Great Theatre of the World

Synopsis

In Calderón’s dark, humorous and poetic masterpiece El Gran Teatro Del Mundo (1635), God is a theatre director and the world his stage manager. A King, Beauty, Rich Man, Poor Man and Beggar have one entrance and exit on the stage to play their parts in life. A dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age perfecting the innovative dramatic forms and genres of Lope de Vega, Calderón (1600 to 1681) is known for his poetic beauty, dramatic structure and philosophical depth in over 100 plays written throughout his life as court poet and, latterly, priest.

Our Review:

16 July 2007

Theatre has done well recently by Spanish Golden Age drama - and Calderon de la Barca in particular - from Adrian Mitchell’s translations of The Mayor of Zalamea and Fuente Ovejuna at the National, Life’s A Dream at the RSC, through to Lawrence Boswell’s Gate Theatre seasons and Rufus Norris’s thrilling Peribanez at the Young Vic.

Mitchell’s version of one of Calderon’s mid 17th-century autosacramentales, or secular mystery plays, at the Arcola, is far less exciting than any of the above, but has curiosity value. He prepared this text for the Medieval Players over twenty years ago. The great former Royal Court artistic director, the rightly revered William Gaskill, directs a young cast (and Madhav Sharma as God) in a charming, rather slight, revival.

God is a Director who commands his Stage Manager – the World – to present a show that will celebrate his power. She calls forth six actors in black b...

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