A classic from the Spanish Golden Age, Calderón's richly poetic, epic masterpiece explores illusion, reality, fate and destiny against the backdrop of a mythical Polish kingdom. 'If I'm asleep, don't let me wake. If this is real, don't let me dream.'To protect the country from the horrors prophesied, the young Prince Segismundo is condemned for all eternity to be shut away from his country and his birthright. Banished to a secret world high in the mountains and cut off from the sun, he can only dream of a life reversed: of palaces, empires, freedom – revenge…Helen Edmundson's version of Calderón's Life is a Dream was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2009.