Republic of Dreams

Last Local Performance: March 27 at 8pm

Republic of Dreams is drawn from the magic realism writings and imaginings of WWII-era Polish-Jewish artist Bruno Schulz (1892-1942), and adapts his lush, magical and sometimes erotic drawings to the stage. Using the theatre's signature style of physicality, imagery, puppetry, live instrumental and choral music, Double Edge deeply explores Schulz's powerful prose and life, as well as his banal death at the hands of a jealous Nazi, to create a dreamlike journey through the human experience in the modern world.

Republic of Dreams premiered in 2007 at LaMaMa ETC in New York, NY. It has since toured to the National Yiddish Book Center (MA), Greenfield Community College (MA), the Charlestown Working Theater (MA), and the University of New Hampshire (NH). Republic of Dreams was presented as part of Double Edge Theatre's The Garden Cycle in the spring and fall of 2009, and toured to the Flynn Center (Burlington, VT) in November 2009. It will be presented next at the Grotowski Institute in May 2010, following a final local presentation this March.

"Gorgeously directed by Stacy Klein, and performed by the wonderful cast, Republic of Dreams captures the beauty of Schulz's originality: his myths and mystical images, through movement and light. The action, the way the actors move on stage, turn the beautiful elusiveness of a Schulzian night in Drohobycz (with its candle lit hues) into an unforgettable experience... I recommend the work to anyone who loves great theatre."

Rolando Perez - Associate Professor
Hunter College, City University of New York

"Inventive and Innovative … The company has immersed itself in Schulz and his myths as well as in the myths about him. The result is a revelation."

Danielle Gerould
Executive Director, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, City University of New York
Editor, Slavic and East European Performance

"Dreams" is definitely thinking-people's theater, and anyone who has an appreciation for painstakingly impeccable directing and actors who thoroughly and masterfully embody their craft would do well to experience this."

Nick Dussault, Boston Metro

Republic of Dreams has been funded by: The Trust for Mutual Understanding; the Multi-Arts Production Fund, administered by Creative Capital; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program of the Doris Duke Theatre Initiative; the NEFA Expeditions Program; the TCG/ ITI Travel Grants Program, a project of the Trust for Mutual Understanding; the Polish Cultural Institute; the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanties, a state affiliate of the NEH; the Jewish Arts and Culture Initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation; and the Ashfield Cultural Council.

948 Conway Road, Ashfield, MA 01330; phone 413-628-0277; fax 866-649-0635; email office@doubleedgetheatre.org