Responses to The Dreamers
Susan C. W. Abbotson, Michael Y. Bennett, Owen Brown, Ramón Espejo-Romero, Oliver Gerland III, Noah Haidle, Terryl W. Hallquist, Hansong Dan, Shannon A. Mullen, David Radavich, Haas Regen, Stephen J. Rojcewicz Jr., Julie Vatain-Corfdir, Lincoln KonkleAbstract
The Dreamers, first published in 2024 in the Thornton Wilder Journal over one hundred years after a young Thornton Wilder wrote it, foreshadows the bold, experimental playwright he would become, which reminded some of our responders of Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. The outer play, depicting the hours after a dinner party in which the guests are restless and searching for some way to complete a sense of social purpose, is discussed from sociological and psychological perspectives by two responders. The inner play, about the adventures of a medieval knight of the Holy Grail and his sister, can be read for its exploration of at least some of the seven deadly sins and repentance, foreshadowing an aborted dramatic project (The Seven Deadly Sins); or it can be understood as one character’s rite of passage, using Victor Turner’s theory of ritual. Historical and biographical approaches see reflected in the script Wilder’s rebellion against his father or his tribute to a World War I solider-poet. These varied readings suggest that The Dreamers is a text of literary merit warranting further examination, but some of the student responders in particular ponder how it might fare as a theatrical work as well.