Synopsis Blood of ancient nobility and son of the most powerful statesman in the land, Ferdinand is willing to forsake his fortune for the love of Luise, daughter of a humble musician. But in a world governed by deception and greed, where power is everything, their future happiness and liberty are beyond their control. Schiller's masterpiece of power and politics explores the battle between honour and corruption, between truth and betrayal.
Friedrich Schiller's 1783 play Luise Miller opened at the Donmar Warehouse last night (13 June 2011, previews from 8 June) in a new version by Mike Poulton. The penultimate production directed by Donmar artistic director Michael Grandage will run at the Donmar until 30 July.
Luise Miller tells of the love between Ferdinand, a nobleman's son, and the titular Luise, daughter of a middle-class musician. What begins as a hopeful romance quickly descends into tragedy as the intrigue of the community threatens to destroy their love.
“Schiller's bourgeois tragedy Luise Miller, may not have the grandiloquence and epic sweep of his Don Carlos six years ago (which came from the Sheffield Crucible to the West End), but it's a different kettle of German herring altogether ... In Mike Poulton's sinewy and idiomatic new version... the silences and the dramatic tension provide the music, and the production keeps it all fierce and feral. The acting is especially good in scenes where confrontations... take unexpected turns and swivel the play round in another direction ... Alex Kingston really takes off in the scene where Luise's simple virtue and honesty (burningly transmitted by Felicity Jones) reduce her to a shattered husk who knows about love but not how to experience it ... Bennett and Jones are tremendous as the distant cousins of Romeo and Juliet, and Luise's parents are nicely done by Finty Williams as a bustling, fussing peasant mum and Paul Higgins as her impassioned, selfless father, making the most of his Scottish accent ... Good on Grandage, who supplies the familiar Donmar works with Peter McKintosh's simple grey set of brick walls, high windows and a balustrade, beautifully lit by Paule Constable, with a sound score by Adam Cork that seeps from Haydn quartets into swells and hums of modern musical foreboding.”
“All flashy, bullying aggressive arrogance, Ben Daniels's excellent Chancellor cites God as the fount of a patriarch's absolute power over his male child ... The titular Luise is here portrayed with a pang-inducing freshness and piercing probity by the lovely Felicity Jones. In her honest presence, the face of Lady Milford (an affecting Alex Kingston) sags with shame and then hardens with retaliatory vindictiveness. She's the ruler's mistress whom Ferdinand is being dictated to marry as a way of increasing his father's political influence. Power and reputation are the ubiquitous false gods here that also drive the well-named, scheming Wurm (an authentically creepy performance by John Light) to blackmail Luise to write a falsely incriminating letter and swear, on the Eucharist he has helpfully brought with him, a binding contract to lie. Highly recommended.”
“Michael Grandage, with his revivals of Don Carlos and Mary Stuart, has made Schiller sexy ... But, though the acting and production carry a tremendous visceral charge, they cannot disguise the fact that the 24-year-old Schiller was still learning his craft as a dramatist ... What starts as a study of class conflict ends in contrived disaster, based on a credulity on Ferdinand's part at which even Othello might blush ... Grandage's production, however, is magnificent ... The acting, as always at this address, is richly textured. Felicity Jones as the naively trusting Luise and Paul Higgins as the musician establish an intense daughter-father relationship that explains why the story attracted Verdi. Ben Daniels as the power-driven chancellor, John Light as his Machiavellian secretary and David Dawson as a fluttering chamberlain convey the poisonous politicking of the Catholic court. And Alex Kingston lends the much-abused Lady Milford a moving sense of isolation. Even if Schiller's play finally lapses into melodrama, it is hard to imagine it being better done.”
Libby Purves The Times ★★★★
“It is a penny-dreadful plot, despite the interesting political anger of the first half, and the language in Mike Poulton's fine version is alternately highflown ... It is played with total conviction, and holds its nerve throughout ... Ben Daniels is a grand Chancellor ... John Light gives Wurm a horrid political credibility; David Dawson is a scream as the camp Hofmarschall; and Paul Higgins a touching father to Luise. But it hangs on the women: Felicity Jones is a cleverly subtle Luise, teenage innocence growing into a brave, conflicted, betrayed goodness; Finty Williams is shrill and decent as her mother; and Alex Kingston as the Prince's mistress — splendid but just on the turn into desperate middle age ... If you're bothering to dress the cast in corsets and sword belts, it makes little sense to get them down on all fours writing a letter on the top of a briefcase. The oddity distracts. But it's a great evening.”
