Life is a Dream
La Vida es Sueño

“Togetherness is this company’s calling card, an intense yet informal rapport between actor and actor, actor and audience.”
The Telegraph

Written by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
In a version by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod
Performed in Spanish
Premiere in Seville 14-16 October 2022

A prince chained in a mountain. A young woman disguised as a man in search of vengeance. Revolution, love, murder – but in Life is a Dream, is the real truly real, or is it all just a dream?

Cheek by Jowl’s first Spanish-language production will be Calderón’s astonishing play from the Spanish Golden Age. Directed by Declan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod, it will be performed by an ensemble of Spanish actors.

It comes after many years of bringing Cheek by Jowl’s work to Spain and forming connections and collaborations with Spanish performers and practitioners down through the years. Life is a Dream marks the first play from the Golden Age since Donnellan and Ormerod presented their 1989 English-language adaptation of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna at the National Theatre in London.

“Shakespeare, Sophocles, Calderón… Classics last because they are always about now: 400 years ago or today. We work on them because they continue to share life through time. They probe our self-deceptions and our glories, our relationships and our systems and help us to discover what it is to be ourselves.”
– Declan Donnellan

Co-produced by Cheek by Jowl, Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (CNTC Madrid) and LAZONA; in collaboration with the Barbican, London and Scène Nationale d’Albi, France.

Tickets on Sale:

Cast and creative team

Cast

Ernesto Arias

Prince Ezeanyim

David Luque

Rebeca Matellán

Manuel Moya

Alfredo Noval

Goizalde Núñez

Antonio Prieto

Irene Serrano

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Lighting	Ganecha Gil
Dramaturgy Advisor	Pedro Víllora
Sound Design and Composer	Fernando Epelde
Movement Advisor	Amaya Galeote
Assistant Director	Josete Corral
Assistant Designer	Alessio Meloni
Lighting Assistant	Javier Hernandez
Costume Assistant	Elena Colmenar
Sound Assistant	Gastón Horischnik
Publicity Designer	Javier Naval

Upcoming Performances

Date	Location
14-16 October 2022	Seville, Teatro Lope de Vega, Spain
22-23 October 2022	Girona, Teatro Municipal, Spain
12-13 November 2022	Valladolid, Teatro Calderón, Spain
19-20 November 2022	València, Teatro Principal, Spain
2 December 2022	Avilés, Centro Niemeyer, Spain
15 December 2022 – 26 February 2023 Tuesdays to Sundays, 20:00	Madrid, CNTC Teatro Clásico, Spain
9-10 March 2023	Albi, Scène Nationale, France
5 May 2023	Alicante, Teatro Principal, Spain
21-22 July 2023	Gijón, Teatro Jovellanos, Spain

Reviews

For The Revenger’s Tragedy

“A bravura staging.”
Telegraph

“A blackly comical delight… This elegantly perverse, beautifully barbed evening is a big success.”
The Times

“The Piccolo has achieved an outstanding result, and one at an international level. Donnellan is a magical director and a master of movement and action. The actors embody the absolute fusion of mind and body, full of life and giving life.”
Avvenire