The Dream-Maker

The study of dreams has fascinated artists for centuries, but Temenos Theatre’s The Dream-Maker, whose self-professed aim is to invoke "heightened states of perception" in its participants through shamanic rituals, sheds no new light on this complex science.

Candles placed on all four sides of the sparsely set stage are slowly and carefully lit by Helen Fost, the sole performer, while ethereal music is played above our heads. This (appropriately) yawning pace never changes throughout the show’s 50 minutes and fails to transport the dreamlike experience from the stage to the audience.

With the help of a golden gong and a small glass cauldron, Fost attempts to create a hypnotic network of vibrations and sounds to lull us into a creative stupor using her effortlessly serene, echoing voice to guide the way. To be successful, this sort of "theatre of the mind" requires the audience to be give themselves up to the experience wholeheartedly; but the nature of The Dream-Maker is so inadequately explained that most people look on in bewilderment and boredom and are never truly encouraged to participate.

Of course, this is not traditional theatre and therefore isn’t suited to the traditional theatre venue in which it is enacted. A circular gathering around Fost, for instance, would provide a much more interactive spiritual experience. In its current format, it feels as though the audience is peeking into someone’s private meditation room and The Dream-Maker soon reveals itself to be a self-indulgent abstraction that fails to provoke any emotion – except one of sleepiness.