'Bed' by Jim Cartwrightal

February/ March 2001.

Credits

Directed by: Robert Taylor and Keith Harle
Stage Manager: Sofia Martins
Stage Crew: Joana Costa, Tânia Teixeira and Rhyanna Blakely
Lighting Operator: Tânia Teixeira
Lighting Design: Keith Esher Davies
Sound Operator: Anita Lopes
Stage management: Carmina Barbeitos
Poster design: Daniela Brazil
Construction and technical mastermind: André Theuer
Front of house: Joan Foster Silva
Box Office: Fernanda Baeta
Photography: Elsa Mota Gomes, Vanda Foster da Silva

Cast

Sermon Head: Simon Mount
Captain: George Ritchie
Marjorie: Amanda Booth
Charles: Phil Town
Bosom Lady: Adrienne Thomas
Spinster: Jill Young
Couple: João Soares & Mónica Leite

(Preview from The Lisbon Players Newsletter):

This is the stuff that dreams are made of? Seven old sods in a Bed, trying to get a night's kip, whilst a spiteful, insomniac superego tries to prevent them?

As they rise to the surface and plumb thge depths of sleep, their dreams intertwine. The result is bizarre, surreal, funny - and yet there are moments of pure pathos, too.

Cartwright uses language in fresh and suprising ways in a script that dances on the border between poetry and prose.

The set is dominated by a 6-metre-wide bed. The props include hundreds of bras, a bible and a feather duster.

The direction is daringly innovative. The cast includes George Ritchie, Mandy Booth, Simon Mount and some exciting new talent as well. Prepare to be entertained in unexpected ways.

Meanwhile, whet your appetite with some thoughts on sleep from an article by David Newnham in the Guardian:

"Sleep," he says, "resembles the ocean ... Each has its tides and cycles, its risings and fallings, and each may be tranquil and serene at one moment, stormy and filled with sudden, hidden horrors the next."

He quotes:
"Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes out, as from a dustbin upset in a high wind." (William Golding: 'Pincher Martin')
"So convincing were those dreams of being awake that he awoke from them each morning in complete exhaustion and fell right back to sleep." (Joseph Heller: 'Catch 22')
"Sleep hath its own world. And a wide realm of wild reality. And dreams in their development have breath. And tears and tortures, and the touch of joy." (Byron: 'The Dream')

So ... with apologies to Bob Dylan - you can be in our dreams if we can be in yours.