Dream 52: Performing, Flowers and a Letter from India
I had several dreams last night, but these are the three I remember. I had just done a show somewhere and dropped into a theatre nearby to meet a friend. I went back stage and across a wooden and metal walkway which seemed familiar. My friend greeted me effusively saying I was just what they needed as one of the cast hadn't showed up. They told me hurriedly what to wear and what to do for the first scene. Luckily the characters I was standing in for had few lines. We did one scene in a bit of a blur then came back across the walkway and put down our props. We all got changed for the next scene while the main actors carried on on stage. My friend was one of the main actors so the others told me what to do. We did this several times and I felt I was just about getting away with it since I wasn't a main character and I could get the gist of what the scene was about and play my part convincingly with a bit of help from the others. It seemed to be a mixture of styles some comedy and drama. We had mock Tudor, medieval and Victorian style costumes. At one point we had the cliched spear carrying role!
The play finished and was a great success. We went for a drink afterwards but were told to go back to the theatre. The producer had been in and had left flowers for everyone. He was a (real life) friend of ours, CW, and he was sitting at a table congratulating the cast. My friend (dream friend only) did not receive the largest bunch of flowers as she should because she was the main star. The female co-star received the largest and brightest bunch so there was some tension. There was a small bunch for me too. One was in the style of the other bunches and were exotic orchids but the card had the other actor's name crossed out and mine put in. But the stage manager had decided this wasn't good enough so a big bunch of yellow daisy-type flowers were produced instead and the other bunch was left to the side. CW apologised as he hadn't known I was in the cast - well neither had I 'til just beforehand! We sat around for a while then went off somewhere else carrying our flowers. I told my friend that I had had dreams where I was suddenly in a play where I didn't know my lines or character, but this time it had really happened and had been a total success.* She then told me we were going to live together. I was about to move out of my place and so was she. She said she had the perfect place and that we'd be great together. I had reservations but she kept going on about how quiet she was and that it would be much better than whomever I was living with now.
Then P and I were visiting New Zealand. I took him to several places I knew in the South Island and pointed out various things. We were getting closer and closer to Queenstown and I kept saying this is near where JR lives. There were mountains in the distance and I said you can see those from JR's place. We went along a road and saw the houses were he lived and I pointed them out. I realised I was going on and on about JR but I knew P would understand that I was just excited about being back where I went climbing etc and not anything else. Then P was piloting a helicopter. We were flying right over the hill where JR's house was and we got closer and closer. I told him which house it was and he flew right up over the back yard and even under the trees, I was going to warn him to be careful but he already was. There were several people in the back yard having drinks and a BBQ. They looked up at us as we flew very close to them but JR wasn't there. I told P that it was his house but I remembered he was renting it out now and that he'd moved to Christchurch.
In the next dream I received a battered letter from India. I had sent off a short story to the BBC there which was also a script for a play. There was loads of paperwork. My script was included. It seemed very old now as I'd sent it years ago, the type-face was a bit faded and looked like it was from a printer from the early eighties. I was trying to find out if they had rejected it or wanted to use it. I had an excited/nervous feeling inside that they had liked it. As I went through the papers there was were very vivid brightly coloured scenes of Indian rural life. There were a couple of tea towels with these scenes on them and a title below. They seemed to be gifts. In between some pages of the script were some vivid drawings as if these could be used for the storybook or perhaps just be inserted as scene breaks. I kept going through the paperwork and trying read some notes. Finally there was a strip of paper with red biro writing on it and a very old style typed letter. It was hard to read but the first line read that I was very talented and that the story was very imaginative. Then there were lines in about ten different languages. It would have the name of the language in English then the sentence in that language. For example there was Finnish, German, French etc. I wondered why they had done this since I wrote the script in English. It was as if they didn't want me to not understand what they were saying. I found the English line but it was faded. The room I was in was dark so I went into the room next door where P was and opened the curtains to let some light in. I had the strong feeling that they wanted to commission my story but I needed to find the actual line that said so. I told P I think the BBC in India want to make my story then I tried to read the rest of the letter, but I woke up before I could!
* this talking about or referencing dreams within a dream has been happening a lot recently, will have to investigate.....