bwscrow+life+is+a+dream

Life is a Dream -Brett Crow University Theater’s production of //Life is a Dream// was a fantastic and novel adaptation of the 1635 classic work //La Vida es Sueño,// by Pedro Calderon de la Barca. The production was directed by Marla Carlson and George Pate, a doctoral student. The University Theater’s version of this play presents an adaptation of Calderon de la Barca’s work within the context of another scene in which two shysters—Mr. Boots and Mrs. Straps—defraud a corporation through an elaborate scheme revolving around man’s nature of adopting whatever reality is proposed by those around him in order not to stand out. The play’s delivery was surrealistic: the sets and costumes are Spartan and bare bones (leaving a lot to imaginative interpretation by the audience), the juxtaposition of a classic play and a modern scene was disorienting, and the inclusion of an audience member completed the dreamlike nature. All of these elements also contributed to the unity of the play and the development of the central theme of the relativity of reality.

Calderon de la Barca’s work is the tale of Segismundo, a Polish prince whose fate was influenced by the words of a seer who advised his father (King Basilio) that his son Segimundo would bring disaster upon the kingdom. Based upon this prophecy King Basilio locks up his son in a tower until a day when the king has a change of heart and drugs Segismundo and awakens him in royal splendor and tells him of his true lineage for the first time. Segismundo reacts so violently to this information that he is again drugged and placed back in the tower and is led to believe that those previous occurrences were merely fantasies within a dream. A band of the people, newly alerted to the tragic fate of their prince, lead a popular revolt and free Segismundo, but the prince is still left to be uncertain about what constitutes reality and dreams. This uncertainty forms the back drop of the play, as well as the theme of adopting the reality of those around you in order to fit in, even if it does not make sense to you or seems too fantastic to be possible.

When you dream you can be in one location with a certain set of understood parameters and defining characteristics, and then suddenly the world can appear completely different with a new dream plot, characters with different roles, and a new setting. The mind does not question this juxtaposition because in its dream state it simply accepts its imagined surroundings as the current reality. In Calderon De La Barca’s work Segismundo abruptly goes from his tiny life in a prison cell to a royal court with no transition, and then back again when he is drugged and returned there. By framing // La Vida es Sueño // in a completely different scene the directors successfully created that dreamlike juxtaposition while still managing to maintain a sense of parallelism.

Mr. Boots and Mrs. Straps are attempting to sell an incredible invention to the corporation, but board members will only be able to see this inventions demonstration if they are truly self-made men. In reality the product and demonstration are both fake and no one can see it working, but the board members lie in order to appear as they believe they are expected to by both the salesmen and their peers. The corporate scene involves people knowingly sacrificing their sense of reality in order to fit a role which they are expected to fill by those around them. In the same way prince Segismundo allows his life to be The framing corporate scenes at the beginning and end contribute to the dreamlike nature of the play through the abrupt transition from one setting to another completely unrelated one. This can happen frequently in dreams with no explanation, and yet the new reality of the second dream scene is never questioned by the mind.

The choice to utilize a supposed member of the audience to portray Segismundo was a brilliant concept. Segismundo is a character who is forced into a life designed by those in power over him. The concept of taking an audience member and suddenly forcing them to adapt to the roles expected of them runs parallel to the initial concepts of free will and fate in the play. The idea emphasizes the dreamlike nature of Segismundo’s conflict and the jarring sense of waking up and being expected to abruptly catch up with the world around you in a way that makes Segismundo’s emotions more accessible and relatable to the audience who may not know what being a prince involved in a royal power struggle is, but can certainly understand the dream like nature of being forced into a play. Furthermore, by casting Segismundo as a woman the audience is asked to and is able to accept yet another altered reality because of how readily the rest of the cast accepts the veracity of the situation.

The technical and material sparseness of the productions lighting, sound, set, and props also contributed to the daze of this dream play. Dark was the night—and black was the play. Black walls, a row of black chairs, and a black trunk full of the actors’ alternate costumes were the entire set. Black is the color of the unknown and from darkness the imagination can conjure up any range of scenes or possibilities. The sets sparse nature and dark color represents the state of a dream, where certain aspects can appear vividly and others make no memorable impression whatsoever, but the mind may create its own reality based upon the context of the rest of the situation. The play was lit practically, not dramatically. Lighting effects remained largely static. There were no sound effects or music utilized in this play. The lighting fell short: If the whole design of the play revolves around darkness it seems to reason that elaborate lighting should be played up to counteract the sparseness of the situation and create a more vivid scene. As for sound, I believe musical accompaniment would have more fully created a dream like ambience, but the lack of it was successfully and unnervingly unnatural. While the intention might have been to create a sensory vacuum in the lighting, set, and sound of this play, subtle use of fog and lights would have more appropriately countered the sparse and dark set and ambient or dramatic music, if used sparsely, could have improved the ambience as well and created a more vivid dream.

If the play had not been cross cast I imagine the costumes in this play would have been even more stripped down and barren to match the set, but as it was costume played an important role in character designation. As the audience was already being asked to assume much it was something of a burden to not have to imagine the actors, who could have been dressed identically or in all black or white, as the characters they were portraying with mixed up gender roles and without designating costume. The men of the board in the company wore traditional business suits and Mr. Boots and Mrs. Straps wore similar business attire with Mrs. Straps being rather stern in its black colors and glasses. When the board members began the interactive demonstration of the con artists great invention they donned simple vests with varying colors and trim to indicate their status, and Segismundo from the audience donned a vest to indicate her prisoner status. The play had unity in theme which was supported by the set design, the inclusion of an audience member as the main character, switched gender roles, and juxtaposition of different realities. The play was engrossing, if occasionally a little bit confusing. The sense of confusion was never so much as to allow for a misunderstanding of the plot, just a sense of a lot of things happening very quickly that actually positively contributed to the dream like nature of the play. I disagree with the stylistic choices made in regards to the lighting, music, and costume, but I understand that they were made in an attempt to maintain a sense of unity and that was accomplished. I do believe a lusher dream environment of a black background enhanced by vivid costume, lighting, and music might have been more successful, but the choice to leave it stripped down certainly played into the themes of creating reality from nothing. If a value had to be assigned to the play (on a scale intended for collegiate level performance only) this play would receive a seven out of ten.