"All you who enter the earth through a cradle, and leave it via a grave, your Director is looking down today, to see how his actors behave."

Welcome to The Great Theatre of the World, in which God is a theatre director, the World is his stage manager and we are the actors. The best actors will dine with God and the rest…

The fate of man played out in a surrealist carnival of live music and movement.

Originally written by Calderon in 1635, Adrian Mitchell's modern adaptation is also a welcome return to Arcola for the legendary Director William Gaskill

“…A blazing masterpiece performed in a virtuoso translation by Adrian Mitchell”
The Times, Irving Wardle*

“Adrian Mitchell’s translation into various verse forms is spectacular”
The Spectator*

“A sheer delight”
New Statesman, Angus Calder*

*On The Mediaeval Players production

REVIEWS

‘a jolly spectacle for the faithless’ The Guardian

'Directed by William Gaskill, this surrealist carnival of live music and movement was a forceful re-imagination by a legendary director at the height of his powers.' Nicolas de Jongh, Evening Standard

‘fresh, entertaining, sparkling one-off’ Kate Kellaway, The Observer