Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Cast: Sam Hind, Edward Jones, Michael Clarke, Josie Dale Jones, Ali Dunk, Lucy Menghan, James Gould.
Every so often life presents itself to the everyday person without is guise of normality and shows itself for the most perfect manifestation of the absurd you could ever hope to meet. It is that rare honour of seeing something so magnificent, so uncontrollably bizarre that you cannot help but love every single second of its company. Even in dreams the absurd holds court and sway over the minds of the deserving and for The Dream Sequentialists, absurd is second nature and it is a state of being that will have any audience member beaming as they leave the theatre.
Life in all its glory is only possible because we dare to dream, to deny that, even for the briefest second is tantamount to a kind of heresy, a denial that should be squashed and stamped out, for the absurd and the act of dreaming are all bound up in Humanity’s true mature.
Gardloo Theatre Company and This Egg have not only become the surprise package at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe but the fast paced physical theatre and the roaring script deliver a moment in time in which to savour, no matter at what age you find yourself at, no matter what level of serious intent you like to present to the world, there is no way of escaping the very talent and energetic appeal to which The Dream Sequentialists supply.
When things start to go wrong in the world of the Goblins who create the dreams in which Humanity filter out the information seen during the day, a traitor is suspected, someone to whom providing the service they are hired to do is no longer the utmost importance and an investigation is carried out. Yet dreams are nothing without anarchy, without the hardiness in which realisations are met and anarchy always rules in the heart of any dream; why else would dream analysis be such big business?
A true ensemble effort, The Dream Sequentialists frames the nature of collaborative exploration but special mention must go to Lucy Menghan as the unintelligible Finks who steals the show for every minute she is on stage. Whilst the rest of the cast give such appetising and dedicated performances, it is to the symbol of absurd, the babbling ticks and squeals so wonderfully thrust into each sentence uttered and with the coy roll of a an eye intent of delicious mischief in which Ms. Menghan excels.
Fun, energetic, bold and offering a great insight into the way the mind can work, The Dream Sequentialists is arguably one of the great shows of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, a rolling success.
Ian D. Hall