La vie est un songe

Lost in the middle of the mountains, two travelers enter a tower where a chained man lives? He is a young prince locked up twenty years earlier on the orders of his father, frightened by dark omens? In this masterpiece of the Spanish Golden Age, which still resonates today, Calderón pushes the limits of lyrical excess.

Sigismund, son of the King of Poland, has been locked in a tower since birth. The reason: a prophecy that this heir will be the instigator of violence and chaos. At the end of his reign, his remorseful father decides to test him. Put to sleep by a filter, Sigismund wakes up king for a day: if he behaves well, he'll stay king; if he's violent, he'll return to his tower, thinking it was all a dream?

Calderón de la Barca is certainly one of the most eminent playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age. In this play, in which we are constantly torn between illusion and reality, the author explores the great themes of human complexity: vanity, free will, manipulation, forgiveness, access to self-knowledge through the discovery of a surprising world.

Director Loïc Mobihan skilfully takes advantage of this dream-like dramaturgy. Over the course of an evening, he invites us to travel through this dizzying tale, to go beyond our everyday lives and come out the better for it.



A major work of universal theatrical heritage, with intensely poetic writing!