“This gutsy version by Mike Poulton breathes fresh life into Schiller's images of precarious liaisons, shadowy desires, backroom skulduggery and the iniquities of class snobbery ... Felicity Jones... is straightforwardly effective, an innocent with a vein of steel running through her ... Ben Daniels projects the right degree of raging savagery as the manipulative Chancellor. Meanwhile John Light impresses as the scheming secretary who sets about trashing Luise's reputation, and David Dawson delights as the foppish gossip with whom she is wrongly alleged to be having an affair. There's also bristlingly vivid work by Alex Kingston as the prince's complex and unexpectedly enlightened mistress ... It's enjoyably full of the pathos and violence associated with the Sturm und Drang movementMichael Grandage... is signing off on a high, and the enthusiasm he has previously shown for Schiller's distinctively operatic writing once again comes across compellingly in this highly accomplished production.”
Michael Grandage’s penultimate production as artistic director of the Donmar, Schiller’s bourgeois tragedy Luise Miller, may not have the grandiloquence and epic sweep of his Don Carlos six years ago (which came from the Sheffield Crucible to the West End), but it’s a different kettle of German herring altogether.
Schiller’s third play is written in prose, as opposed to the sonorous verse of Don Carlos, and centres on the tragic consequences of a social mismatch in the love affair of a musician’s daughter, Luise (Felicity Jones), and his pupil, Ferdinand (Max Bennett), who happens to be the son of the Chancellor (Ben Daniels).
Things start to go wrong when the Chancellor tries to force his son’s marriage to an English courtesan, Lady Milford (Alex Kingston), thereby thwarting young love, consolidating his corrupt power base and easing his political position with the unseen Prince.
It’s the stuff of opera, and indeed Verdi’s musical version soars to another dimension altogether, with beautiful choruses and great duets. But in Mike Poulton’s sinewy and idiomatic new version (from an unaccredited literal translation), the silences and the dramatic tension provide the music, and the production keeps it all fierce and feral.
The acting is especially good in scenes where confrontations – between the Chancellor and his son, or Lady Milford and Luise – take unexpected turns and swivel the play round in another direction. Even without knowing Schiller in German, you know this is great writing.
And Alex Kingston really takes off in the scene where Luise’s simple virtue and honesty – burningly transmitted by Felicity Jones — reduce her to a shattered husk who knows about love but not how to experience it. The plot is propelled, too, by a letter dictated under duress, the swearing of a holy oath, a smashed violin, a sudden duel. And poison in the last act, natch.
Two agents of gossip and destruction are played, respectively, by a smoothly extravagant David Dawson as a one-man gadfly rumour factory at court, and by a viperish John Light as the politicking Wurm who turns, but not enough.
Bennett and Jones are tremendous as the distant cousins of Romeo and Juliet, and Luise’s parents are nicely done by Finty Williams as a bustling, fussing peasant mum and Paul Higgins as her impassioned, selfless father, making the most of his Scottish accent.
The play is Schiller’s most popular in his homeland. But apart from a reading at the Edinburgh Festival in 1998 in a much more florid translation by Robert David MacDonald (titled Passion and Politics, a direct translation of the original title, Kabale und Liebe) this must count, I reckon, as a British premiere.
Good on Grandage, who supplies the familiar Donmar works with Peter McKintosh’s simple grey set of brick walls, high windows and a balustrade, beautifully lit by Paul Constable, with a sound score by Adam Cork that seeps from Haydn quartets into swells and hums of modern musical foreboding.
