MWLifeIsaDream

__Life Is a Dream __: A Review The intricate and outlandish world created in the play __Life Is a Dream__, and as interpreted by director Marla Carlson, requires a leap of faith from the audience as the play maneuvers through half a dozen performance styles and plotlines. Set up as a play-within-a play, __Life__ sets up two contrasting atmospheres: that of the modern world of white-collar workers and their “team building exercise” directors, and that of the medieval world of honor, valor, feuding families, and a quest for identity and power. Ultimately the actors themselves must each convey an assortment of characters as well as a variety of performance techniques; __Life Is a Dream__ showcases a traditional text in an extremely unconventional and peculiarly modern way that keeps audience members simultaneously confused and enthralled with the action onstage. Textually, there were fundamental changes made to the original text to make the play appear more modern as well as more stimulating than the original tale of morals alone. The groundwork for the innovative play is the workings of two scammers who want play off a technological gimmick as a new team building exercise for corporate workers. The “exercise”, which is essentially a role playing game, evolves into the classic tale of //La vida es sueño// involving a hidden prince, feuding families in Poland and Russia and mistaken identity. Each actor within the larger ensemble takes on a new persona and background, and the figurative stage is set for an entirely new play. While the action onstage is presented in a visually simplistic manner, a traditional aspect of the text is kept alive—the Greek chorus. The chorus in __Life Is a Dream__, as in other classical literature, serves to comment on the action taking place and to sporadically intervene and interact with the characters. The scammers—Ms. Straps, Mr. Boots, Tara, and David—all serve as members of the chorus and intermittently narrate the action or explain expository information to the audience in both serious and comic manners. In some instances, the passages of the chorus are recited by the entire cast and accompanied by abstract movements and even singing. Overall, the dialogue, main plot, and action reflect the traditional text, but the insertion of a contemporary backdrop for the action of Life __Is a Dream__ allows for the actors to create and manipulate the stage and breathe a new vivacity into the centuries-old content. The barren, simplistic set of __Life__ barely appears to be a set at all. Like the staging of the original Greek plays, there is a lack of scenery, backdrops, and props. In the place of traditional “scenery”, there are rows of black chairs along the edges of the acting space, a trunk located upstage that provided costumes, and small hand props that were dealt as the action calls for them. Instead of being a detriment to the play, the lack of a visual set encourages the audience to envision the landscapes and courts of the tale for themselves. To switch between physical settings as the story evolves (such as a transition from a prison tower to the king’s court), the actors utilize different areas of the stage, and those actors who are not a part of the current scene sit in chairs offstage. By conducting scenes in this manner, there is still a clear idea of whom and what locale is important within the action.  In fact, the atmosphere created by the minimalist set is, if anything, welcoming to the audience members, giving them a sense of gritty realism to relate directly to the actors and their pure emotions despite the subject’s more archaic nature. Other aspects such as the lighting helped establish the ambiguity of the stage as well; it consisted of a simple setup that completely lit the entire stage for the entirety of the show. The lack of lighting effects and modern lighting gimmicks allowed more attention to be placed on the performers themselves. There was also a large interactive element to the set and the show where actors were not wary of the fourth wall, and in a humorous and bold step, frequently strolled outside its bounds to the point of having the entrance into the theatre serve as a castle window. Like the setting, abstract and simple costumes created the worlds of business casual and medieval garb simultaneously. Initially, the businessmen and women were dressed in mundane and commonplace clothing—blazers, trousers, blouses, even ties and tie pins. However, on immersing themselves into the world of the role playing “exercise”, each character removed their shoes and donned a silk shirt or vest depending on the part of their newfound character. The removal of the actors’ shoes allowed them more freedom of movement onstage during the choreographed portions of the show. In fact, so much of the play is acted out via interpretive dance that being barefoot seemed to be a necessity as well as a symbol of the actors’ immersion into the action and their new roles. The skirts and vests, though relatively straightforward in design and color, help differentiate between the two families – noted by navy and lavender clothing, the prince Segismundo in his fur vest, and the ringleader Violante in red. In __Life__ there is also a fair deal of quick changes as one character changes to another via addition or removal of a vest or skirt as the character Rosaura who impersonates both a man and a female servant. The simplistic dress makes such changes fluid and easy to understand from the perspective of the audience