Theater as a Dreamscape: Humor, Dread and Melancholy Through the Spatial Logic in Theatrical Performance

At the beginning of Scene #2 of “Top Graduate Zhang Xie,” sheng is sent off through the Ghost Gateway (鬼门道) by a music troupe in the back stage to become Zhang Xie. The ritual of sending off (断送) transforms actors into characters, and the stage into a dreamscape. Performance on stage contains a ritualistic connotation that musicians summon ghosts, in the form of actors, from the other world to represent dreams in the past. Hence, theatrical performance is actually a dreamscape. Zhungzi’s dream elucidates that there is no absolute reality or illusion, awakening or dream, but always ongoing “transformations of things.” Following Zhuangzi’s non-dualism, dreamscape of theatrical performance focuses on the gesture of crossing a boundary and the unfolding of multiple subspaces of dreamscape such as dreadful realm and architectural space. Through the spatial logic of theatrical performance, crossing a boundary and entering endless layers of the dreamscape generate diverse emotional effects such as humor, dread and melancholy.