Theater Mitu, the professional theater company in residence at NYU Abu Dhabi, will return for its third public production in Abu Dhabi, performing August Strindberg’s 1901 classic, A Dream Play. The production will have a five-performance run from October 17-20 at the NYUAD Downtown Campus.

The play tells the story of a mythological being who descends to earth to understand the human condition. A marked departure from the traditional model of storytelling in the early 20th century, the play was an early exploration into dramatic expressionism and symbolism and remains one of Strindberg’s most renowned dramas. A Dream Play takes the ethereal and surreal form of a dream, moving across periods in time and space of the protagonist’s human experience. Theater Mitu’s “Whole Theater” approach incorporates a range of hyper-theatrical global performance traditions — such as Japanese Noh and Kabuki, and Indian Kathakali — energizing the text with acrobatic physicality, modernist design, and an impactful original music score.

Rubén Polendo, director of Theater Mitu and head of NYUAD’s Theater Program, said: “The play is beautiful and has a number of symbolically charged moments taking on some of the questions we’ve been asking forever. A theme that particularly stands out is the attachment individuals develop towards their function in society, and the way that it can both define and confine them. The play is about balance and letting go, it touches on family, age, love, work, among other things."

“Theater plays an important role in bringing the community together by supporting a cross-cultural connection and dialogue amongst people in that shared space,” he added. “It puts us all in a bus and takes us somewhere.”

A Dream Play is presented by NYUAD’s Theater Program and the NYUAD Institute.