House of sueños

Abstract

Reviewed by: House of sueños Emily George and Olivia J. Hernández house of sueñosPresented by the Seattle Shakespeare Company in Seattle, Washington, via Rough Magic: A Seattle Shakespeare Podcast. 2701– 1703 2021. Written by Meme García. Directed by Wiley Basho Gorn. Sound Design by Meghan Roche. Production Management by Jocelyne Fowler. Music composed by Coby Gray. With Catherine Castellanos (Mom), Armando Durán (Ghost of Papi), Sophie Franco (Attic), Angela Hernández (Amelia), Andrew McGinn (Stepdad), and Caro Zeller (Rina). Meme García's house of sueños, a five-episode podcast directed by Wiley Basho Gorn for Seattle Shakespeare, was not initially conceived as an audio drama. However, the shift to an audio format may have been a blessing for this enthralling multilingual adaptation of Hamlet, placing it in the long tradition of radio horror. As we listened to house of sueños, we could not escape the feeling that we were being told a ghost story. The eerie, beautiful sound design, with its creaking steps and strange echoes, its mesmerizing narration, and its moving vocal performances reminded us that Hamletis a haunted play—and that hauntings are always demands that we remember. Like Hamlet, house of sueñosmakes that demand on our memory the inciting force of the action, and the central problem for its protagonists. What do we owe to the dead? Hamlet, in his destructive focus on revenge, seems to conclude that the answer is "everything." But this mournful, magical, and ultimately compassionate production of house of sueñosis the best kind of adaptation, at once a new, compelling story in its own right, and a re-vision that alters the way we think about the story it adapts. Combining the language and narrative of Hamletwith the domestic intimacy of a radio play, and the grief and wonder of a ghost story, house of sueñossuggests that its characters have the option of a different choice. house of sueñostells the story of a Salvadoran American family battling their past: Luis (Armando Durán), the father who disappeared five years before the play begins; Mom (Catherine Castellanos), intent on making [End Page 487]her family move on as she remarries Stepdad (Andrew McGinn); Rina (Caro Zeller), the eldest daughter, whose history of depression is treated as frightening and unnamable by the rest of the family; and Amelia (Angela Hernández), the youngest daughter, whose encounter with Luis's ghost in the attic sets the plot in motion. The only other character is the Attic itself (Sophie Franco), which acts as the repository of memory, the source of magic, and the narrator of this ghost story. Franco's narration is a standout among the excellent vocal performances. Even when the story is at its most tragic and terrible, Franco's gentle, captivating voice conveys a sense of warmth—not amusement at the expense of the characters, but rather a suggestion that the Attic sees the whole story clearly, and can be trusted to guide us through it. In an early moment of pure, classic audio horror, we hear the snap of Amelia's bones breaking and mending as she struggles against possession by her father's spirit. Overwhelmed, she seems to be drowning in a grave: "She's somewhere entre aquí y allá," the Attic tells us, Franco's voice giving the gruesome scene a dream-like quality. "Dirt and flowers pour from her mouth—marigolds, rosemary, lavender, and violets and rue—she has been shoved somewhere far back inside herself." Hernández's audio, up to this point, has held a subtle echo, the sound design itself suggesting a liminality that makes Amelia susceptible to possession. Luis's ghost uses Amelia's mouth to speak to Rina and impart the all-consuming trauma of his story. Neither Luis nor Rina lingers on the reason for his urgency: he declares that "Amelia cannot hold off death for long." The tortured, angry ghost accuses his wife of killing him and commands that Rina avenge him: "Tu tienes mi sangre adentro de tu corazón. Like calls to like. So prove to me that you still...