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Nuggets Of Wisdom Surface In 'Dream Play'

Photo from Jobsite Theater

Kari Goetz plays Agnes in Jobsite Theater's production of 'A Dream Play.'

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By KATHY L. GREENBERG

Tribune correspondent

Published: June 14, 2008

TAMPA - Watching Caryl Churchill's adaptation of "A Dream Play" by August Strindberg is like witnessing an exercise in free association. Most of the time, nothing makes sense. But once in a while, in the rambling chaos, you grasp a nugget that brings everything into focus.

Under the direction of Chris Holcom, the cast in Jobsite Theater's production does a fine job unearthing those rare treasures of wisdom.

Agnes (Kari Goetz) is a daughter of the gods who comes to Earth to learn what it means to be human. She is a positive creature who represents the joy and beauty that exist in life.

Despite the overall suffering she sees - desperation, longing, unrelenting sadness - her enthusiasm for learning and her naivety protect her from doom and gloom. For a time she remains optimistic that salvation will come, declaring, "People always find things so difficult, but there's always love."

When she decides to participate, however, she realizes the treachery of the human path. It becomes clear how easy it is to succumb to misery and pessimism and how much harder it is to see the good, especially when everyone around her is bummed.

Agnes marries a solicitor (Steve Garland) and has a child. She becomes a prisoner in the daily drudgery of her life, bound to dirty laundry, a crying baby and a down-in-the-mouth man who warned her that this would happen.

Agnes concludes she would rather abandon her responsibilities than endure a lifetime of depression. She returns to her heavenly home a wiser soul, but glad for her experience. It is a bittersweet ending to her adventure.

Churchill structured the play as an actual dream. Audiences will recognize the usual symbols: water, flying, closed doors, school and monsters. And like a dream, characters and scenes change without apparent reason or warning around a central figure: Agnes. Characters say strange things that seem to refer to nothing, yet somehow they bring about resolution.

The actors made the most of what might easily come across as a silly teenage effort at existentialism. I could imagine high school kids running amok onstage, reveling in their individual strangeness. But Goetz and the others anchored the show in maturity. Goetz in particular made herself at home in the absurdity of Churchill/Strindberg's world.

Brian Smallheer's stark set design conveyed the natural world's indifference to the plight of humans. In contrast, his lighting for Agnes' descent to Earth was as warm and feeling as a new birth.

Note: There is brief but tasteful nudity in this production.

ON STAGE

A Dream Play

WHEN: Through June 29; 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Shimberg Playhouse, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa

HOW MUCH: $24.50; (813) 222-1001; www.tbpac.org

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