Review: DREAM HOU$E is Poignantly Relevant at The Alliance Theatre

In almost every nook and cranny of Atlanta, you'll find it. In New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and throughout the whole country you'll find the same insidious issue that plagues award-winning playwright Eliana Pipes' new play DREAM HOU$E - gentrification.

Playing on The Alliance's Hertz Stage, DREAM HOU$E follows the story of two Latinx sisters - Julia and Patricia Castillo - as they sell their family home on a popular home renovation TV show. The process is more difficult than either sister bargained for as old secrets and deep feelings begin to spill out and the lines between reality and television are blurred. Foundations crack as the walls begin to talk and not a single tile in the house is without a story to tell.

Eliana Pipes is this year's Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition winner. Designed to help transition student playwrights into the world of theatre, the Competition has helped launched the careers of several MFA graduates. This year, DREAM HOU$E receives a triple production for its world premiere as The Alliance co-produces the show along with Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and Baltimore Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland.

To no one's surprise but everyone's delight, the technical aspects of the show are par for the course with The Alliance's usual excellence. A dynamic, lived-in set bursts with character as colorful and thoughtful props skid, slide, and stretch across it. Iconic costumes take on deeper meanings and even occasionally change hands; and subtle, powerful lighting pushes and pulls focus at just the right moments.

One of my favorite technical aspects of the show is the involved use of holograms. Dazzling images flash across the stage at key moments, invoking feelings of immersion, and at times you feel as important to the action on stage as the actors are. There were even moments where I felt the holograms come to life as a character unto themselves.

Leading the charge in selling the old home is Jacqueline Correa as Patricia. Correa's diligence as an actor shines brightly through Patricia's detail-oriented nature. Correa's thoughtful mix of stern strength, furious vulnerability, and ruthless planning breathe life into the over-worked and under-appreciated eldest sister. With all that surface pressure, Patricia is bound to crack; and Correa is not afraid to show you how.

Opposite Correa as the younger, more pregnant, Castillo sister is Darilyn Castillo as Julia. Castillo's focus on authenticity makes her performance feel effortless. Julia, in every meaning of the word save physical, is lost and desperately seeking answers. Castillo's emphasis on exploration and expression coupled with her innate ability to key into the truth foster an exquisite journey through Julia's circumstances as she finds answers to questions she wished she hadn't asked.

Rounding out the main trio is Marianna McClellan who plays the irresistibly toothsome Tessa Westbrook, host and star of the home renovation TV show. McClellan's eerie understanding of ever-shifting, ever-important power dynamics and the efficacy of well-placed empathy at times push Tessa off the stage and into real life. With a winning grin, McClellan brings to life a compelling take on "devilishly charming."

The ensemble members - Katie Gonzalez, Kenneth C. Lewis, Blake Lowe, Gabrielle Stephenson, and Shelby Woolridge - are a perfectly stoic wall of power. Functioning as extensions of Tessa Westbrook, the group encroach on the Castillo sisters like ants beginning their infestation - wordlessly, relentlessly, mercilessly. There are a few rare moments of humanity, but they are never more than a glimpse into the minds of these wordless automatons.

As the lights came up, the actors took their bows, and we all stood to applaud my mind spun with thoughts, questions, and theories. I needed more. DREAM HOU$E is a show that entertains as it asks you to think critically. It twists uncomfortable situations into allegories, big dreams into big regrets, and the fear of having hope into genuine hope. There are no answers here, only a story to experience and be forever changed by.

DREAM HOU$E at The Alliance Theatre runs now until February 13th, order your tickets here!

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