''Twelve Dreams'' is a 1981 play by

James Lapine James Elliot Lapine (born January 10, 1949) is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for ''Into the Woods'', ''Falsettos'', and '' Passion''. He ha ...

that was inspired by a case study contained in

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

's 1964 book '' Man and His Symbols''. The case concerns a 10-year-old girl who gave her father, a psychiatrist, an unusual Christmas present—a handwritten booklet describing twelve dreams that she had had when she was eight years old. The play was first performed as a work-in-progress in 1978. A more complete version was performed in 1981–1982, and it was revived in 1995.Canby, Vincent
"Theater Review; Fleshing Out Jung's Theory"
''The New York Times'', June 9, 1995

Plot

Set in 1936-37 in a

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

university town, Emma presents her practicing psychiatrist and lecturer father with a Christmas gift, a handwritten collection detailing 12 of her dreams. Charles struggles to make sense of the dreams, torn between his role as father and psychiatrist. He enlists the help of a visiting European psychiatrist. The professor is intrigued by the dreams, remarking that they are those of an older person facing their mortality. Interspersed in Emma's dreams are real-life figures such as her best friend, Jenny, Rindy, a neurotic patient of her father's, her ballet teacher, Miss Banton as well as Sanford, her father's apprentice.

Productions

The play premiered at

The Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: ...

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

on 22 December 1981 and ended on 31 January 1982.

Off-Broadway (1981–1982)

Cast * James Olson as Charles Hatrick *Olivia Laurel Mates as Emma Hatrick *Marcel Rosenblatt as Jenny * Stefan Schnabel as Professor Jan Rubeš * Thomas Hulce as Sanford Putnam *

Carole Shelley Carole Augusta Shelley (16 August 1939 – 31 August 2018)Bartlett, Rhett"Carole Shelley, One of the Pigeon Sisters From 'The Odd Couple,' Dies at 79"''The Hollywood Reporter'', 1 September 2018

as Dorothy Trowbridge * Valerie Mahaffey as Miss Banton * Stacy Glick as Rindy

Off-Broadway revival (1995)

The revival premiered at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

on 11 May 1995 and ended on 6 August 1995. Lapine was the director. Cast *

Harry Groener Harry Groener (born September 10, 1951) is an American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (seasons 3, 4 and 7). Early life Groener was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany, to an op ...

as Charles Hatrick *

Mischa Barton Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's '' Slavs!'' and took the lead in James Lapine's '' Twelve Dreams'' at ...

as Emma Hatrick * Kathleen Chalfant as Jenny *

Jan Rubeš Jan Ladislav Rubeš Order of Canada, CM (6 June 1920 – 29 June 2009) was a Czechs, Czech-Canadians, Canadian bass (voice type), bass opera singer and actor. Life and career Rubeš was born in Volyně, Czechoslovakia, to Ružena (née Kel ...

as Professor * Matt Ross as Sanford Putnam *

Donna Murphy Donna Murphy (born March 7, 1959) is an American actress, best known for her work in musical theater. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she has twice won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical: for her role as Fosca in '' Passion'' (1994–1995) ...

as Dorothy Trowbridge * Meg Howrey as Miss Banton *Brittany Boyd as Rindy Crew *Original music by Allen Shawn *Choreography by

Lar Lubovitch Lar Lubovitch (born April 9, 1943) is an American choreographer. He founded his own dance company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Based in New York City, the company has performed in all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 co ...

*Set design by Adrianne Lobel *Costume designs by Martin Pakledinaz *Lighting by Peter Kaczorowski

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

gave the 1995 revival a favorable review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', saying that Barton "has a sweet gravity as the doomed Emma," as well as affirming that:

Mr. Lapine has produced an elaborate theatrical meditation on Jung's work in which Emma, Charles, the Professor and all the other characters in the play behave like people in a case history. Everybody is reduced to symptoms. No character has more reality than any of the phantoms that inhabit Emma's dreams, which, with a good deal of directorial skill, are woven into the play's action.

'' Variety'' reviewed the 1995 revival and were unanimous in their support of the "extraordinary" play, "The company, perfectly cast underplays admirably. The result is itself a riveting dream which, for all its unsettling animal imagery, never loses its focus on the people at its core; it's an enormously empathic evening."Twelve Dreams
. ''Variety'', June 8, 1995 Brad Leithauser of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' wrote that Lapine "does an adroit job of interweaving day event and night-revelation." He continues:

The dream sequences are spookily compelling and splendidly differentiated. The play has the true fierceness of dream logic - the sense that you are watching events that unfold that are both unpredictable and ineluctable. Five musicians pilot us from one real to the other, artfully building towards songs that never emerge.

Awards

won an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

in 1982 for her performance in the 1981-82 production.Twelve Dreams
Internet Off-Broadway Database. Retrieved on 24 December 2011

References

{{Reflist 1981 plays Carl Jung Off-Broadway plays Plays by James Lapine