Towards a Dream Theatre

Towards a Dream Theatre A psychologist, one of the great masters of psychoanalysis, -once stated: "A dream is a drama of which we are at one and the same time the author, the protagonist and the spectator." Indeed, when we dream we are always in character. It is theatre par excellence. We witness the surging of events, the birth of astonishing, utterly surprising dramatispersonae, and yet these amazing creations come from us. We discover ourselves in and to ourselves. We also discover objective truths. There are some famous examples: Descartes' dream, or the fact that Henri Poincare , the famous mathematician, made his most important intuitive discoveries in the state of dream. It is in the latter, sheltered from diurnal activity, retired within oneself, that one collects one's thoughts in meditation. The outside world is not closed to us, but it is the essential aspect of the outside world which falls under our gaze, and the scrutiny of our consciousness. We do not always envision a solution, but what comes 19 to us is what is most important, not the solution but the problem, or the major problems. It is often, it is above all in the dream state that I experience a fundamental anguish: the sense of danger, my coexistence with others, my condition in this world, the knowledge of death. And this comes to me in such a sharp form, with such immediacy, as something so obvious that it could never happen in the false light of day. If only I could recall all my dreams, if I could reproduce the stuff of dream in its language, with its words, what amazing things I would say! We do nothing but translate, as best we can, the language of dreams. Logical, rational coherence is nothing compared to the coherences of oneiric images and symbols. In my preceding plays I had already attempted to use symbolic dream images. I did it in Amedee or How to Get Rid of It, in Hungerand Thirst,and Strollerin the Air. Still, the situations, the plot line remained more or less logical, coordinated, as one would expect in a rational universe. I would use a situation out of a dream, but the characters would never speak as they do in dreams. Or, as in The Bald Soprano, I made use of a non-logical language, but the behavior of the characters and their situation seemed realistic. This time, however, in L 'Homme aux valises, I am trying to use elements drawn from dreams, dream images and situations expressed in an oneiric language. In short, I have tried to substitute for rational coherence another form of coherence which appears incoherent in the face of rationality. Translatedby Rosette Lamont. "Towards a Dream Theater" is taken from the note written by lonesco for the program of the THEATRE DE L'ATELIER. L 'Hommeaux valises, which opened in Paris November, 1975, was directed by Jacques Mauclair, who also played the main role. 20 ...