“Dreams, and what to do?”

Reviewer: Kei Franklin
Performance: 31 March 2016

I had a dream last night. I was in an aquarium in London with my husband who was actually my mother. We went to the library and a Spider Queen stole our pretzels. They might have been pretzels, or popiah – I couldn’t tell. My husband began ‘caw-cawing’ like a crow and put some items into a bag as if I were leaving him forever: a cucumber, a lamp, Oreos, an oboe, and a plucked chicken. That’s when I started to feel a tingling sensation. It was the Spider Queen crawling into my left ear.

… Are you with me?

Intrusions is a literal exploration of Jean and Jovian’s dreams. Two women, adjacent worlds, unaware of each other.

Are they two different people? Or one and the same?

Simultaneous dreams of a single person? The dreams of sisters sleeping side by side?

Wild objects populate the stage – dolls, puppets, a fish tank, a stack of concrete bricks, a drill – the space is a delicious-looking toy. The performers command the space, contort, sing, speak, and morph into all types of creatures and characters.

I find myself grasping for meaning, wondering whether there is a larger significance or purpose for performing these dreams in front of a live audience.

Is it simply a sharing? An opportunity to practice radical imagination?

Or simply a reminder to focus on singular moments and detail amidst the bizarre chaos or life?

Intrusions certainly has moments – fleeting and visually impactful tableaus that linger in my mind’s eye: Jovian parts her long black hair and wraps it through her toes, a chicken is beheaded, a red phone on a ladder rings.  I think about Dadaism, the Absurdist art movement, and Lewis Carroll.

There is an imposing rape scene – powerful, dominating, dark, inimitable – but it is dropped and we move on to parachutes and other dreams. I wonder without certainty if sex is central to Intrusions.

Do we have control in dreams? Are we performing in our dreams more or less than in real life? Do our dreams tell us about our souls? Or are we simply talking about REM?

I leave Intrusions with questions – sleepy, and hoping to wake with clarity.

“不是痴人说梦”

Reviewer: Neo Hai Bin | 梁海彬
Performance: 2 April 2016

两个像梦一样的女人在台上躺着。

所有关于女人的，平时不露于台面的压抑、记忆、情欲、幻想，一览无遗地表露在舞台。

例如Jovian袒露了上身，看似摆脱了胸罩的束缚，接下来却套上了不同的女装，并努力地扮演衣服赋予的各种女性角色。还有她赤裸上身，仅仅玩弄不同的发型，就塑造出了千姿百态的女性面貌，让我们醒悟：我们仅仅只熟悉女性的“形象”，我们对女人竟然永远只是以貌取人。

她最后把头发系在椅子上，把整张大椅子举了起来。长长的柔发，力量的显示。女性要摆脱意识形态，还必须以“力量”来显示—— 愈加揭露了父权社会之根深蒂固。深植在我们的心里的价值观，才更叫人不寒而栗。

例如Jean玩弄着一个个塑像，和它们并排站在一起；时而对它们好，时而很粗暴，像小女生对待心爱的洋娃娃。女人在父权社会往往沦为玩物，剧（梦）中表露无遗。她于是只能穿越舞台，一边搜集物品，一边诉说一个个荒唐又令人惆怅的梦，梦成了她试图摆脱/超脱的途径。Jean感动了坐在最后一排的我。

两个女人荒谬的行为、令人措手不及的情节…… 此时观众已不在乎真假梦幻。虚与实互相折射出了观众的世界，女人借由梦境道出现实父权社会的荒唐可耻。

然而这又不只是女人的故事，也让人联想到我们对客工、异族同胞、单亲妈妈、同性恋者、独居老人…… 到底也抱持着什么样的意识形态？我们有没有想过，当我们无意识地抱持着这种种的意识形态，会为对方造成多大的伤害？

“INTRUSIONS”的普世性，可见于此。