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FIRE IN DREAMLAND Send This Review to a Friend
Good luck in trying to decipher what playwright Rinne Groff is up to in “Fire in Dreamland,” a drawn-out, three-character tale directed by Marissa Wolf. With a young woman becoming involved with a young Dutch film student trying to make a breakthrough movie about the real-life 1911 Coney Island fire that victimized animals, it would seem that Groff is trying to draw a parallel between the historical event and the romantic fire that needs extinguishing more than a century later.
We first meet the excellent Rebecca Naomi Jones as Kate, who collapses into a mess of tears. She informs the audience of a movie that is about to be made, and the flashbacks begin in an incessant style that keeps snapping back and forth between real life and the moviemaking life. Into the scene comes the good-looking Enver Gjokaj as Jaap Hooft, the aspiring filmmaker. He is obsessed with the plight of animals in the fire, and he wants to make his mark as a new director with this project.
Of course, there is a need for money, and as Kate falls for him, she also falls into the trap of investing funds she can’t afford to lose. Present in the set-up is Jaap’s assistant Lance, played sullenly by Kyle Beltran, who eventually exhibits signs of jealousy.
That’s about it for the basic plot, and there is an awful lot of not very interesting dialogue in the not very convincing relationship and outcome. But mostly the problem seems to be the effort to link the fire and the romantic problems in some sort of equation.
Director Wolf struggles to keep up interest with swift scenic interplay (the story takes place mostly on Coney Island in 2013). The best elements that she and the playwright have going for them are the performances, mainly the dramatic effectiveness of Jones and the impassioned acting of Gjokaj.
The play runs an hour and 40 minutes without an intermission but seems longer. At the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street. Phone: 212-967-7555. Reviewed July 17, 2018.
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