying him as not being of any group until he was restored to the throne, the many colored patchwork vest of Clarion who was “king of the jackasses” and had only truly allegiance to himself and chose no sides, and Clotaldo whose vest was different colors on each side signifying his loyalty to the king and his deceased wife who wears a skirt matching one side of his vest. Before the play began everyone was wearing modern clothing and looked kind of professional. I did not really understand the background part about the woman and her partner presenting her inexistent “invention”; I could not tell if they were presenting it to a company or what, so it did not make much sense to me what the other characters were making a deal to buy her invention for.

I thought it was unusual how the director chose to make certain characters cross-dress and that these two characters could easily have been switched. The mother of Segismundo played by a rather masculine man and a girl played Segismundo. These parts had gender oriented lines and actions which made their parts kind of uncomfortable, for example, the man playing the mother of Segismundo had to dance and sing about giving birth to him which men do not do obviously so it was kind of weird and awkward, and Segismundo had to attack Rosaura in a lust filled rage and be on top of her which was also weird. The way the actors had control of the ending was interesting to me. They actually finished out the play and critiqued the ending and how they did not like it, saying it did not make any sense and started it over again to how they liked it, making Segismundo marry Rosaura and Clarion not die.

When it came to the people who were supposed to be dead, I thought it was sweet how those living would run to their deceased parents for support and love or the parent would take control of them and calm them as Segismundo’s mother did in one scene. I did not completely understand who could see whom when it came to the dead but I liked how they would react to what was going on since they were always there watching; presenting the idea that all of those who had passed away were still with their loved ones. I caught on before the play ended the main idea of the play. Life is a dream. The actors got caught up in the play they were putting on in the virtual reality world, which did not actually exist, therefore acting as if everything in the play was actually happening and forgetting about what was going on in real life, and thus life was a dream in both the play and in the play within the play. It is confusing to explain but makes perfect sense to me.