Unravelling the Road of Uncertainty with Dreams We Tell Ourselves | By Liew Yen Rou
Illustration by Sarah
Trigger warning: Violence.
Dreams paint a beautiful portrait that illustrates the ideal expectations in your head if the ugly reality about the sacrifices made throughout the journey to achieve them has not crossed your mind.
The official poster of Dreams We Tell Ourselves
Illustration and Design by Emily Ong
Photo by Murasaki Haru
Sandwiched between a car repair centre and an abandoned shop, a small lit-up signboard displaying ‘M Gallery’ is visible from the outside. The play's poster is blu-tacked onto the door, leading to a flight of stairs that reels you into a room with warm, ocean-blue lights. As you walk into the room, the stage setup is a fraction of a bedroom and the Dreamer can be seen sleeping on his bed before the show begins. The registration booth is placed on the left from the entrance and the team welcomes you to the show with a printed card displaying the play’s brief details and credits.
The Dreamer lying on his bed
Photo by Michelle Yip
Beside the registration booth, there is a ‘self-service’ booth displaying artworks by a few talented local artists for sale, featuring a.kampung.girl, Jessica Wui Ling (@jessicavlingdraws on Instagram), Sanyulmi (@sanyulmi), araigema, Yi Pei Sia (@azure_yipeii) and Qiu Xuen (@qiuxuen). Payment is made through e-wallets by scanning the QR code provided. As you look around, the walls display more in-depth details about the play and the team behind the show, with tuned-down exposure shots of the play’s preview as the background on five A4-sized glossy papers. A list of reminders is stated on one of the papers where it notifies the audience about the show’s recording restrictions and also the content warning of the performance which includes descriptions of physical violence, bodily harm and death. While waiting for the show to start, the attendees who arrived early can grab a cup of coffee at the café, which is in another room that is near the stage setup to kill time.
Self service booth displaying colourful stickers, postcards and fan art prints for sale
Photo by Murasaki Haru
The M Gallery café
Photo by Murasaki Haru
As the show was about to start, the audience gathered at the seating area which accommodates around 20 attendees. The tech desk is situated behind the last seating row with the stage manager, Liew Chin Zhing, running the sound and light operators. After everyone had settled down for the 60-minute performance with no intermission, the audience waited in complete silence for the play to begin. Moments later, the audience received a shocking start to the play which left some confused, making them look left and right to get a grasp of the situation, only to find out it was a part of the play. Set at night, the Dreamer is in his comfortable sweater and shorts, gets out from the blanket just to get under it again, showing his frustration about a thought that has been bugging him. He finally gets up, sits on his bed facing the audience and starts opening up about what was on his mind that has kept him awake.
The play’s tech desk
Photo by Michelle Yip
The Dreamer facing the audience as he narrates
Photo by Michelle Yip
Living a life where the Dreamer has already achieved a few things and his parents are happy, deep down he still feels unfulfilled as if something was missing. He looks around his room where his things such as lever arch files, books, a trophy and many more were scattered everywhere, along with objects looking like paper flowers and paper strips to the audience (they were plastic flowers and dried pandan leaves) that fill up the rest of the floor’s space. He tells his story as he picks up the objects on the floor one by one where each of them is a memory from the past. The bedroom setup seemed like it represents his current state of mind: messy and full of bottled-up feelings.
The Dreamer using the objects on his bedroom floor to tell the story
Photo by Michelle Yip
The Dreamer’s bedroom
Photo by Michelle Yip
The Dreamer starts to reminisce about his time abroad in Manchester, United Kingdom, where it sounded like it went well as he picks up a clothing item from the floor and wraps it around his pillow like a scarf while describing a friend in particular, Bjorn. The Dreamer told the audience that he has gone through a series of struggles as a foreign student especially in catching up with his studies. However, meeting Bjorn, a friend who is always up for an adventure and is also the complete opposite of him, changed the Dreamer’s life. The Dreamer went through an emotional rollercoaster in those precious months with Bjorn as he gained new life experiences and had feelings he never felt, dreaming about the perfect life as he lives in uncertainty.
Photo by Michelle Yip
Photo by Michelle Yip
The protagonist did not only speak about his feelings or portray his emotions from his facial expression and body movements, he allowed the audience to have a better idea of his state of mind by including a mix of audio, visual, text into the play, also known as ‘corecore’. In an interview with BFM 89.9, Wyman described the artistic movement emerged from TikTok and it originated from the idea of ‘doomscrolling’, where some social media users are fed into a false reality. Corecore uses multiple clips to portray the feeling of hopelessness of a scroller, which is a perfect concept to use for the play. As the melancholy music played and the clips projected onto the white curtains behind the bedroom setup, the concept creates an astonishing cinematic feel to the play.
Corecore concept used in Dreams We Tell Ourselves
Photo by Michelle Yip
The play ended with the Dreamer going back to bed, covering the blankets over himself as the audience clapped. The audience left the venue one by one but the Dreamer never left his bed. Although it marks the end of the show’s opening night on 29 March, the dramatic events you have pictured during the narration of the story will still linger in your head and make you empathise with the character’s struggles. It was a little challenging to get a hold of your thoughts during the play as there were many twists and turns throughout the story. However, you will have a lot to think about as you leave the blue room and head to the exit.
Photo by Michelle Yip
In the same interview with BFM 89.9, Wyman revealed that the story of the play was inspired by his own experiences in Manchester where he had his student exchange programme for three months and it felt like a fever dream to him. The theme of uncertainty was based on an incident where he was assaulted, which resulted in him making a decision of whether he should stay or leave, like the Dreamer choosing to stay in his comfort zone or to head into the unknown in Dreams We Tell Ourselves.
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