Life is a Dream is a contemporary, intercultural adaptation of Calderón de la Barca’s classic Spanish play La vida es sueño, created by Ana Cris, Mónica de la Fuente, Anurupa Roy, and Kapila Venu under the direction of Ignacio García. This version reimagines the story from a feminist perspective, exploring themes of birth, identity, and freedom through the voices of four women. The play focuses on the tragedy of Sigismund’s birth and his mother Clorilene’s death, questioning how compassion, motherhood, and fate shape human destiny. Blending Spanish and Indian traditions, it integrates classical Indian dance, physical theatre, puppetry, and multiple languages – including Malayalam, Hindi, and Spanish – to build a poetic and physical narrative. Life is a Dream becomes a metaphorical journey across cultures and time, reflecting on the violence and inequality of a male-dominated world while celebrating the transformative power of dreams, creation, and rebellion.
Director
Ignacio García is a Spanish stage director and graduate of the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático (RESAD) in Madrid. Renowned for his deep expertise in Spain’s Golden Age theatre, he has received numerous distinctions, including the José Luis Alonso Award for Young Directors. García has directed works by Calderón de la Barca, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza, Francisco de Quevedo, and Juan del Encina, often combining his solid musical background with a poetic visual style. He has served as Assistant Artistic Director of the Teatro Español in Madrid, Artistic Coordinator of Mexico City’s Saludarte Programme, and director of the prestigious Almagro Classical Theatre Festival. His productions have been staged in leading theatres and international festivals across Spain, Mexico, Italy, Bosnia, and beyond, showcasing his global artistic vision.
Director’s Note
The contemporary play Life Is A Dream is a story about identity and about freedom, and also about barbarism and violence against women, about the lack of compassion of the universe that men dominate and determine, and about the opportunity to rebel against it all. It is a tale and a dream, full of the horrors and challenges that Calderon writes in his verses, in a new telling at across road between Spain and India, between the spirituality of both cultures, between the worldviews of both, with their dreams, their destinies, their incarnations and their biases. This contemporary play proposes a unique tour-de-force, a compelling journey through the dreams and obsessions of a furious and wild world. From the cradle to the grave, dreaming and giving birth to verses, this feminist, universal and metaphysical version of the myth is creatively constructed to stir our conscience.
Group
Monica De La Fuente Company founded by Monica de la Fuente in 2001 is based in Valladolid, Spain. Mónica de la Fuente is the artistic director, actress, dancer, choreographer and specialist in Indian performing arts, who has devoted herself for the last 20 years to the creation of a very special artistic language based on physical theatre and contemporary dance in dialogue with the performing arts from India. In 2001 she founded her own dance theatre company in Spain and since then has performed at numerous festivals and theatres in India, Europe, and USA. She is also the artistic director of LAB-INDIA, the Laboratory for Performing Arts at Casa de la India, the Cultural Centre for India in Spain.
In 2021 Monica has been awarded Iccr Distinghed Alumni Award from ICCR for her artistic career and her contribution to the artistic and cultural dialogue India-Spain.