member. Although at times the costuming of __Life Is a Dream__ can make it difficult to distinguish individual minor characters, its simplicity fits in perfectly with the atmosphere created by other aspects of the play and allows for embellishment by the imagination. The setting, costumes, and the text of __Life Is a Dream__ are all adapted to give the actors full reign of the stage. The lack of scenery and costumes takes away what is often thought to be the essential parts of establishing characters and a storyline, and leaves the actors onstage more vulnerable than conventional plays. This ensemble of actors, however, takes full advantage of the stage’s emptiness and fills the physical void with an eloquence and depth of emotion that is both unexpected and refreshing. Each actor onstage consistently watches and listens actively even while not verbally partaking in the scene onstage. In addition to the traditional expectations of actors to embody a character, the actors of __Life__ serve as avant-garde mouthpieces for what is normally a non-actor aspect of the play. The play itself has no pre-recorded music to accompany the action; instead, the actors and characters sing, chant, and harmonize with each other to create a completely new auditory experience. Traditional pre-recorded sound effects were also eschewed and the two clown characters vocalize random effects, alternately serving as trumpeters and horses. The comedic clowns were also integral in lightening the mood of the theatre when scenes got overly serious or when “dangerous” action sequences took place. Often, they would address the audience directly and joke about the action in a more modern manner than the rest of the dialogue, sometimes straying into the self-referential. These brief interludes alleviated some of the excess tension brought on by the intense concentration of the actors and also serve as a reminder of the true “frame” of the play set in the modern world. Not only does the show work the actors’ dramatic and comedic chops, it pushes them into the realm of dancing and singing, though not in the kitschy approach often employed in the musical genre. The flow and rhythm of the interpretive dance read well from the audience and was mesmerizing in its execution, though it sometimes drew attention away from the dialogue and verbal aspects of the performance. Each actor managed not only to speak, but also sing in a clear and well-enunciated style that projected well throughout the theatre space. Although some actors stood out as stronger than others in terms of stage presence and charisma, the ensemble as a whole successfully portrayed the ideas of the director. In terms of presentation and production of a show, the director Marla Carlson took stylistically bold and daring risks in __Life Is a Dream__ that were complimentary to the original text despite their abstract nature. The most obvious addition to the text of Pedro Calderón de la Barca is the business story that frames the true meat of the play, as well as the music and dance that pervade all of the action. However, many of the smaller and more comical elements of the play seem to be based off of the improvisational style of comedy. During the transition from the opening story to the new characters and locales of the original __Life__, the actors look into the audience for a “volunteer” and settle on the actress who in fact plays the protagonist, the prince Segismundo. Planting the main character in the audience is a witty choice on the part of the director that adds to the overall spontaneity of the show. Also adding to the “improv” feel of the performance was the lack of scenery and the focus on the creation of an individual, nuanced character.  Not only seen while hunting for an actress at the beginning of the play, but also at the end of the show there are major moments of self-awareness. The whole play has references to itself sprinkled throughout, ranging from a simple comment by a clown character to a full-out discussion and analysis of the action by the entire cast. After the resolution of the complex story of Segismundo and his family, the cast looks to each other, deride what they have just enacted, then agree to enact the ending how they believe it “should be”. The second ending to the play worked to give a better sense of emotional closure as well as give a knowing self-referential wink to the audience. Also thrown into the business frame for the play are the names of the characters Mr. Boots and Ms. Straps, as a reference to the adage of “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps”—a small yet noteworthy detail. The director of __Life Is a Dream__ had a clear vision of the visual appearance (bare set and simple costumes) and textual interpretation of the play, both of which were well executed by a strong ensemble of actors. By placing the actors in a different type of acting space and introducing a wide variety of performance styles, the overall effect is one of a relatable, if abstract story. Not afraid to take its time, the pacing of the play was steady and deliberate, yet was kept interesting by the use of various monologues and intricate choreography to transition between scenes. The juxtaposition of the original text and the modern stage and framework gave a new artistic depth to the original work while still maintaining its dignity and message. __Life Is a Dream__ was a successful melding of two vastly different theatrical worlds into a new conceptual thought that defies the idea of traditional theatre.