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Home , Bingo (play), Claire Price, Clare Venables, Gary Yershon, John Woodvine, Josette Simon

May 2000

Brooklyn Academy of Music 2000 Spring Season BAMcinematek Brooklyn Philharmonic 651 ARTS

Saint Clair Cemin, L'lntuition de L'lnstant, 1995

BAM 2000 Spring Season is sponsored by

PHiliP MORR I S ~lAGfBlll COMPANIES INC. ~81\L1 ,nri ng ~A~~On

Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer

presents The Royal Shakespeare Company Don Carlos

Running time: by approximately Translated by Robert David MacDonald 3 hours 15 minutes, BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater including one May 16-20, 2000, at 7:30pm intermission Director Gale Edwards Set design Peter J. Davison Costume design Sue Willmington Lighting design Mark McCullough Music Gary Yershon Fights Malcolm Ranson Sound Charles Horne Music direction Tony Stenson Assistant director Helen Raynor Company voice work Andrew Wade and Lyn Darnley Production manager Patrick Frazer Costume supervisor Jenny Alden Company stage manager Eric Lumsden Deputy stage manager Pip Horobin/Gabrielle Saunders Assistant stage manager Thea Jones American stage manager R. Michael Blanco The play Setting: Spain, the spring of 1568. Act One takes place at the Queen's court in Aranjuez; the remainder of the play is set in the Royal Palace , Madrid. Presented by arrangement with the Royal Shakespeare , Stratford-upon-Avon, . RIC Leadership support is provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. ROYAL SHAKESPEARE BAM Theater is sponsored by Time Warner Inc. and Fleet Bank. COMPANY Additional support provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. Official Airline: British Airways. RSC major support provided by Pfizer Inc. This production was first produced with the assistance of a subsidy from the Arts Council of England.

17 Cast, in order of Domingo, the King's confessor Geoffrey Whitehead appearance Don Carlos, the Crown Prince Rupert Penry-Jones Marquis of Posa , a Knight of Malta Ray Fearon Elizabeth of Valois, the Queen Josette Simon Princess Eboli Marchioness of Mondecar, lady-in-waiting Michele Moran Duchess of Olivarez, chief lady-in-waiting to the Queen Jo Martin Page Joseph England King Ph ilip II of Spa in John Woodvine Duke of Alba Ewen Cummins Count Lerma, commander of the King's Guard David Collings Taxis, officer of the King's Guard Joseph England The Grand Inqu isitor John Rogan

Other parts played by members of the company.

Musicians Guitar Ben Grove Cello Janet Crouch Timpani/pe rcussion Tony McVey Keyboard Tony Stenson

Production Scenery, painting, properties, costumes, wigs, and makeup by RST Acknowledgements Workshops, Stratford-upon-Avon. Steelwork manufactured by Bristol Designs of Stratford-upon-Avon. Metalwork by John We ll s of Binton Hill Forge . Additional costumes by Dennis Bruno and Michael Kennedy. Pens supplied by the Parker Pen Co. Production photographer Jonathan Dockar-Drysdale. For the tour: Scenic construction by Souvenir. Freight by Anglo Pacific International Ltd.

First performance of this production : The Other Place, Stratford-upon­ Avon , June 9, 1999.

Robert David MacDonald's translation of Don Carlos is published by Oberon Books.

The actors in Don Carlos are appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The American stage manager is a member of Actors' Equity Association.

18 Welcome to tonight's performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Two years ago the RSC played its first-ever repertoire season outside the U.K. here at BAM, giving American audiences the opportunity to see several productions from our current repertory, direct from Stratford and and with their original casts. We are delighted to be back here at what we hope will become another of our regular venues around the world. Once again, all the productions you are seeing in this season are presented exactly as they played in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, and with their original casts.

The three productions we have brought to BAM this year represent a cross-section of one of our most successful Stratford seasons ever. Michael Boyd's witty, rude, and passionate A Midsummer Night's Dream has been compared to Peter Brook's legendary 1970 production, while Schiller's rarely performed Don Carlos emerges, in Gale Edwards' fast-paced production, as a gripping political thriller. And it's particularly apt that our third play is by IS. Eliot, an Anglo-American whose work blended the cultures of his adopted Britain and native New England just as it fused poetry and drama. The Family Reunion is an uncannily modern work , as startling now as it was for its first appearance in 1939, and a directorial challenge which I very much enjoyed .

