Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 1630s script for Life Is A Dream is a delightfully chaotic romp through the mechanics of power, presaging the later fashion for melodrama with its episodic structure, veiled identities and surprising revelations. It follows the transition of power from an unwise yet self-proclaimed scholarly king to his cursed son, subverting classical tropes of predestination and taking in reflections on nature and nurture, aristocratic intrigue, and the quality of compassion. Even before Cheek By Jowl apply a layer of slapstick, it has an anarchic energy and comments on the dangers of autocratic power.

This production does little to exploit any contemporary resonance: indeed, the dramaturgy merely formalises the entrances and exits, and only once plays with the text to any great effect. Turning the rival plots of an extended royal family into a sitcom with a laugh track is a rare example of exploring the text: much time is spent reducing the speeches and dialogues to what feels like exposition.

The central sequence, when the prince who has been raised as a prisoner is suddenly given a court and absolute power retains the script’s excitement, but subsequent battle scenes are perfunctory theatricality, and a sense of political upheaval is only slightly felt. With solid performances and, in places, a physical dynamism, Life Is A Dream entertains without pressing any argument for its modern importance.

Life Is A Dream, Lyceum Theatre, 26 August, 7.30pm, 27 August, 2.30pm.