←Recommendations of In Dreams

Underneath the fine is a tremendous pain and loss for a couple to try to get through revealed in such a powerful way. Excellent work.

What makes IN DREAMS such a fascinating, magical domestic play is that it is so intimate and elusive at the same time. There is a fishbowl familiarity to Mom and Dad's repartee, Mom's eyeing the audience as she's also taking in Dad, a vastness to what the dialogue suggests about their marriage and marriage in general as all the borders come down. I love Dad's line: "But she doesn't ever quite look at me -- I mean, she does, but it's -- " And Mom's reply, "It's fine." Life is long, but this play is beautiful and brief. And wonderful!

Some great lines and lots of space within which to play and explore the ambiguities of the text. Thought-provoking and evocative, it lends itself to a range of performances and interpretations as well as subtle interactions between the characters that should resonate with an audience.

What a play! And what a gift for collaborators. What starts off seeming like one thing quickly turns into something else which turns into something else, making this poetic, theatrical, and gripping play feel ultimately devastating. Another gem from a super-talented playwright with a very sure command of language and the stage. Read it and produce it.

This play struck me hard as a brilliantly constructed and very subtle meditation on loss. There is a tantalizing ambiguity about the nature of the loss (I have my theory!) that will keep audiences thinking about and discussing this play for far longer than its brief running time.

Understanding, interpreting this kind of has the feel of waking up after a dream, it'll be different for every audience member and artist involved.
Beautiful, poignant, heartfelt, another gem from an emerging playwright that you need on your radar, someone you should follow on NPX, someone you want to have on your mind when selecting new work for your showcase and season.

This is the kind of play I think will be different every time it is produced - that there are no two directors who would ever see this play the same way - and I think that is one of its great strengths! It is open to so much interpretation, just like dreams themselves! The piece feels dreamlike, almost as if the CHILD (implied by the characters MOM & DAD) is dreaming it. FASCINATING play! Read it! Direct it your way!

One of Hageman's many strengths is hiding the thing that is really bothering her characters and letting the audience piece it together as they go. "In Dreams" certainly makes use of this strength and is sure to be a piece that the audience muddles over and wonders about at the end of the show. It is beautiful and dream-like in its construction as well, and should certainly be read, produced, and enjoyed!

How one processes the profundity and spectrum of emotions that come with with loss is difficult to define. So too, this play is difficult to define and leaves so many questions which allow for one to fill in those gaps with the range and spectrum of one's own losses and private griefs. Emily Hageman presents a couple making sense of unfathomable tragedy trying to find "Fine" again. It's a play that bears repeated readings and perhaps repeated processing. Take it in, and read this play aloud to hear the depth of these two in how they deal with pain.

Visually interesting piece; poetic in a presentational way. Dreams are fascinating things (I personally love hearing about them) and in this play that leads to an equally fascinating resolution. Somber in the best way.