Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Often it’s a doubtful sign, even a red flag, when a show’s written description leaves you mystified as to what you’ll actually experience. What is a “shared dream sequence and live concept album,” as the press materials for Dream Feed describe it? But I had listened to some of the music of The HawtPlates, the “two-time Grammy Award winning theatrical family band” who created the show, and it was interesting and good. So I was cool with taking a chance on their theater piece at HERE Arts Center.
Glad I did. Dream Feed is a beautiful and surreal, visceral and unconventionally spiritual, and literally earthy musical-theatrical show that defies easy categorization but pulsates with sweaty life, glorious music, and sprinkles of self-deprecating humor.
Justin Hicks strums the autoharp. His sister Jade Hicks plays electronic and acoustic percussion. His wife Kenita Miller-Hicks dances. Most important, all three sing with richness and conviction – individually, in harmony, and in surprisingly effective unison. The surrealistic lyrics suggest dream imagery. There’s lots of nonverbal vocalizing too. Folk and gospel harmonies sail above African rhythms. Impressively, the spoken-word song segments are just as musical as the sung songs. Spoken-word narrative intervals recount detailed dreams.
All this action takes place around a circular table that’s an instrument in itself. Large tubular bells hang from above. The singers glide, crouch, stomp, and dance around this circle as they sing and vocalize.
Both the show and the music mingle genres so organically that they actually escape genre. The result is a thoroughly original creation that draws the in-the-round audience into an ecstatically human experience.
The house was packed for opening night. Tickets are available for upcoming performances. Dream Feed at HERE Arts Center has just been extended, but only through February 1, 2026.
