Arcola Theatre with thanks to Shakespeare’s Globe READ NOT DEAD programme presents:

Spanish Golden Age: Play in a Day
La Vida Es Sueño (Life is a Dream)

Written in 1635 by Pedro Calderón de la Barca in an English translation by John Clifford

Directed by James Wallace

 

Cast includes:

Rosaura                    Beth Park

Clarin                        Martin Hodgson

Segismundo             Oliver Bennett

Clotaldo                    Alan Cox

Soldier / Courtier      James Thorne

Soldier / Courtier      Mark Hammersley

Astolfo                      Mark Knightly

Estrella                     Daisy Hughes

Basilio                       David Whitworth

 

The Read Not Dead project was launched in 1995 by Shakespeare’s Globe Education department (before the Globe Theatre was even built), to perform stage readings with professional casts of all the surviving plays that were produced between 1567 and 1642 (these forgotten classics…and also some not so classic plays), offering an adventure of discovery for actors and audiences alike.

The twist and thrill of Read Not Dead is that the ensemble company are only given a copy of the script of the play they will be performing on the Sunday morning of the performance. The challenge is that the ensemble company of actors will work solidly with the director to then stage the play on its feet by the Sunday afternoon to a live audience.

This Spanish Golden Age: Play in a Day project is supported by the Read Not Dead programme and is run in exactly the same way – meeting, rehearsing and performing a Spanish Golden Age play in a day! This series looks at the influence of Spanish writers working between 1576 and 1642 by exploring works by some of the greatest Spanish dramatists from that period. We start with La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, in an English translation by John Clifford.

 

Tickets Information and Times

Sunday 2 February 2014

4.00pm in Studio One

£10 (£8 con/FoSG)