It could be argued that it was his production of Don Carlos which brought Michael Grandage to the attention of the London theatre audience and, although he didn't direct, Mary Stuart was an early highlight of his reign at the Donmar. Therefore it is fitting that Grandage revisits Schiller as his wildly successful period at this wonderful theatre comes to an end. The first half of Luise Miller is superb as Ben Daniels' Chancellor schemes to break up his son's infatuation with a lowly musician's daughter in order to marry him off to the Prince's mistress to protect his own hold on power. Grandage's taut production is greatly enhanced by Paule Constable's characteristically atmospheric lighting. After the interval some of Schiller's twists and turns become confusing and contradictory leading up to a climax lifted from Romeo and Juliet. As almost always at the Donmar the acting is superb: Felicity Jones is deeply touching as Luise and still looks young enough to be a believable 16-year old; Paul Higgins and Finty Williams are superb as her parents and John Light is creepily convincing as the aptly named Wurm. Luise Miller might not be quite in the same league as some of his later plays but in Grandage's hands it becomes memorable. - David Baxter
29 Jul 11
Brilliant, not one scene was wasted, everything built inexorably and logically to a terribly tragic heartbreaking conclusion. The difference between this and Shakespeare's Othello is that in this political world nearly everybody is like Iago, so heroic innocent Luise Miller is really up against it. This could make the outcome feel such a foregone conclusion that the drama simpers, but it doesn't, and the slow closing of the noose around Luise's loving heart pulls taut with full dramatic force. The actors are uniformly excellent (although for a moment I was distracted from the drama by just how ridiculously goodlooking Max Bennett is), with Felicity Jones a tour de force of (Desdemonan) purity and goodness never giving in to the evil all around her. Max Bennett is the Shakespearean style tragic hero, convincingly passionate and volatile. Ben Daniels, John Light and David Dawson are a compelling trinity of evil, with Daniels somehow gloriously tragic as well as evil, and Dawson hilariously funny as well as evil, with Light simply embodying pure pure evil. Playing the most well-rounded and defined character, Alex Kingston melds grandiosity with fragility together to paint a wonderful portrait of a passionate but troubled courtesan. This production is all-round excellent, and though I generally balk at plays that have a lot of shouting in them, this play seems to earn each and every angry outburst. - Steve
28 Jul 11
There was a time when Schiller’s plays were dull and turgid. Then along came Mike Poulton with adaptations which breathed new life into them. His adaptation of Don Carlos was masterly and now he excels with this cross between Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Romeo & Juliet.
The Chancellor’s son, an army major, is in love with court musician’s daughter Luise, but his father plans to wed him to the Prince’s mistress to provide cover for the Prince and obtain influence for himself. The Chancellor’s private secretary, appropriately named Wurm, wants Luise himself and with the help of Lady Milford and Hofmarschall ( I wasn’t quite sure what his role is) his machiavellian plans unfold, ending tragically with its R&J moment. It’s a cracking story and the dialogue is sharp and often witty; not a word is wasted.
The Donmar space is simply but beautifully designed and lit by Peter McKintosh and Paule Constable respectively and Michael Grandage’s staging is as ever impeccable. I don’t think even the Donmar has ever assemble an ensemble this good. You totally believe in the love and passion of Felicity Jones and Max Bennett as Luise and Ferdinand. Ben Daniels has never been better than here as the Chancellor, whose craze for power unleashes such tragedy and results in his own deep remorse. John Light and David Dawson provide the intrigue in their deliciously smarmy, oleaginous fashion (and in the case of Dawson, very camp) whilst Alex Kingston is every bit the arch manipulator whose only interest is herself – at any cost . I also really liked Paul Higgins devoted passionate father who does much to illustrate the backdrop of the class divide.
This will I’m sure be one of the highlights of the year, and one of the defining productions of Grandage’s reign at the Donmar. Miss at your peril. - Gareth James
29 Jun 11
Glad to see someone has already refuted the "big dud" review. We were riveted to the play throughout and were fascinated by the resonances of the dialogue to the world today with references to the corruption of despots and the desires to pass power down through the family. A great play wonderously acted by all and a set on that tiny stage which once again leaves the playgoer overwhelmed at designer's ingenuity. MLJ - Malcolm Judelson
25 Jun 11
SPECTACULAR! One of the best things I have ever seen, with impeccable performances all round. Can't find anything negative to say about it at all, apart from wishing it would be on for longer so I could go and see it again. Alex Kingston was a magnificent Lady Milford, but was matched by the rest of the cast. Felicity Jones was desperately moving as the tragic heroine who did nothing wrong but was ultimately doomed by her own goodness. MUCH more humour than I had expected, a lovely comic turn from David Dawson, and John Light's Wurm was deliciously malevolent, reminiscent in some ways of Iago. Just fabulous, richly deserves all the excellent reviews it is garnering. - LDE
24 Jun 11
Big dud for the Donmar,(Luise Miller), what a bore and tatty looking. - Faz
Re-opened in 1992. Seats 254. 1999 - Ambassador Theatre Group takes over from the Associated Capital Theatres as the landlord of the Donmar Warehouse. 2002 - Michael Grandage succeeds Sam Mendes as Artistic Director of the Donmar. Nick Frankfort succeeds Caro Newling as Executive Producer.
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