Rough Magic Presents the Irish Premiere of

Life is a Dream

By Pedro Calderón de la Barca
In a Translation by Jo Clifford
Directed by Tom Creed

Following the huge success of Schiller's Don Carlos Rough Magic presents the greatest of all Spanish 17th-century dramas.

Calderón's Life is a Dream is widely recognised as one of the greatest plays of  European Theatre and Jo Clifford's spectacular translation was the runaway hit of the 1998 International Edinburgh Festival.

"There's a father so afraid of the power of his son that he locks him up in a tower the minute he is born. There's a man who falls asleep in a prison and wakes up in a palace. He doesn't know whether he's awake or still dreaming and throws someone out of a window to try to find out. There's a woman who's so angry with her lover for cheating on her that she dresses as a man and rides all the way from Moscow to Poland just to try to get even with him..."
Jo Clifford from the introduction to Life is A Dream

Ronan Leahy as Astolfo in Rough Magic's production of Life is a Dream. Project Arts Centre 27 March - 19 April © Ros Kavanagh

Life is A Dream is a work many hold to be the supreme example of Spanish Golden Age drama. Imbued with highly poetic language and humanist ideals, it is an allegory that considers contending themes of free will and predestination, illusion and reality, played out against the backdrop of court intrigue and the restoration of personal honour.

Four centuries after it was written, Calderón's philosophical blockbuster presents a world strikingly like our own, a world of spin and international conflict, where those in power live in fear of being overthrown and live their whole lives as a calculated risk. It is a world where people have to hide their true feelings and invent versions of themselves in order to get on in life, a world where the personal and the political are invariably entwined and where the innocent often suffer because of the actions of those desperate to succeed in the race to power.

Directed by Tom Creed for Rough Magic, this provocative contemporary production of Life is A Dream exists in a world hanging on the edge of apocalypse.

Director: Tom Creed

Designer: Conor Murphy

Lighting Designer: Sinead Mckenna

Composer: Denis Clohessy

Cast includes: PETER DALY, ANDREA IRVINE, MARK LAMBERT, RONAN LEAHY, DARA MACMATHUNA, BARRY MCGOVERN, SIOBHAN MCSWEENEY, WILL O'CONNELL, SHANE

O'REILLY, HILARY O'SHAUGHNESSY, PAUL REID, MARK ROGERS

Performance Details
Previews: 27/28/29 March
Opening 31 March
Closes: 19 April

Project Arts Centre www.project.ie <http://www.project.ie>
01 8816913/14

Tickets from €12-€25