This year's ensemble encompasses a great breadth of acting experience-newcomers like Rupert Penry-Jones and Zoe Waites alongside long-term members like John Woodvine, Josette Simon, and Ray Fearon, who have played several seasons with the company. This blending of youth and experience is what has always given the RSC its particular character and is the heart of a true ensemble, that creative and supportive environment out of which comes our best work.

I hope you enjoy tonight's performance, and that we'll have the pleasure of your company again, whether it's in the U.S. or in our own theaters in Stratford or London.

Adrian Noble Artistic Director

19 Don Carlos, heir to King Philip II of Spain, must conceal his passion for his stepmother, Elizabeth of Valois, who was originally intended to be his bride but was instead married to his father. When his childhood friend Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa , arrives back at court, Carlos confesses his anguish and Posa arranges a brief meeting for him with the Queen. She, however, makes clear the impos­ sibility of the situation and appeals to his sense of honor and patriotism.

The King is alarmed at the brewing discontent in the Spanish Netherlands and plans to send forces to put down the rebellion . He is also concerned at the unstable behavior of his son, who, spies tell him, is ambitious and perhaps a threat.

Inspired by the Queen, Carlos determines to espouse the cause of the Spanish Netherlands, in which Posa is already active. Attempting a reconciliation with his father, he begs to be put in charge of the Netherlands expedition but Philip refuses and instead appoints the ruthless Duke of Alba. Nevertheless, Philip is encouraged by his son's improved behavior.

Carlos receives a summons which he believes to be from the Queen but, arriving at the rendezvous, discovers that it was actually from Princess Eboli , who confesses her love for him. She also admits that she has been propositioned by the King and gives him a letter. Touched by her plight, Carlos expresses affection but she misunderstands his sympathy and realizes only too late that what she had taken for Carlos' attentions to herself were actually directed at the Queen . Rejected , she takes revenge by denouncing Carlos and the Queen to the Duke of Alba and Domingo, the King's confessor. Already suspicious of Carlos, they plot with Eboli to arouse the King's suspicions. Posa warns Carlos of the danger from Princess Eboli , but he refuses to acknowledge the threat.

Philip has learned of the Queen's supposed betrayal through letters and a locket stolen from her chamber: Alba and Domingo play on his fears. In his isolation, Philip casts about for someone he can trust and remembers the Marquis of Posa , whom he knows by reputation. Summoned to the King, Posa dares to speak out passionately of honor, democracy, and freedom . Impressed with his courage and idealism, Philip makes him his confidant and asks him to discover the truth about the rumors abroad in the court.

Posa plans for Carlos to escape to the Netherlands and, from his position in the King's favor, embarks on a daring plan to protect Carlos by deflecting suspicion onto himself. However, Carlos joins in the general distrust of Posa's new position of power. Treacherous letters are discovered as intrigue follows intrigue.

Having obtained a signed arrest warrant from the King, Posa has Carlos arrested and, as the net closes around them, visits him in prison to explain his subterfuge and effect Carlos' escape. As he does so, he is shot by the king's guard. With riots threatening Madrid, Carlos plans to bid farewell to the queen before making his escape to the Netherlands.

Philip, torn between kingship and his feelings for his son, summons the Grand Inquisitor, who reminds him of his duty. The King makes his decision.

20 bI i~tory of tho

The Royal Shakespeare Company, then and now ...

The first permanent theater dedicated to the performance of Shakespeare's plays in Stratford, a Victorian gothic building seating 800 people, opened in 1879 with a week-long summer festival which soon grew into regular spring and summer seasons. In 1925 almost 50 years of excellence were recognized by the granting of a Royal Charter. A year later the old theater was almost completely destroyed by fire but, after a worldwide fund-raising campaign, the present building, designed by Elisabeth Scott, was opened by the then Prince of in 1932.

During the next 30 years, under a succession of visionary and creative artistic directors, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company went from strength to strength, attracting such stars as Donald Wolfit, , , Anthony Quayle, Vivien Leigh, and Laurence Olivier. Tours of Europe, Russia, and the United States, as well as guest appearances by overseas stars, including Paul Robeson and Charles Laughton, helped to establish the company on the international stage.

