INTERZONE THEATRE
GEO-LOCATIVE SONIC FICTIONS
THE ONEIRONAUT
by Joel Cahen
at Chalkwell Park, Southend On Sea
by
We spend 11% of our existence dreaming, a full month of each year, that's more time than we spend eating. While the body lies still the mind wanders, free of limitations of time and space. This story poses the possibility that a conscious dreaming mind could share other people's real waking experiences.
The Oneironaut, a dream traveller, reawakens perpetually into a dream. Confusing memories and reality, he tries to use dream logic to return to his sleeping body. As he occupies your consciousness, he guides you through the park and through to his realisation of the somber truth.
Commissioned by METAL as part of Nesta and Arts Council England Digital R&D Fund
CREDITS:
Story, direction and sound Joel Cahen
Voices: Steve North, Lesley Ewen, Manolis Emmanouel, Mickey Zeif, Rebecca Horrox
Images Conny Prantera
Additional text: Lesley Ewen
Start Location:
Chalkwell Hall, Chalkwell Park
Southend on Sea. SS0 8NB
Duration: around 40min
Commissioned by METAL
REVIEWS
'Cahen's dream traveller stimulates my imagination, directing me to details I would have missed, pasting eerie parallel dream worlds onto a cold, grey weekend morning in suburbia'
- THE WIRE 384 / Jan 2016
'Joel Cahen's magic realist The Oneironaut in the most immersive app... with details from the park acting as narrative triggers. Dedications on benches become the mantras of an unseen ritualistic gathering. Large circular flowerbeds become burial sites where sound is looped and layered. Crashes and clatters combine with eerie female voices, a dense hum and fragments of a drunk male voice singing a shanty of sorts. I feel I've disturbed some spirits which quieten as I step back onto the path.
- THE WIRE 384 / Jan 2016
