Don Carlos

By Friedrich Schiller
In a new version by Mike Poulton

Project Arts Centre

East Essex Street, Temple Bar
March 12-25 (Previews: March 8, 9, and 10)

Nightly at 7.30pm. Saturday matinees March 17, 24 & 31 at 2.30pm.

Booking: 01 881 9613/4

 

Rough Magic is soon to present the Irish premiere of the gripping thriller Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, in a new version by Michael Poulton, directed by Lynne Parker.

Against a backdrop of corruption and thwarted passion, this high-octane political masterpiece set in 16th-century Spain explodes with spectacular 21st-century resonance. Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos is an electrifying tale of destruction and power charged with up-to-the-minute political parallels.

Courtly intrigue and conspiracy are rife as Don Carlos, heir to the throne, admits his forbidden love for his childhood fiancée Elizabeth of Valois. She is now his stepmother following her political marriage to his father, the tyrannical King Philip. Carlos enlists his oldest friend, the Marquis of Posa, to act as go-between. But Posa decides to convert youthful passion into full-scale rebellion against Philip’s oppressive and bloody regime, with chilling consequences.

‘The instrument God places in my hand is terror.’

The play rips apart the great divide between political idealism and the corruption of state, between institutional repression and freedom of thought. As the plot twists in the terrifying shadow of the Inquisition, sexual tensions spark an inferno of destruction.

 

Don Carlos is a play that speaks to troubled times. It explores the conflict and compromise between the private impulses of individual freedom and the public duties of power.

‘They have contracted the same terrible disease: Humanity.

And Humanity, you know, is very contagious.’

The year 2005 marked the 200th anniversary of the death of Schiller, a major German literary figure who was a lyric poet, playwright, idealist, essayist, historian and revolutionary rolled into one.

 

Mike Poulton’s sharp, modern version captures all of the intensity of the original. His adaptation heralded a critically-acclaimed Schiller revival in the West End in 2005.  Don Carlos transferred from the Sheffield Crucible to the Gielgud Theatre in London and became the award-winning sensation of that year. Another of Schiller’s most celebrated works, Mary Stuart, dazzled audiences in London’s Donmar Warehouse theatre and recently transferred to Los Angeles.

 

Cast (in Alphabetical order):

Full cast list to be announced.

Creative and Production Team

Director: Lynne Parker

Set Designer: Paul O'Mahony

Costume Designer: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh

Lighting Designer: Sinead Wallace

Composer: Denis Clohessy
Production Manager: Marie Breen
Stage Director: Anne Brodie
Stage Manager: Paula Donaghue

Photographer: Patrick Redmond

Publicist: Kathy Scott
Administrator: Claire O'Neill
Producer: Maura O'Keefe

“A new Rough Magic production is always awaited with salivatory expectation” Irish Times

“With the confidence and skill of a master craftsman, Rough Magic is producing sharp, brave work that is finding a hungry and appreciative audience” The Village