The Information on.. `Life is a Dream'

What Is It?

Spanish director Calixto Bieito teams up with a British cast for his dark, existentialist vision of Calderon's Golden Age drama, Life is a Dream, in a new translation by John Clifford.

Who Is In It

George Anton is wildly unpredictable as the young prince, Segismundo, who has been imprisoned by his father since birth to prevent him fulfilling an astrological prediction that he will usurp the throne.

What They Say About It

"The jangling immediacy is arrestingly conveyed in a production which rescues the play from the stiff, over intellectual approach of other Spanish directors... A masterpiece unforgettably reclaimed," Paul Taylor, The Independent.

"The cast do the text a disservice by failing to give these catalogues of cause and effect any variation in texture or tone. And the play's dream- like hypothesis is often overwhelmed by their unnecessary over-emphasis," Maeve Walsh, The Independent on Sunday.

"Bieito ensures Life is a Dream emerges in John Clifford's eloquent translation as one of the most provocative and exhilarating plays in world drama," Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard.

Where You Can See It

Life is a Dream is at the Barbican, Silk St, London EC2 (0171-638 8891) until Sat