Life Is A Dream

The work of HWMS often involves looking at classic dramas, trying to identify the universal aspects of them, and then recasting them in a new context. Our play, “life is a Dream” starts with the Golden Age Spanish play of the same name by Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1661). We were drawn to the story by the unusual nature of the heroine and the nature of the mental control that the kind exercised over his prisoner. We reset the story is modern, high-tech Ireland, choosing a site in Dublin, just up the road from the Irish Computer Society. In this world principalities become startups, potentates become entrepreneurs, and mercenaries become technical talent that migrates from Eastern Europe. The cruel prison cell becomes an unscrupulous drug regime and the confident princess becomes a business leader who knows how to read a room. One can argue how well the new setting captures a classic story but Calderon’s principal theme remains the same. Pedro Calderón de la Barca