Sueno

The brilliant, passionate prince is raised in isolation and his only companions are the nobleman Clotaldo and a God who's very existence he questions. When his father King Basilio finds his own life ending without a legitimate heir, he releases Segismundo and places him on the throne. If Segismundo is gentle and civilized, Basilio reasons, he will be allowed to reign. If he is as wild and barbaric as the stars predicted he'll be sent back to his imprisonment and told that his brief moment of freedom and power was only a dream

When the tormented Segismundo demonstrates the worst of the astrologers' fears and he's sent back to the tower, he's forever unable to distinguish between real life and the world of dreams

Sueno is written in sharp contemporary language but it nevertheless seeks to ask the eternal questions posed by Calderón: What is man-an angel or an animal? What is honor? What is freedom? If life is a dream, who is dreaming us? Could God Himself be the greatest dream of all?

"Rivera has reclaimed Calderõn's florid use of metaphor and made it his own, spiced with science, sarcasm and sweetness" - Ed Morales, American Theatre - single set