Don Carlos

Synopsis

Don Carlos is passionately in love with Elizabeth, the French Princess to whom he was once betrothed. Carlos' tyrannical father, King Philip II of Spain, decides to marry Elizabeth himself. The young prince's hatred for his cold and distant parent knows no bounds. He enlists his oldest friend, Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa to act as go-between. But Posa decides to convert Carlos and Elizabeth's youthful passion into a full scale rebellion against King Philip's oppressive and bloody regime.

Our Review:

4 February 2005

Following 2004’s Suddenly Last Summer and 2003’s The Tempest, another Sheffield Theatres production – directed by Michael Grandage and designed by Christopher Oram – arrives in London wreathed in superlatives. And to those, I must add another. For, in my mind, Don Carlos is the best of this very fine bunch.

German playwright Friedrich Schiller described his 1787 drama (which has been newly translated here by Mike Poulton) as a “family portrait in a royal household”. At its heart is a tormented father-son relationship, but one in which the private clashes have far-reaching public consequences across the court, country and continent. Derek Jacobi (who last appeared on stage as Prospero in Grandage’s Tempest) plays the tyrannical King Philip II of Spain while Richard Coyle (making his classical debut after impressive turns in The York Realist, Proof and Grandage’s Donmar production of <...

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Latest User Review

12.107.15.2) - 18 April 2005:

Derek Jacobi gives a five-star performance in this fascinating (if somewhat cruel and depressing) play. Flaws in a few supporting roles keep the production from rising completely to his level. One word of caution: If you are sensitive to incense, take your seat at the last possible moment. Due to a theatrical conceit before the play begins, the auditorium is choked with smoke....

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