“LIFE IS A DREAM” AT THE NATIONAL COMPANY OF CLASSICAL THEATER. DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF THE SAME CALDERÓN

We are faced with three very different readings and perspectives of Calderón's work. The 1996 staging is based on an initial agreement between Sanchis Sinisterra, author of the version, and Ariel García Valdés, who later worked independently. In the 2000 staging, Calixto Bieito is responsible for the version and direction of the play. In this case the peculiarity is added that the show was born in Edinburgh in English, and then performed in Barcelona and Madrid with another cast and some changes. In the case of the 2012 staging, it can be seen that Helena Pimenta, as director, and Juan Mayorga, as author of the version, worked much more closely together. Therefore, we witnessed three different styles of collaboration that achieve their main objective: to put on a show and bring a dramatic text of the Golden Age to today's audiences. The reader of this book will find all this and much more. In particular, a theoretical reflection on the staging of the classics in our times and on the work of the adaptor, something that Mar Zubieta achieves by analyzing each staging and each version from the inside, and contributing her experience and knowledge of the classics acquired during her many years of work at the CNTC. Studies such as this one are a great step forward and are a clear example of the fruits of the close collaboration between the philological world and the world of the stage. Theater is a complex and multidisciplinary phenomenon that requires a constant siege from all fields. If this is done with rigor and knowledge, as in this case, the result can only be excellent.