Dreams and Desires: Leaves Something to be Desired

Barbara Bell both wrote and performed this one-woman show about a successful academic who must recover her past through the haze of fragmenting psyche.

Obviously Bell put a lot of effort and love into this show, and she worked really hard to make the show come to life.  It is perhaps this very zeal, however, that worked against her.  The show was too technically driven and lacked an emotional authenticity with which I could connect.  I could practically see the acting beats in the script.  The pace of the acting was much, much too fast and the frenetic nature of our protagonist was a one-note song that grew very quickly exhausting.

Why not show us the competent, grounded side of our heroine so that we have something to lose?  Bell did not seem grounded in her voice or her body, and she missed several lovely opportunities to connect with the audience by rushing and not really seeing us (or allowing herself to really be seen).  Her disconnection is why none of the humor inherent in the writing was realized.

There were some exceptions, most notably when Bell was playing other characters.  The slower pace of these characters gave me a little room to breathe and be receptive.  In those calmer moments, there were glimmers of connectivity, which made me suspect that the acting problems were the result of poor choices rather than a lack of talent.  Although the plot was a little predictable, there was some lovely poetry underneath the acting and I wish that more had been done to reveal the text.

I’m not sure what director Michael Catlin was going for, but every moment felt much too plotted and orchestrated. When the text is poetic, we need some stillness so that we can hear it.  This overly ornate style was also apparent in the lighting design, which was very dense and involved a lot of flickering and audience illumination.  Even the set felt overdone and self-conscious: three artfully placed theatrical spaces replete with coy red fabric and masks to act as other characters.

Bell has obviously invested herself in this project enormously, and it could be the pressure of realizing her own script (her first) that has made this piece feel so overwrought and underfelt.  I would love to see her find more of the potential of her work.  Perhaps over the course of the Fringe, Bell will allow herself to relax in to the role more. Breathe.  Settle.  And just talk to us.

Dreams and Desires was produced by Shiny Object Creative.  Written and acted by Barbara Bell, directed by Michael Catlin. 

For more information and to discuss this show head this way.