The most vivid and entrancing scenes conjured out of the theatre's black box, their dimensions constantly in a state of flux, tricking the eye into believing what is and isn't there. It worms its way inside. By the time the minimalist 1976 Einstein on The Beach was presented at Richard Wherrett's Melbourne Festival several years ago, it still looked as though it had come from the moon, and A Dream Play is imbued with reminders of that memorable epic, including the deathly blue-grey light that is right for the melancholic temperament and the serious, analytical, searching disposition. The music, especially the folklore rhythms and refrains, also recalls the heavy, slow-set metronome repetitions of Glass's compositions but it is in Wilson's tableaux that the production is truly striking. They resemble light-box projections, photographic negatives that are ghostly and serene, and hint at lives once lived, of faded memories and death.
Scenes subtly change colour or burst into bloom, then rapidly bleed of colour.
Wilson's A Dream Play is necessarily distancing. Its technical order and schemes, and the process by which the director makes his art appear to happen then vanish into dark, kept me watchful and constantly wondering what might next appear. It is expected that Wilson will stage three rock operas, Tom Waits's Alice and The Black Rider , with a script by William S. Burroughs, and Lou Reed's Time Rocker , as a trilogy at the Perth Festival either next year or the year after. One of the virtues of Perth Festival director Sean Doran's four-year strategy is that it aims to develop ongoing relationships with artists such as Wilson and Deborah Warner and foster collaborations between overseas and resident practitioners and ensembles. The Peony Pavilion ended at the Perth Concert Hall on Sunday, with the second beginning on Friday and running over the Valentine's Day weekend , completing all 19 hours of it.