You'd expect something as heady as 17th-century classic Spanish drama to be produced someplace with an academic connection. It would be at home at the University of Hawai'i or at one of the community colleges.

Instead, Calderon de la Barca's "Life Is a Dream" finds itself at the ambitiously hip ARTS at Marks Garage in Chinatown. And the Lizard Loft production is directed by Ashley Larson in fairly classic style — no gratuitous nudity, brazen updating, or production gimmicks.

It's an ambitious shot that produces mixed results, but that generally does justice to the original work. It's best when the actors' speech merges with Roy Campbell's dialogue in translation, absorbing the words into their characters rather than pronouncing them at arm's length like an eye test. It also works when the stage action expands our understanding of the dialogue.

Here are the high points.

Troy M. Apostol has the right energy and intensity as a Polish prince imprisoned since birth by a father who fears that he will devastate the kingdom if allowed to rule. There's an animalistic, Calaban tone to the shackled prince Segismund, and Apostol accentuates it with crouching, creeping, and croaking physicality.

When the King decides to bring Segismund to the royal court to test his ability to govern, the young man — not surprisingly — exhibits such lack of control that he is returned to prison and convinced that his entire life has been a dream.

This gives Apostol the opportunity to further exercise larger-than-life emotions — spontaneous excitement, outrage, and hopelessness — before evolving into an innate nobility and self-possession that concludes his character journey.

In a less technicolored performance, Aito Steele is excellent in the clown role of servant Clarion. Steele's characterization is colloquial, understated and deliciously comic. He keeps the character's motor running at high idle even in the crowd scenes, sneaks in a "Streetcar" reference by roaring "Stella!" and sings an entr'acte accompanied by his own guitar.

Steele's contributions are rewarded with a personal and prolonged death scene. Not bad for a 17th-century supporting role that is ostensibly little more than a spear carrier.

Larson shows some directorial vision by neatly integrating pantomime into long spoken passages to underscore the dialogue and emphasize back-story. She also uses choreographed character movement to good effect, both in slow motion and natural tempo, and her intimate, in-the-round staging gives the action more vitality than it would have on a large proscenium stage.

And while the formal dances choreographed by Annie Lipscomb and the fight scenes staged by M A Richard go on too long, they add variety and texture.

The production's downside is that its two-and-a-half-hour running time feels much longer — it would be much improved by substantial cutting — and that many in the cast are unsteady in delivering the formal dialogue.

But since there's not much opportunity to see this type of drama, the Lizard Loft production fills a gap in the community repertoire and deserves notice.