In 1960, under the directorship of , the company took its most exciting leap forward. A London base was established at the and the repertoire widened to include not only classics other than Shakespeare but also modern plays, which added a new contemporary awareness to the Company's experience of classical discipline and sense of language. The company's studio theaters, The Other Place in Stratford and the Warehouse in London, became home to some of the company's most exciting small-scale and experimental work, with plays by Howard Barker, , , , and Willy Russell flourishing in these small spaces, while in the main theaters productions such as Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Hall/Barton epic The Wars of the Roses became theatrical landmarks. A whole generation of young directors, designers, and actors, including , , Ian McKellen, and came to the fore. The company (renamed the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961) extended its pattern of regional and world tours, and established a reputation for bold experiment and reinvention on which Ha ll's later successors, , , and, cu rrently, , have continued to build.

Like all major companies, the RSC has had to move with the times, not only reflecting changes in dra­ matic presentation but responding to the growing need for commercial sponsorship and, ironically, now having to compete with television and the cinema for the very people whose early talents it fostered­ , , and are just a few of the major stars who enjoyed early suc­ cess with the RSC.

The last two decades have seen major changes. In London, the company moved its base in 1981 from the Aldwych to the Barbican, while the company acquired two new theaters in Stratford-the Jacobean­ style Swan Theatre, built through the generosity of Frederick Koch, and , in 1991, a new Other Place, built on the site of the original. Despite all this, the RSC has retained its essential cha ra cter, functioning as an ensemble of actors whose skills continue to give a distinctive and unmistakable approach to theater. Of course , not everything happens on the stage. Each season's repertoire is supported by a lively program of work by the RSC's Education Department in schools and colleges at home and abroad, helping to form the audiences of tomorrow by introducing young people of all ages to the excitement of Shakespeare in performance.

Although Shakespeare is still very much the company's central focus, the varied repertoire includes European classics, contemporary drama, and plays from Shakespeare's neglected contemporaries, some of which have not been seen for 400 years. Most productions that start life in Stratford can be seen in London in the following winter season, and many go out on tour around the United Kingdom and abroad. In recent years the RSC has taken Shakespeare to enthusiastic audiences in Europe, South America, Australia , India, Japan, and the United States.

No doubt the regular members of the RSC's audience know all this already, but for those of you making your first visit, we hope this description gives you a clearer picture. And to all of you , we hope you'll feel as we do, that the play you are seeing tonight is at once a link in a great tradition and a unique event.

