Don Carlos, Deutsches Theater, Berlin - review

This may well be the least "directorial" production I have ever seen on a German stage. The kind of Regietheater for which the country has a deserved reputation is entirely absent, unless you count piddling minor decisions such as putting the entire deserted-office set on a permanent but extremely slow revolve, or the cross-gender casting of one role in order to address the lack of women in the cast. Director Stephan Kimmig's cautious approach may be due simply to the fact that Schiller's work is one of the landmarks of German drama.

It has to be said, though, that during the 1783-87 course of the play's composition, he did change his mind as to what it's actually about. It began as a complex family drama in which Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, continues to be in love with his former betrothed Elisabeth of Valois even after his father, Philip II of Spain, takes her as his own queen and Carlos's stepmother.

However, once Carlos's best friend and confidant the Marquis of Posa arrives, the various romantic intrigues become mixed up with and gradually subordinate to Posa's main preoccupation, the struggle of the Dutch for freedom from Spanish rule. Carlos's yearnings may have been romantic with a small "r", but Schiller found himself more engaged by the capital-R cause of a nation's freedom.

This shows not just in the general narrative tack of the play, but in the brute amount of stage time given to the two young men. At curtain calls on the opening night, audience response was audibly warmer for Andreas Dohler as Posa; Alexander Khuon's performance as Carlos is not radically less organic or naturalistic, it's simply that Dohler has more minutes onstage and more stirring moments. Ulrich Matthes as King Philip is also a pensive man, quite sincere when he says, "I do not want to be a tyrant," yet finding himself in the tug of an irresistible current. But three and three-quarter hours of sober consideration all round can prove excessive, and leave you secretly wishing for a gratuitous alpaca onstage (it's been known to happen at the Deutsches Theater) or something of the kind. Just a little one.

deutschestheater.de

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