Halcyon skies, bright blue seas, beautiful beaches, tumbling trees…in Polly Samson’s A Theatre for Dreamers Hydra is painted as a stunning place where anything can happen. Including dreams. Focusing on an artistic community on a Greek island in the 60s, this novel explores art and sexuality through relationships that form and flex throughout it. Prominent among the artists and poets are a Norwegian couple – Axel Jensen and Marianne Ihlen – and a young, charismatic Canadian by the name of Leonard Cohen, who hooks up with young muse Marianne. Sexual jealousy builds. Violence and anger abound. It’s tense at times.
Atmospheric prose and vivid descriptions captivate throughout, even though at times the characters and plot gets a bit saggy. But the language and writing hooks you in and makes you imagine the blue skies and bluer seas that we all want to be near. It is a classic coming-of-age story, beautifully executed.
It’s perfect summer reading, transporting us far away whilst we’re all trying to remember what holidays look like.