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Life's a Dream
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
September 10 - October 10, 1999
directed by JoAnne Akalaitis
Critically acclaimed director JoAnne Akalaitis returns to Court Theatre to direct this Spanish masterpiece. Two seasons ago, Akalaitis' production of The Iphigenia Cycle electrified Chicago audiences. A subsequent off-Broadway production in February marked the first time a Court production moved to New York City.
Recognized as the foremost dramatist in the golden age of Spanish literature, Pedro Calderón de la Barca is often referred to as "the Spanish Shakespeare." Written in 1636 and considered to be Calderón's greatest work, Life's A Dream questions the uncertainty and interchangeability of human existence-how can one ever know what is reality?
King Basilio has for years heeded the omen warning that his son, Prince Sigismund, would grow up to be a tyrant. Basilio keeps Sigismund imprisoned in a tower, and his identity hidden from the kingdom's citizens. Deciding to find out if the prophecy is true, the king frees his now grown son, giving him the power to rule the kingdom. The Prince's overwhelming immersion into his position of royalty and newfound power manifests itself as rage, and his conduct becomes impulsive and violent. Basilio again imprisons his son and tries to convince the Prince that his brief day as royalty was but a dream.
Part fairy tale, part comedy of errors, part philosophical morality tale and part debate of free will versus fate, Life's A Dream illuminates the ultimate solitude of every individual for whom other people and the world can be as deceitful and capricious as a dream. |
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