Welcome on the blog of the "Dream on!" show

Presentation of the project

« Dream On !» – is a play devised and written by Wes Williams and Angharad Phillips [Director of the youth theatre, Pegasus Theatre, Oxford] as part of the ANR-AGON project; and based on workshops that will run from November 2012 to May 2013. The play will be developed with and by a diverse group, made up of young people, students, researchers, adult refugees and asylum seekers; constructed around themes of disputes, quarrels, controversies…and dreams.

« Dream On ! »  will make use of – and stage – dreams in their capacity as:

- a space for debate; a subject of controversy and/or of denial;

- conflicting representations of the social unconscious;

- traces – both public and private – of an existence destabilised by war, exile, adolescence, family and/or school;

- a reaction against legal and discursive powers;

- a challenge to knowledge (legal, medical, academic);

- a lucid, conscious, and creative endeavour, both intimate and collective;

- evidence of the ‘power of the imagination’ –  a subject of debate from the early modern period to the present day.

By way of dreams, then, disputes, quarrels and controversies are captured, interpreted, and reconceived. Set in both the schoolyard and courtroom, the action of the play will follow intricate lines of convergence between educational, religious and legal systems and beliefs – from insult to questioning; from appeal to sentence; from guardian angel to imaginary friend – with the intention of establishing new perspectives on the key terms of our project. We aim to rework the themes of the ANR-AGON project in theatrical language and experience, without losing contact with the early modern world.

« Dream On ! » : is a dramatic essay and /or dreamlike machine – a play conceived to capture the energy of a hotly disputed question: the power of the imagination.

« Dream On ! »  is the story of a dispute neither ancient nor modern.

There are certain texts, stories, and routes (amongst others) that will work their way into this play:

Arrest notable de la Cour de Parlement de Grenoble, donné au profit d'une Damoiselle, sur la naissance d'un sien fils, arrivé quatre ans après l'absence de son mary, & sans avoir eu cognoissance d'aucun homme. Suivant le Rapport fait en ladite Cour, par plusieurs Médecins de Montpellier, Sages-Femmes, Matrones, & autres personnes de qualité (Paris: 1637) ; Guillaume Lamy Discours anatomiques ... Rev. & augm. de toutes les plus curieuses decouvertes des anatomistes modernes (Bruxelles: & se vend a Paris, Chez Laurent d’Houry, 1685) ; J. A. Blondel, The power of the mother’s imagination over the foetus examin’d. In answer to Dr. Daniel Turner’s book, intitled A defence of the XIIth chapter of the first part of a treatise, De morbis cutaneis (London: John Brotherton, 1729) ; H. Nagera (1969), ‘The imaginary companion: Its significance for ego development and conflict solution.’ Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 24, 165–195; M. Taylor, Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them (Oxford University Press: 1999).

The play will include film, and will itself be filmed.

From the outset, we will keep a blog (possibly with films of the improvisations etc.) as an interactive forum for researchers, comedians, playwrights, scriptwriters, musicians, costume assistants, antagonists and ‘theatre makers’.

Participants

Group A – 10 members from the youth theatre (age 11 to 14) and 10 students and adults, including the refugee group: this group will take part in the programme of workshops from November to May;

Group B – some members of group A plus new participants who will work (in a shorter time-frame) on the filming;

Group C – other artists who will be available to help with dance or music workshops if needed; they will more intensely with group A.

Time frame:

Performances from 22nd-25th May (with a matinee May 25th)

The project will start Nov 7th: the group will meet once a week (except during the school holidays) until the Easter break. There will be three weekend rehearsals: 23rd and 24th Feb, 16th and 17th March, and the 27th-28th April. The technical run-through will take place the weekend 18th-19th May; the dress rehearsal the 21st May, and the play from 22nd-25th May (plus the matinee May 25th).

Round-up session: 5th June, 2013.