"Department of Dreams" Addresses Reality

Toward the end of the play, the main character, Dan, appears fully nude on stage in front of a bucket that appears to be blood at the City Garage Theatre at the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo courtesy of City Garage Theatre)

For playwright Jeton Neziraj, growing up in Kosovo had the potential to hinder his creative process, as government regimes limited citizens’ access to viewing and publicly presenting art. However, his desire to pursue theatre overrode any constraints and instead inspired him to speak out against the systems that tried to hinder his creativity.

His most recent play, “Department of Dreams,” had its world premiere in the United States on Oct. 25 at City Garage Theatre Company’s current location, at the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica.

The play takes place in a dystopian society wherein citizens are required to submit their dreams to a depository overlooked by the government. The story follows Dan, a newly-hired dream interpreter assigned to sift through dreams and seek out any threats to the nation’s authority. While he is patient and eager at first, the audience watches as he begins to see through his bosses’ self-righteous schemes and finds himself losing faith in the government.

In his home country of Kosovo, Neziraj has developed a reputation for putting on plays that address pressing political issues. Neziraj strives to inspire a reaction in audiences that leaves them considering the grander ideas of the play, and uses the medium of theater to introduce these ideas and perspectives on society into the mainstream.

In “Department of Dreams,” Neziraj continues to use dramatic themes to explore political realities. Though the organization of society in the play is extreme, the aspects of totalitarianism and required submission by its citizens resonates with those involved in the play’s production. City Garage Theatre’s artistic director Frédérique Michel was struck by “Department of Dreams” relevance to issues faced in our nation today.

“When I read ‘Department of Dreams’ I immediately wanted to do it. It’s about the rise of autocracies and the literal invasion of our imaginations, not just by governments but by huge corporations,” said Michel. “Every day we cede more and more of our privacy, of our selfhood to people that either want to control it or monetize it. Jeton portrays this in the kind of stark, brutal terms that leave no doubt about where our world is headed. It’s an appeal to take back our own agency.”

The parallels between this fictional world and the reality we live in today were subtle enough to give viewers the space to create their own interpretations, but direct enough to understand what Neziraj was getting at.

One character known as “Dreambuilder,” played by Aaron Bray, has the ability to see into the dreams of noteworthy people; or, more accurately, people deemed noteworthy by the government. The play featured the dreams of Vladimir Putin, Lady Gaga, and the Pope, which seemed to parallel the personality types that American society seems to put more emphasis on in the public eye.

At times, the play’s absurdism made it hard to stay connected to the characters; however, this disconnect may have been intentional, as it left more room for audiences to connect with the themes and overall organization of the plot.

“Some people love it. Others are puzzled,” said Michel. “it’s very European theater. It’s about ideas, not emotions. Most American audiences aren’t used to that. But for the ones that make the journey, it seems worth it."

2019 marks the Bergamot Station Arts Center’s 25th anniversary. Although City Garage Theatre relocated to its current spot at Bergamot Station only seven years ago, the theatre aims to host productions that align with the Santa Monica community.

“Santa Monica has always been a community that’s more open and curious,” said Michel. “We think it’s the kind of work we should be doing for our audience — people who care what’s happening to our planet and our society — and want to see real change.”

Ironically enough, walking out of City Theatre Garage and into the Bergamot Station courtyard felt comparable to waking up from a dream… a strange, well-choreographed dream.