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Life is a Dream

Royal Lyceum Theatre

Four stars


A moment of peace, then pandemonium reigns in this rollicking new look by Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s seventeenth century Spanish classic. Brought to life by England’s internationalist inclined maverick auteurs Cheek by Jowl, here, reality morphs into a spectacular fantasia for its incarcerated hero after being unleashed into the world. 

Such is the lot of poor Segismundo, the Polish prince locked up like Rapunzel in a tower since birth lest he turn out to be a wrong ‘un. Once his regal old man Basilio guilt trips himself into cutting his son some slack, an initially befuddled Segismundo launches himself into society like a man who fell to earth running riot as he explores the undiscovered extremities of the big bad world he just landed in. Why? Because he can, and he was always going to turn out that way, anyway. Or was he? 

 

Freedom is a funny thing in Declan Donnellan’s Spanish language production, which puts the lights up on the audience as Alfredo Noval’s Segismundo runs riot in the stalls and royal boxes where his subjects reside. Elsewhere, things lurch into borderline Dennis Potter territory by way of vintage cartoon style dance routines and a canned laughter soundtracked sitcom world. 

 

Donnellan’s eight-strong cast ham it up like Billy-o as they make assorted entrances through Nick Ormerod’s set, a row of green doors that open wide to expose various dirty secrets. Segismundo becomes a populist demagogue lashing out wildly before being put back in chains. Throw in a romantic subplot, and a merry dance of a show bursts into life. 

Cheek by Jowl’s international co- production with Madrid’s Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico and other partners comes more than twenty years since Catalan director Calixto Bieito’s brought Jo Clifford’s English language version of the play to Edinburgh International Festival. A revival by the Lyceum’s own company graced the same stage only a couple of years ago. 

 

The deceptively broad brushstrokes of Donnellan’s production digs deep into the philosophical heart of the play’s meditations on the relationship between truth and artifice, fate and free will, and nature versus nurture. As all involved burl through the show’s interval free two-hour duration, the result is a deadly piece of serious fun. 


The Herald, August 26th 2023

Ends

 

 

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