Life is a Dream

Genre: Drama
Opened 13 Oct 2009
Written: by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, in a new version by Helen Edmundson
Directed: Jonathan Munby
Cast Includes: Dominic West ( Segismundo), Malcolm Storry (Basilio), Rupert Evans (Astolfo), Kate Fleetwood (Rosaura), David Horovitch (Clotaldo), Lloyd Hutchinson (Clarion), Sharon Small (Estrella)
Synopsis: To protect the country from the horrors prophesied, Segismundo is condemned for all eternity. Banished to a secret world high in the mountains and cut off from the sun, he can only dream of a life reversed; of palaces, empires, freedom and revenge.

What the popular press had to say.....
DOMINIC MAXWELL for THE TIMES says, "A real bumblebee of a play: this should be so heavy with dreamlike semi-logic that it never takes off. And yet, the mix of tragedy and comedy, of serious soliloquising punctured by throwaway retorts, wins out against the head-scratching in Jonathan Munby's smoke-ridden production." HENRY HITCHINGS for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "While the acting is bracing, the attention to moral responsibility feels turgid, and the ending seems woefully glib." QUENTIN LETTS for THE DAILY MAIL says, "I was transfixed - as, indeed, I was by the entire evening's extraordinary tale." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "What a rich and disconcerting play this is...a masterpiece." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "The acting is a joy to behold." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Vivid, shrewd, if slightly disappointing revival at the Donmar."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
The Independent
The Times
Daily Telegraph