If you were asked to describe how you dream, what would you say? Keep this mind when deciding whether or not Snooze, a free performance by the Chimaera Theatre Company, is something you wish to experience. And be prepared to write it down, they provide the crayons. Snooze is a doozy of a show, somehow managing to cram mime, interpretive dance, singing, face-paint, at least four different accents and an imaginary elephant into a sixty minute performance. What was going on was unclear ninety percent of the time but that seemed to be the point.
The performance began quite unexpectedly when the audience (innocently writing our dreams down on bits of paper) became part of a nightmare exam scenario. All the usual suspects are present; the screaming teacher, the lack of knowledge, the late arrival wearing nothing but underwear. Then suddenly there was some sort of fight club going on which transformed into a chess match which became something else entirely when the chess pieces came to life. If this all sounds a bit disjointed it is a credit to the actors involved that the production runs as smoothly as it does. Matching the fluidity of a dreaming mind, scenes bend and transform so effortlessly it’s almost impossible to look away. Snooze is based on a series of workshops in which people were recorded talking about the ways in which they dream and snippets are used in the show itself, adding to the overall feeling of weirdness.
Next stop is the Circus of Dreams which, despite its ambitious name, seems very much grounded in reality. Ticket sales aren’t what they used to be, money is tight, Misha the elephant is unhappy and the new aerial act (Ariel) is nowhere to be seen. Again praise should go to the actresses here, whose pitch-perfect performances really elevated the show at a point when it would have been easy for the audience to lose focus.
Snooze is by no means a perfect show, the spacing is slightly awkward making it hard to keep track of all three performers at once, the audience participation is excessive on occasion and once or twice I felt a bit too lost which prevented me from being fully immersed in the production, but overall you feel invested in the performance and want it to succeed. Winning over the audience is half the battle (if not the war) and despite its shortcomings I left the venue with a smile on my face.
