Cave Dreamer

Cave Dreamer[1]

Series
The Other Side (Series)
Original Broadcast Date
1/6/2001
Cast
Joe Frank
Format
Absurd Monologue, Narrative Monologue, 1 hour
Preceded by:	At The Dark End Of The Bar (Remix)
Followed by:	Insomnia (2001)

"I'll always remember the great drought, when it didn't rain for two years."

Cave Dreamer is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side (Series). It was originally broadcast on January 6, 2001.

Synopsis

• A great drought decimates a village and is followed by flood.
• A band of raiders attacks a village and cuts off the thumbs of the villagers.
• Joe is a dictator in a fortified underground bunker. He delivers a speech on the battlefield. Sounds of battle.
• Eating dirt.
• Joe claims his is on the verge of victory as his forces are decimated, taunts the enemy.
• A siege on the city, human artillery.
• Joe falls for Magda, a contortionist in a circus.
• Carnival as the hopeless, besieged city indulges itself followed by a city-wide nervous breakdown.
• A Trojan horse.
• The dictator addresses the public and demands their allegiance to his god-like power.
• The dictator contemplates nothingness and defeat, alternative careers.
• A defiant address.
• "Help me unravel this knot and find my way back to the town where I first saw you, where all this started, this thirst"
• A sideshow of the dictator's in various poses.

Miscellanea

A one hour remix of material from The Dictator.

Commentary

Please see guidelines on commentary and share your personal thoughts in this section.

Spblat

Not one of my favorites. Sound effects, dramatization. I just like it when he tells stories.

Shiro

This program is entertaining, but I recommend The Dictator instead. The strange thing is that a one hour edit of this material sounds quite promising. I love The Dictator - it is among my favorite programs - but the narrative has always felt a forced and unnatural. There are at least three major elements: the dictator, the dirt eater, and the circus performer. There's no obvious reason to combine all three in a single character, and I never understood the decision to do so. Oddly enough, this program maintains all three. We just lose some detail from each, and give up some great writing such as the why not kill civilians discussion. If anything, this shorter format makes the story seem less coherent.