At the conclusion of director Lee Smith’s new adaptation of August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, currently running at ODU, the friend with whom I saw the show said, “That was weird and delightful!” I couldn’t say it better myself.

Strindberg’s hallucinatory 1901 play is an enigmatic exploration of human existence and a forerunner to later avant-garde theater. Smith has refashioned the original into an hour-long, experimental, found-space, multimedia performance that has to be seen to be believed. In this new version, an astronaut (Robert M. Wilson), in the deep reaches of space is dying of apoxia, as he floats in orbit. As his life fades away from him he hallucinates (or dreams?) a company of actors who both inhabit his own experience, act out experiences from his life, and puzzle with him at the mysteries of life and death. It is a dense piece, and not one that is easy to absorb completely in one sitting.

Despite this fact, it is a very entertaining, unique evening compared to other local theater offerings. Performed in a warehouse on 47th Street, and featuring a mix of live actors and film, A Dream Play has a hip, urban, artsy vibe to it that is hard to resist. The physical production–featuring a set design by Konrad Winters, lights by Claire D. Garrard, and costumes by Angela Winters–is sophisticated and bizarre, but it is the media sequences designed by Katherine Hammond that really give the show its hipster East Village artistic credibility.

Jenny de Jaager, Neath Williams, Rob Wilson

The performances of the cast are very strong, especially for student actors. All of the actors give competent performances, although Wilson, Alba Woolard, Stephanie Bunch, and Neath Williams are the real standouts. Woolard, Wilson, and Bunch are the most experienced performers in the piece, and each gives a focused, commanding performance. Williams makes a strong impression, as he did in ODU’s Fragments earlier this season. These actors are responsible for some of the most intriguing and disturbing moments in the play. The images of Woolard lying in the sand with a white veil, and Williams having sexual congress with a severed leg are some of the most haunting images of any local theater production in recent memory. It is also likely the only time one can get eerie chills from hearing a Burt Bacharach tune.

A Dream Play might not be for everybody, but anyone interested in an evening of authentic, ultra-cool, avant-garde theater should grab their chance while it lasts. It isn’t too often that local theater audiences get the opportunity to see risky found-space work like this, and A Dream Play provides the perfect introduction to experimental theater for the uninitiated.

A Dream Play runs at Old Dominion University through April 24. Performances are being held at the Theatre and Film Shop on 47th Street between Killam and Monarch Dr. Tickets are available through the ODU Box Office (757-683-5305). For more information visit the ODU Theatre Arts website.