Graduate student directs play about psychologist Carl Jung and his struggle to escape solitude

Actors in amorphous costumes will relive the psychological obsessions experienced by a disciple of Sigmund Freud more than 80 years ago tonight, and the play’s audience will play a direct role in the experience.

Undergraduate actors from the school of Theater, Film and Television will perform “A Dark Sun,” a conceptual play directed by graduate theater student Alex Levy. The play, based on interpretations of the works of psychologist Carl Jung, poses questions about the existence of the soul and man’s place in the universe.

The show follows an abstract interpretation of Jung’s journey through the realms of psychology and mysticism in search of the human soul. Jung was a disciple of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and later split away to approach psychology from a different angle.

According to Levy, Jung retreated into solitude for many years, experiencing visions in what may have been a psychotic break. “A Dark Sun” interprets his time in solitude and the visions and psychic journeys he experienced. Levy said the play does not have a traditional plot or story line, and that those expecting an autobiographical account of Jung will not find it in “A Dark Sun.”

“The play is about getting your soul back,” said fourth-year theater student and stage director Karla Braunesreith. “Jung goes into a very dark place … and he’s trying to find his way back to the light.”

According to Braunesreith, “A Dark Sun” is an environmental play. It does not utilize a traditional stage, but puts the actors in close proximity to the audience members. Levy said he came up with this idea to challenge the notion that the stage has a stopping point.

Levy said the team began rehearsals in October with a blank page, and that the script evolved as he and the actors created and revised the parts during each rehearsal. Levy also said he cast actors who demonstrated creativity, athletic prowess and an ability to improvise because inflexible actors, no matter how talented, could not play the parts in “A Dark Sun.”

“The characters … are beings that can shape shift as he (Jung) needs them to,” Levy said.

The characters include Freud, Jung and figures from the Old Testament and ancient Middle Eastern myth, according to Braunesreith.

Levy said they will pay attention to the reactions of the audience and adapt the play as the week progresses.

“It’s very exciting … and can lead to moments of uncertainty … because you don’t know how it will resolve itself,” said Pablo Santiago, a second-year lighting design graduate student.

Levy, who said he was introduced to Jung’s ideas by his wife a year ago, has since read dozens of Jung’s books and essays. Levy said that he became obsessed with the psychologist’s written and illustrated work. “A Dark Sun” is his graduate thesis show.

“Jung (acts as) a canvas for people to project onto,” Levy said. “That’s what this play is. The soul is a connection to … each other and a larger world that is embedded inside of us.”

The crew has converted Macgowan 1340 into a customized theater. The floor is white with a black “˜X’ at its center that extends up the walls. Black ladders with wide bottom rungs lean against the walls and taper to six-inch wide segments as they touch the walls.

According to Santiago, the lighting effects will include high-powered searchlights as lighthouses, LED lights underneath tables and rings of light rippling out from the characters.

Santiago also said that the crew will project illustrations that Jung drew during his 10 years of exploration after breaking away from Freud. Projected textures and animations will cover the audience as well as the theater walls.

“It’s not a play, it’s an experience for the audience,” Braunesreith said. “The audience is living it with the actors.”