LUISE MILLER Donmar Theatre

Michael Grandage, who has had a big success with Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart and Don Carlos, now directs Luise Miller, which Schiller wrote in 1784 when he was only 24 and which is probably better known as Love and Intrigue. The adaptation is by Mike Poulton. The action is set in a corrupt German court where hypocrisy, gossip, abuse of power, seduction and lies are the norm. The Chancellor (Ben Daniels), wanting to consolidate his power, is determined that his son, Ferdinand, shall marry the Prince’s mistress (Alex Kingston, a latter day fury). But the young man is head over heels in love with Luise Miller, the 16-year-old daughter of a bourgeois musician. The Chancellor determines to shatter Ferdinand’s infatuation and enlists Wurm (John Light), his secretary, who is not bothered by a conscience and who is also in love with Luise. Wurm persuades her to write a sexually incriminating letter to a courtier in order to save her father (Paul Higgins) from being executed. He then gets her to swear an oath that she will never admit to having written the letter under duress. However, it is difficult to believe, given her fearless, intelligent character, that Luise would ever have agreed to do anything of the sort. It is also hard to accept that Ferdinand, however impetuous his nature, would instantly be persuaded she had had sex with a notoriously gay courtier (David Dawson). The story-line, nevertheless, is always totally gripping. Grandage’s production, characteristically fluid and urgent, is simply yet elegantly deigned by Peter McKintosh, beautifully lit by Paule Constable, and the casting is impeccable.