“This play speaks in the logic of dreams,” says Chris Abraham, commenting on his new remount of Darren O’Donnell’s extraordinary play, [boxhead], opening this week at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. A clever geneticist, Dr. Thoughtless Actions, wakes up one morning to find that his head is stuck inside a box. What follows is a verbal and theatrical romp that ranges from vaudeville humour to complex philosophical meditation, as Dr. Thoughtless Actions and his partner, Dr. Wishful Thinking, try to create the “echoless yell” and clone time. O’Donnell’s work deals with nothing less than the subjective nature of reality (the "head box" from which we all see the world), the fragmented self, the folly of rationalism and the dichotomy between thoughts and actions, the mind and the body.

How has the play evolved over the several productions that you have directed?
The play itself has evolved through a combination of our understanding of what we did in 1999. We’ve always worked hard to maintain a good sense of humour, to remember that our original reason for doing the play was partly intuitive, not always rational. As we encounter it each time, we try to maintain a balance between a playful, intuitive approach and one which looks to sharpen and clarify. This last time, the changes have to do with the existence of the narrators — how they deal with the doctors cloning time. Over the years, there have been different versions of that particular section. Also, the nice thing about this production is that it has two new actors. This has been my biggest pleasure this time around — to re-approach the play with two new actors for whom it’s completely new. I get to have their experience of what the play is.

What are some the perils of directing this play?
Getting seduced by the comedy of it. The irony of the writing, the fun that the actors have, has to be balanced with a great sense of discipline. We have to be as simple and as true as possible in the midst of this insanity. This is a real challenge because it is so funny. You can get lured into getting more laughs when you don’t need them. The challenge of it from a director’s point-of-view is to approach it like you would any other play.

Some might say that the play presents an incredibly pessimistic view of existence – our heads are stuck inside boxes. How would you respond to that?
I recently asked some people about this very question after they saw a run-through of the play. I think that, internally, we see the box as a metaphor for the myriad of problems we encounter in the world around us, problems that we refuse to deal with, take action on. The box looms throughout the show as the thing that the doctors always have the option to take off but they seem to get distracted by other pursuits. The play is a reminder of the consequences of not keeping your eyes on the real problem. If you don’t take the box off, there are big consequences.

Would you say these obsessive scientific pursuits are just exercises in folly?
Yes, these doctors are pursuing the most important research in the history of science, but they’re doing all of this in blindness, with boxes on their heads. They can’t see that they’re just in a love relationship with themselves. They’re blind to the real problem.

Do you think that the age-old theme of the soul and the body is present in the play?
I think that Darren would agree that he does have an experience of the soul. I’m not sure how he would define it, but there is something called the soul in the play. There is a self beyond the mind. A recent thought for me has been that I live very much in the realm of ideas, my own thoughts. For a long time, I’ve identified myself in terms of my thoughts. I think that partly through having kids and partly through realizing the limits of identifying myself in this way, I started to wonder if this was really who I was. I’ve come to realize that I’m much more than my thinking.

These are universal themes that can be found in all art, but in comparison to more conventional, linear, character-driven theatre, this play gets under the surface and cuts to the chase of these themes.
It’s a kind of dream-nightmare, and while it uses reason and logic its truth is kind of not rational. Its truth speaks in image and metaphor. In that way, it does get under the surface, and it also gets under the skin when people recognize something as true.  There’s a lot in the show that people laugh at and they don’t quite know why. The metaphor of the boxhead speaks to people. The dilemma of the character is a real problem for him. It’s something that we can empathize with and also find hysterical. That process circumvents reason. A case in point — it’s very hard to describe this play. It’s about everything and nothing at the same time.