Life is a Dream

Yesterday I was in New York with a group of Dickinson students to see Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño at Repertorio Español on 27th St. It was a fairly simple production, professionally performed. I don't mean that in a negative way, but the stage at Repertorio Español is very small and so the company has some imposing limitations on how the work can be imagined. One of the fascinating things about this production is the international character of the casting: lead roles were played by actors from Cuba, Venezuela, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. As a result, the varieties of Spanish heard created a sense of the grandness of the language. An enjoyment that has nothing to do with the work itself. Luis Carlos de la Lombana played Segismundo, the young prince has been cruelly imprisoned since early childhood by his cruel and superstitious father. I wasn't all together convinced by his performance. He gave a theatricality to Calderón's text that, for me, greatly diminished the baroque wonder of the verse. But it was an enjoyable afternoon. A lot of driving for one day, but worth it. In the photo, De la Lombana as Segismundo.