The Donmar's multi-award winning Artistic Director Michael Grandage scored a critical West End hit in 2005 with Don Carlos, Friedrich Schiller's 1787 study of power, passion and paternal disappointment.
He's struck gold again with this fine revival of the German playwright's slightly earlier drama (originally entitled ‘Love and Intrigue’) which has all the twists and turns of a hungry boa constrictor as the coils of court conspiracy tighten round socially mismatched young lovers Ferdinand and Luise (the court musician's daughter).
Mike Poulton's sharp, jaunty new version (he also collaborated with Grandage on Don Carlos) grips from the start as Paul Higgins' Miller frets about the problems inherent in the burgeoning romance between his pretty, strong-willed daughter (Felicity Jones) and the Chancellor's son. Ben Daniels' Machiavellian Chancellor isn't happy about it either – he plans to cement his own place at court by sacrificing Max Bennett's impetuous Ferdinand to a marriage with the ruling German Prince's English mistress (Alex Kingston). Stirring things up behind the scenes are John Light's devious, creepily malign (and very aptly named) Wurm who wants Luise for himself and David Dawson's camp Hofmarschall.
Unfolding on Peter McKintosh's darkly atmospheric, high-windowed set, Grandage's taut, finely acted production holds the attention from beginning to end. The plot owes something to both Romeo and Juliet and Othello, but Schiller (who was only in his midtwenties when he wrote it) turns his tale of young innocents at the mercy of practiced deceivers into the theatrical equivalent of an un-putdownable pageturner.
Highly recommended
Donmar to 30th July
He's struck gold again with this fine revival of the German playwright's slightly earlier drama (originally entitled ‘Love and Intrigue’) which has all the twists and turns of a hungry boa constrictor as the coils of court conspiracy tighten round socially mismatched young lovers Ferdinand and Luise (the court musician's daughter).
Mike Poulton's sharp, jaunty new version (he also collaborated with Grandage on Don Carlos) grips from the start as Paul Higgins' Miller frets about the problems inherent in the burgeoning romance between his pretty, strong-willed daughter (Felicity Jones) and the Chancellor's son. Ben Daniels' Machiavellian Chancellor isn't happy about it either – he plans to cement his own place at court by sacrificing Max Bennett's impetuous Ferdinand to a marriage with the ruling German Prince's English mistress (Alex Kingston). Stirring things up behind the scenes are John Light's devious, creepily malign (and very aptly named) Wurm who wants Luise for himself and David Dawson's camp Hofmarschall.
Unfolding on Peter McKintosh's darkly atmospheric, high-windowed set, Grandage's taut, finely acted production holds the attention from beginning to end. The plot owes something to both Romeo and Juliet and Othello, but Schiller (who was only in his midtwenties when he wrote it) turns his tale of young innocents at the mercy of practiced deceivers into the theatrical equivalent of an un-putdownable pageturner.
Highly recommended
Donmar to 30th July
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