The Dreamer Examines His Pillow

Doppelgänger Theatre Company returns to the stage this month with John Patrick Shanley’s The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, a biting meditation on the forces of attraction and repulsion that hold us together, and a dazzling take on the magnetics of human relationships.

Shanley is one of those rare “name an award and he’s won it” type writers, with an Oscar, Pulitzer, and Tony to his name (think back to Moonstruck and Doubt). Dreamer is his dissection of that ungainly umbrella, “the human condition”; staged as a series of confrontations between aspiring artist Tommy, his ex-lover Donna, and her estranged father, the play maps that Gordian knot of love and loathing that binds them together. It’s a raw, human glimpse at the incendiary power of sex, dependence, and isolation.

Even more, it’s a philosophical play that lives and dies on its performances, so it’s beyond exciting to see what kind of life Doppelgänger – a company so dedicated to nurturing actors and their craft – will breathe into it. Tickets from $22.50.

WHEN: Thursday-Saturday from 19 July until 4 August, 7:30pm (Preview Wednesday 18 July, 7:30pm)
WHERE: Revolt Melbourne, 12 Elizabeth Street, Kensington
WEB: revoltproductions.com/melbourneevents/byevent/Dreamer1