“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

By Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Adapted by Adrian Mitchell
Arcola Theatre Presents

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