One of the most attractive stagings of 2022 was the adaptation, during its second semester, of the Spanish theater classic The life is dream (1635) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, in the Municipal Theater of Lima. This project was in charge of the director Jean Pierre Gamarra, who months before had made the adaptation of the misanthrope by Molière, a work that also had very good comments and the favor of the public.
We are referring, then, to two classic texts of monumental symbolic proportions, which on the one hand revealed the good moment of Gamarra as a director and in the same way meant the definitive histrionic consecration of more than one actor and actress. It is not a small thing, because what is needed to make good theater and promote the theater industry in Peru is precisely quality, and these two theatrical versions mark the way forward.
In this sense, until April 9 the second season of The life is dream at the Municipal Theater, which follows the thematic and formal guidelines of the previous season —what goes well is not changed— but repowered due to the current political and social context in Peru. That is the strength of the classic, which challenges without depending on specific circumstances due to its universal theme, which for this occasion Gamarra opted for power, that force capable of reconfiguring people until showing them as is in their horror or beauty.
What Gamarra shows is the permanent tension of the characters (Segismundo, Fernando Luque; King Basilio, Leonardo Torres; Rosaura, Maria Grazia Gamarra; Clotaldo, Roberto Ruiz; Clarín, Alonso Cano; Astolfo, Óscar Yepez; and Estrella, Andrea Alvarado ) through an interaction that has textual poetry as the main thread, that is, the classic verse that supports this new version and that in its recurrence (most of the times via Segismundo) imposes itself on the viewer as if by luck of mantra, which positions him on a reflective-philosophical and self-critical level, which takes him out of history (foundation of the original text) without leaving it (his dialogue with the present). This is the magic of the classic, whose adaptations do not betray its roots and that Gamarra enhances his with a pop and gray scenery, plus a soundtrack (Artic Monkeys, namely), which contribute to the contemporaneity of the new version.
And a detail to underline: adapting, in theater, is not synonymous with being kind to the spectator, who has to do their part to make their own (the movement, the music, the verse, the gloomy atmosphere) the validity (how much has to say) of the work. That initial effort is worth it. This adaptation of The life is dream
is called to stay
(GRO).