Snow explores line between dream and reality
Student-written play goes up in Little Theater
By Nina Louise Morrison

A sharp new script written and directed by senior Seth Stewart takes us to a world located somewhere between the borders of dreams and reality, truth and fiction. With a sassy cast of six solid actors, Snow Red Sleeping is a complex riddle of poetry, animation, music and audience participation.
Jack, played by junior Andy Campbell, gets lost in the Lucid Café. As the hero of this psychological fable, he must discover the truth about himself and his past through the re-examination of the old favorites: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, etc. They are all stuck in the collective dream of theatrical experience, and the audience members are the “tender morsels” at the mercy of this dream/nightmare.
From the dark recesses of its tables-for-two to the suave costuming and interweaving of music and song with tongue-in-cheek humor and hosting, the Lucid Café suggests a 1920s cabaret. At the same time the dialogue is distinctly contemporary even as it is lyrical.
“Do you have any ibuprofen I could take my granny?” asks Little Red Riding Hood (Ruth Mercer) of a woman in the audience. Earlier in the show, she plays hostess to both Jack and the audience, proclaiming “What a sleeper’s buffet we have for you tonight!”
As Jack tries to solve the riddle of The Man Who Slept Too Little and Dreamt Too Much, the regulars at the Café smartly interweave different modes of storytelling, styles of speech and symbolic gestural movement — all tamed by the whip of a cleverly crafted script.
The dream world follows dream rules. This means the action is non-linear, the imagery and images are visceral and poetic, characters are duplicitous and the truth is not to be trusted. Katie Gass, Ruth Mercer, Allison Moon, Diona Reasonover and Ry Russo-Young create a frighteningly funny group of misfit monsters and maidens. If the dream world is topsy-turvy, there is no confusion that these actors have deftly crafted a complex web of characters.
The most important metaphor in the show is the use of the apple to symbolize dreams, hearts, human flesh, the Golden Key and virginity. This multifaceted metaphor is highly effective and imaginative, and extends the imagination of the audience to meet that of the creators.
The multi-layered tale takes huge risks, asks big questions and self-reflexively examines the dark side of the tales we take for granted. The culmination of over a year’s worth of honors work and preparation, Seth Stewart’s Snow Red Sleeping is bound to please. Bring your dreams with you.

April 25
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