While sometimes a bit bloodless for a show whose main character wakes up with bleeding eye sockets, UnSpun Theatre’s surreal but intellectual approach mostly pays off in this moody — and often very funny— psychological mystery.

James (Christopher Stanton) is blinded after a vicious attack he can’t remember, but his vivid dreams seem to lead him closer to the lost memory. In waking life, his condition worsens while his refusal to adapt frustrates his care worker Alice (Kate Hewlett) and estranged best friend Hammer (John Cleland).

The use of stark light and shadow, along with the guide wires James strings across his apartment, allows the set to gracefully serve both storylines. So do Cleland and Hewlett, who play several roles each in the film noir-styled dreamworld that James enters. Though they’re often vaguely shaded stereotypes, each character has enough personality to be compelling, with Cleland’s hard-bitten newspaper editor one of the highlights. The writers have an excellent collective ear for 1930s detective story patter and there’s no shortage of great one-liners. Director Chris Hanratty carries the noir aesthetic into the staging of the dream scenes, which are beautifully composed and perfectly paced.

There’s also just enough misdirection to lend a satisfying level of confusion (though Hewlett gets saddled with a poor monologue about humans as “forgetting machines” in the process), and just enough clues to satisfy the attentive with a plausible solution. Stanton does an admirable job in a difficult, physical role that requires him to switch back and forth between being blind and sighted; that he’s such an imposing presence even while theoretically helpless is a constant source of tension. And while the snappy dialogue is a pleasure, Don’t Wake Me’s sly manipulation of the audience’s sympathy for the main character is what you’ll remember when the lights come up.

Cast: John Cleland, Kate Hewlett and Christopher Stanton
Dramaturge: Mike McPhaden
Assistant Director: Brendan Gall

Play-Drama / General Audience
Running time: 75 Minutes

Factory Theatre Mainspace
Wed, January 2 - 7:15 pm
Fri, January 4 - 9:00 pm
Sat, January 5 - 3:45 pm
Sun, January 6 - 9:15 pm
Tue, January 8 - 7:00 pm
Thu, January 10 - 5:00 pm
Fri, January 11 - 7:00 pm
Sat, January 12 - 5:15 pm
Sun, January 13 - 9:00 pm

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