Luther

Synopsis

Concerns Martin Luther, whose personal struggle with God led, inevitably, to a battle with the Church that set in motion the Protestant Reformation. This private and public epic unfolds through a series of portraits of 16th-century Europe, showing the Catholic Church in all its wisdom, corruption and glory failing to embrace one of its most astonishing sons.

Our Review:

8 October 2001

It takes some nerve on director Peter Gill's part to place his leading man (Rufus Sewell) with his back to the audience for the opening five minutes. Only Sewell's tonsured wig is visible initially, but he grows forcefully into the part of 16th century radical Martin Luther.

John Osborne's 1961 drama is a marathon three-hour piece, and only the National's resources could have assembled a cast of this quality to do it justice. Alison Chitty's marbled, monastic sets echo with ascetism, whilst live music and deeply resonant ensemble singing lend the evening a meditative temper.

The thrust of Luther's stance decreed that faith could endure irrespective of religious orthodoxy, and that peddling guilt for profit corrupted the churches themselves. Such an attitude would doubtless have found favour with the anarchic Osborne, but by and large he leaves the script free of unrestrained angst.

Sewell lives and breathes the role for every second. Whether scrubbing floors with ...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 14 November 2001:

Gareth Thompson's Review made very good reading but he clearly attended a different night. The audience was utterly silent most of the time, no coughs no noise, no standing ovation, nothing. Rufus Sewell's voice had well and truly gone and he might be advised to go and see Sher in Mahler's conversion. The music, singing and production were faultless, shame about the play. Timothy West alone, however, is worth a visit to this marathon play....

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