Schenkkan, Robert. The Dream Thief. Dramatic Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-87129-951-8. 75 pp. B+ 3+ Reviewed by Allison G. Belnap The Dream Thief is the story of two children's quest to save their father's life. Dream Thief has stolen Daddy's dreams. As a result, Daddy cannot sleep; he becomes listless and loses direction in his life. Frightened, Mommy takes him to the hospital, where two pompous doctors are incapable of explaining anything to her. To the children--Susan and Jamie--it seems their father might die. That night in the hospital they see Dream Thief ride Night Mare into Daddy's room to take more dreams from him. The children follow Dream Thief out the window and into the world of Nod. While in Nod, they encounter characters most people meet only in their dreams--Winken, Blinken, Green Eggs, and Hamlet, to name a few. With the help of new-found friends--Hop Along, Sandman, Twinkle (as in Twinkle, Twinkle, little star), and RE--the children are able to face and defeat Bedbugs, Night Terrors, Dream Thief, and finally Chaos himself in the effort to free the thousands of stolen dreams held captive in Morpheus, the capital city of Nod. With the return of his dreams, Daddy is finally able to sleep and recovers quickly from his mysterious illness. For a moment, Susan and Jamie think the adventure was all a dream, until Chaos is heard, reminding them that he is ever-present--the bad is always part of the good. Schenkkan has succeeded in writing a wonderful piece of fantasy-action adventure for the child in all of us. Through Susan and Jamie, the audience is allowed to face and conquer many common fearsùthe threat of losing a loved one, journeying to places unknown, facing and defeating those who keep us from reaching our goals, and ultimately, freeing our dreams, enabling them to lift us beyond what we may have expected of ourselves. The play has a cast of twenty-six characters, which can be played by eight actors (three children, five adults). The script includes detailed descriptions of several settings and some complicated special effects. Puppetry may or may not be used, depending on director's preference. Recommended for higher education institutions or professional troupes.
