The Dream Frequencies: Episode 1 - Dusk

Over the last 12 months, our waking lives have changed beyond our imagining – and for many of us, so have the lives we lead during sleep.


During the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown, musician and sound designer MJ McCarthy (Turntable) found himself regularly talking to his friends and family about their dreams; dreams which were getting more frequent, vivid, abstract, confusing, disturbing, and sometimes even liberating.


Inspired by these conversations and confessions, MJ set out to explore the liminal world of dreams in a series of interviews with a range of creative collaborators. Blending a polyphonic selection of excerpts from these interviews with an original score in three movements, The Dream Frequencies is an invitation to tune into an evening of sleep and dreams.


Journey with MJ and his contributors from dusk until dawn - from the unsettling to the bizarre to the soothing and back again - in this immersive audio theatre experience which transports listeners into the unknown and unexpected worlds inside the heads and under the eyelids of others.


In this first episode, titled 'Dusk', we hear from the dreamers about the slide into sleep, recurring dreams, sleep paralysis, and the presence of animals, bird and nature in their dreaming lives, including an unexpected armadillo...


Contributors to this episode, in order of appearance, are storyteller Mara Menzies, comic Mark Thomas, poet Tawona Sitholé, writer Cathy Forde, journalist Peter Geoghegan, writer Kirstin Innes, theatremaker Isobel McArthur, and playwright and nurse Uma Nada-Rajah.



The Traverse Theatre is funded by Creative Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council, with additional support from The Scottish Government Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund.


The Dream Frequencies is part of the Creative Community - Irish Theatre in Scotland series, a Traverse Theatre partnership with the Consulate General of Ireland, Edinburgh.


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