At some point in your life, someone told a story. Whether it was a family story passed down through the ages or your babysitter's version of "Goldilocks," you heard and saw stories come to life with hand gestures and voices that changed in volume and pitch to differentiate Papa Bear from Baby Bear. "Elemental Dreams," showing at the Helms Theatre this weekend, is sure to bring back memories of those bedtime fantasies, fables and fairy tales.
Adapted from a collection of stories from four tribal cultures, "Elemental Dreams" thrives on the dreamtime - a time for imagination when fantasy and reality are no longer delineated from one another, and a new world opens up.
Written and directed by fourth-year College student Ryan Clardy, "Dreams" is unique both in its concept and in its method. Clardy has researched and written the play for three reasons. First, he wants to introduce these four cultures - Aboriginal, Native American, African and Irish - to the largely unaware Charlottesville community. He also wants to expound the importance of storytelling as an art and a way of life. And lastly, he wants to introduce new theater styles.
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"Dreams" is not a typical play. Sure, there are actors. Sure, there's a plot. But none of the eight actors has a sole, distinct role. In fact, each of them has somewhere between 15 and 20 roles, and each of these roles is essential to the texture of the play. But, as Clardy puts it, "it's not about the characters. It's about the stories."
The shape of "Dreams" is not linear, like most plays, or even circular, like some of the more untraditional plays. It's more like a very complicated Venn diagram. There are about 15 stories, or "playlets," with one story running throughout. "When you see the playlets together, your mind will start making connections between them," Clardy said. The purpose of the seemingly random placement of playlets is to make audience members ask, "How does that culture relate to this culture, and what does it mean to me?"
The one connecting story is that of Poyeshoan, a young boy pressured by his mother to become a great hunter. While hunting one day, Poyeshoan discovers the magical world of storytelling by some mysterious voices heard in the woods. Clardy said he sees Poyeshoan as "sort of the character through which the audience sees the world. He's approaching the questions of 'What are stories? What do they mean?,' which is what we're asking as the audience."
Most important for "Dreams" is its purpose. Storytelling is quickly being lost as an art as well as a way to live. For the tribes portrayed in the play, stories are all-important in daily life. According to Clardy, who did a year and a half of research while writing the play, "These stories tell [these peoples] who they are, what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to do it. Storytelling basically gives them the keys to existence."
Clardy said he wants to express through his play the idea that "each individual life is a story that needs to be told," and that by losing the art of storytelling, "lives go away without ever being noticed." Storytelling used to be a thriving subculture. Unfortunately, storytellers in the United States are now few and far between. Clardy said he wants this to change and hopes the play will bring a few crumbs of sustenance to a starving genre.
The concept of "Dreams" is interesting, but even more so is its own way of life. What is unique about "Dreams" is its use of interpretive movement and masks to create a mystical atmosphere. Without doubt, audiences will be captivated. As Kate Gordon, a cast member, put it, the play is "unlike anything ever seen."
Expect lots of masks, movement and music. Expect to be transported into a world of other worlds, a world where the tone swiftly and smoothly shifts from sinister to slapstick to dark humor. Expect goosebumps courtesy of eerie choruses of voices. Expect actors to turn into tortoises, waterjars, corpses and rivers of clay, and expect them to make it look natural. Most importantly, expect to see versions of humanity that merge together while remaining distinct and, above all, elemental.
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