LIFE IS A DREAM To 28 November.
London.
LIFE IS A DREAM
by Pedro Calderon de la Barca new version by Helen Edmundson.
Donmar Warehouse 41 Earlham Street WC2H 9LX To 28 November 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.15pm.
Audio-described 14 Nov 2.30pm (+ Touch Tour 1.30pm).
BSL Signed 23 Nov.
Captioned 18 Nov.
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 871 7624.
www.donmarwarehouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 October.
Searching Spanish classic in epic small-space production.
Today, Calderon’s play might have been a film about a favela boy responding anti-socially to rough treatment until his better nature emerges. In 1635 it was bound up with a Catholic cosmography. Set in the remote, cold territory of Poland the central story only arrives after a spurned lady in male disguise, with a garrulously comic servant; she’s chasing her faithless lover, only to be thrown from her horse.
Then, on designer Angela Davies’ cold, stony set, in a space where Neil Austin’s lighting seems smokily hostile, huge prison gates open to reveal Prince Segismundo. A skinhead royal in chains, he’s used to beatings because it was prophesied he would kill his royal father. And, given the brief chance of freedom, he behaves viciously, until he’s returned to prison, his temporary power seeming like a dream.
The heavens are implied overhead in a suspended astrolabe, while on the rear wall a huge golden splash creates a rough world-map, turning blood-red at violent moments. The realpolitik of gold and blood is present, for his dream-day of power inspires Segismundo’s supporters to group and free him for real.
All things seem evanescent, even those apparently most substantial, and any hold on life is fragile – even the King’s threatened. Only through a moment's high-risk, imaginative response does he manage to break the cycle of violence. But this itself is part of life’s unpredictability, where seeking shelter, as in Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, leads to death, while Segismundo’s keenest supporter gets his comeuppance rather than a reward.
And in the love-story that began with a fall from a horse, the searched-for lover turns out unworthy. Jonathan Munby’s increasingly impressive production highlights the perfunctory nature of Calderon’s final match-making.
Helen Edmundson’s English version starts with some fusty old translatorese, “Ah! Wretched me! Unhappy me!”, as if to create a sense of strangeness, before settling fluently down. Dominic West shows Segismundo’s fear, violence and eventual humanity as parts of a single being, while, amid a strong cast, Lloyd Hutchinson finely contrasts the heroics as a down-to-earth servant who only wants to survive in the here-and-now.
Rosaura: Kate Fleetwood.
Clarion: Lloyd Hutchinson.
Segismundo: Dominic West.
Clotaldo: David Horovitch.
Guard/Servant 2/Soldier 2: David Smith.
Astolfo: Rupert Evans.
Estrella: Sharon Small.
Basilio: Malcolm Storry.
Guard/Servant 1/Soldier 1: Dylan Turner.
Director: Jonathan Munby.
Designer: Angela Davies.
Lighting: Neil Austin.
Sound/Composer: Dominic Haslam.
Composer/Musician: Ansuman Biswas.
Movement: Mike Ashcroft.
Assistant director: Paul Hart.
2009-10-20 00:33:27