Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – A DOZEN DREAMS: A sprawling theatrical art installation that thoroughly captures the imagination

• By drediman
• May 19, 2021
• No Comments

Last weekend at Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan, I attended a new theatrical art installation entitled A Dozen Dreams. As conceived and created Anne Hamburger, John Clinton Eisner, and Irina Kruzhilina, the ambitious project uses the notion of “dreams” – both as in aspirational longings, as well as that surreal land we visit in our sleep – to reflect on the the irrevocable effects of the pandemic and the societal reckonings of the past year. Co-presented by En Garde Arts and Arts Brookfield, the piece transforms what seems to have been one or two large conference rooms into a labyrinthine collection of smaller rooms (a dozen, to be exact), each of which represents one of these dreams.

A dozen theater artists – all of them women (including important talents like Martyna Majok, Liza Jessie Peterson, Emily Mann, Ellen McLaughlin, Mona Monsour, Lucy Thurber, etc.) – have been charged with theatricalizing their own dreams in the form of spoken monologues. Each of these pre-recorded performances, which audiences consume via headset, has been designated their own room, animating (or haunting?) the respective spaces with deeply personal, soulful musings. What’s extraordinary about the collective work, which takes a little less than an hour to complete, is the breadth and variety of content, styles, and tones on display. There’s also an overarching urgency to the writing and performances that I found viscerally compelling.

The execution of it all is impeccable, from Ms. Kruzhilina’s ingeniously conceived and rendered immersive environments (expertly fusing physical sets, lighting, and video elements), to the stage management team who administers the daily operations of the production with great precision. Note that the experience is timed perfectly so that each party can safely explore each dream/room on its own. In summary, wandering through A Dozen Dreams truly felt like waking from one intoxicating dream into another; it thoroughly captured the imagination like few theatrical art installations I’ve come across. I applaud the folks at both En Garde Arts and Arts Brookfield for continuing to bring out-of-the-box thinking to theater-making. They’ve outdone themselves here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A DOZEN DREAMS
Art installation / Immersive theater
En Garde Arts / Brookfield Place (via Arts Brookfield)
50 minutes (without an intermission)
Through May 30