Life is a dream
At the time of his birth, the stars foretold that Sigismund would topple his father King Basil from the throne and become a bloody tyrant. To prevent the terrible prediction from coming to pass, Basil locked his son deep inside a tower. Will Sigismund succeed in overcoming the brutality of his nature? Galin Stoev (‘Oxygen’ and ’Genesis No2’) tackles this baroque drama with an eye to marrying classical material with contemporary sensibility.
Destiny always catches up with human beings, and even kings cannot escape the inevitable fate in store for them. Yet King Basil orders his life in a battle with destiny. The father of Sigismund, he locks him away as soon as he is born to counter the deadly fate foretold by the stars, predicting that the son would dethrone his father and bring ruin upon the kingdom. Sigismund puts up a struggle, comes to his senses and realises that he can draw strength from the rules of chivalry, honour and justice. Forestalling the prediction and rejecting the violence of his nature, he succeeds in re-establishing the order of the lineage, broken before his birth.
The most famous of the mythical plays in the classic Spanish repertory, ‘Life is a Dream’ is a maze of reflections and is open to multiple interpretations. Galin Stoev tackles this baroque drama with an eye to seamlessly blending classical material with contemporary sensibility. Since if life is a dream, whatever the age, we must wake ourselves up and take with us only the good that we have accomplished.
Words Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Stage design Galin Stoev
With Fabrice Adde, Jérôme de Falloise, Vincent Lecuyer, Millaray Lobos Garcia, Conchita Paz, Clément Thirion, Olivier Yglesias and Wim Lots
Coproduction Théâtre de la Place / Liège, in coproduction with Prospero / National Theatre of Brittany / Rennes, la Comédie de Genève, La Maison de la Culture, Amiens
With the support of the European Union Culture Programme and assistance from Wallonia-Brussels International.
Part of the Prospero project, the European cultural cooperation agreement.
