Lifedream

Ian C. Nelson, Librarian Emeritus, former Assistant Director of
Libraries (University of Saskatchewan) and dramaturge (Festival de la
Dramaturgie des Prairies).

Herménégilde Chiasson is a cultural icon. An esteemed visual artist
and playwright who is considered one of the three founders of modern
Acadian poetry, he has received numerous awards and honours. Since 2003,
he has been New Brunswick’s Lieutenant-Governor. Jo-Anne Elder was a
finalist for the 2003 Governor General’s Literary Award for
Translation.

La vie est un rкve in its French title seems closer in evocation to
Pedro Calderуn de la Barca’s play than what is suggested by its
modern-sounding English title, but that is only one word with which
perhaps to quibble. In a series of 14 scenes where all the action takes
place offstage, Lifedream lacks unity of time and place but in all other
respects reads like classic Racine, including some deftly disguised
monologues where characters are afforded a moment of bare revelation.
Poetry is confined to a few lines of prologue (usually blank verse)
beginning each scene rather like the descriptive chapter headings of Don
Quixote. Perhaps this reference is not too far-fetched inasmuch as the
play begins and ends with the premise, “If we were to dream a little
more, maybe we’d be able to figure out what’s happening around
us.”

The cast of characters could not be more closely knit: husband, wife,
mistress, and brother/priest all work through a web of relationships
with one another. No meeting is merely coincidental and every dissonant
detail cries for resolution or reconciliation. Yet the penultimate scene
ends with the words, “We’re bound to wake up one day or another.”
The psychology of the characters is complex and their interests are
eclectic and piercing. Although all the characters speak with the same
hyperlogical, analytical voice, each maintains an existentially insular
perspective. One wonders if the funeral sermon ending the play is
therefore meant as supreme irony or theological comfort. Compulsively
written to the last word, this is a play that will give you pause.