The Royal Shakespeare Company

20A \ALho', \ALho David Collings (Count Lerma) Theater: Includes The , Band of Gold. Film : Clandestine Marriage, Cocktaif Party , SI. Joan, The Cherry Orchard, Romeo Mission Impossible, and 's . and Juliet, , Misalliance, Major Barbara, The Winter's Tale, Nicholas Nickleby, Hamlet, Stanley. Charles Horne (Sound) Theater: With the RSC since RSC: Henry VIII, , The Spanish Tragedy, 1985. Designs include Pentecost , , Murder Volpone, Oroonoko. Film and television includes in the Cathedral, The Beggar's , Elizabeth R, Love Hurts , , A Tale of Two the Great, All's Well That Ends Well, The Blue Angel, Cities, Boon , The Chief, Persuasion , Mahler, A Man Edward II, Richard II, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, for All Seasons, The 39 Steps, Scrooge. The Comedy of Errors , The Cherry Orchard, Camino Real, More Words, , Measure Ewen Cummins (Duke of Alba) Theater: Regional work for Measure, . Previous work with Tyne Wear at Stoke, Worcester, Cambridge, Bristol, , Theatre Co.-Newcastle, Cambridge Arts Theatre, , , and . Work in Pitlochry Festival Theatre , and London Contemporary London includes , The Day the Bronx Died, Dance Theatre. Mother Courage. RSC: Oroonoko , . Television includes A Wing and a Prayer, Cracker, Robert David MacDonald (Translator) is a director of Between the Lines, Land of Dreams, Casualty, Glasgow's Citizen's Theatre Company, for whom he Independent Man, Pirates, The Bill, Making Advances, has written 15 plays, directed 50, and translated 70. Money for Nothing , Mulberry , Crime Monthly , Resnick, His original plays include Camille, Chinchilla, No Alive and Kicking, Land of Dreams, Acting Class, Body Orchids for Miss Blandish, Summit Conference, Contact. Films: What Rats Won't Do , The Captain. Webster, In Quest of Conscience, Persons Unknown. Translations include Brecht's , Peter J. Davison (Set design) Theater: Includes work Schiller's , Mary Stuart, Joan of Arc, at the Almeida: When We Dead Awaken , All for Love, Goethe's Faust Parts 1 and 2, Tasso, Goldoni 's The Rules of the Game, School for Wives , Medea (also Mirandolina , The Housekeeper, and Ibsen's Brand. West End and Broadway) , Hamlet (Hackney Empire and Broadway). Other theater at the Royal National Jo Martin (Duchess of Olivarez) Theater: Work in Theatre, Old Vic, Chichester. RSC: The White Devil. London: Ready or Not, Funny Black Women on the Opera: Work for Wexford, Dublin , Batignano, Hong Edge, Victor and the Ladies, Pecong, Job Rocking, To Kong, Vienna Festival , English Touring Opera, Welsh Kill a Mockingbird, A Temporary Rupture, Beef No National Opera, , Salzburg Chicken, Dog , Majic , Nobody's Back Yard. RSC: Festival , Metropolitan Opera. Dance: Includes work for Oroonoko. Te levision: The Murder of Stephen DV8 , Stuttgart Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet. Lawrence , Blouse and Skirt, The Real McCoy, Chef, Birds of a Feather, The Bill, The Brittas Empire, Gale Edwards (Director) Gale has directed plays in Home and Away. Film: I Love My Mum , For Queen the United Kingdom and Australia , including Whistle and Country, The Godsend , Jolly Boys Last Stand. Down the Wind (Aldwych Theatre, London), Aspects of Love (Prince of Wales Theatre, London), Jesus Mark McCullough (Lighting design) Recent work at the Christ Superstar (Lyceum Theatre, London; and on Metropolitan Opera House, New York City Opera, Broadway) . She directed Coriolanus for the Sydney Whistle Down the Wind (Aldwych Theatre, London), Theatre Company (winner of Sydney Critics' Circle Jesus Christ Superstar (U.K. tour), How I Learned to Award for Best Direction and Best Production-also Drive (off-Broadway, the Mark Taper Forum , Los for The Rover, A Doll's House). Opera and musicals Angeles), The Glass Menagerie (Steppenwolf Theatre include The Magic Flute (Victoria State Opera), Chicago). Other theater credits in the United States Sweeney Todd (South Australian Opera Company) . include productions at Center Stage, Arena Stage, Associate director to Trevor Nunn on Les Miserables in Hartford Stage Company, Dallas Theatre Center. Opera Sydney. RSC: , The White credits include productions at , New York Devil. Film and television: Pride. Assistant to George City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera , Boston Lyric Opera , Miller on Lorenzo's Oil. San Diego Opera , Seattle Opera, and New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. RSC: The White Devil. Joseph England (Page(Taxis-Officer of the King's Guard) Theater: Member of the National Youth Theatre Michele Moran (Marchioness of Mondecar) Theater: 1993-1997, including , Othello, Silverlands (Druid Theatre, Galway) , Daniel's Hands Barnaby Rudge . RSC: Timon of Athens. Television: (City Arts Centre, Dublin), Banshees (Belgrade Persuasion, Poldark. Film: Remains of the Day. Coventry). Work in London: A Little Night Music , The Prince's Play (RNT), The Lament for Arthur Cleary Ray Fearon (Marquis of Posa) Theater: Work in (Brockley), The Killing Floor (Bridewell). RSC: Volpone, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford includes Othello, School Othello. Film: In the Name of Love , Purple Haze. for Scandal, Love's Labour's Lost. Work in London: Ring around the Moon, The Invisible Man, Venice Preserv'd. Rupert Penry-Jones (Don Carlos) Theater: Work in RSC: Murder in the Cathedral, The Merchant of Venice, London at the Almeida , , and Moby Dick, The White Devil, , Hampstead. Also Fortinbras in Hamlet at the Hackney Romeo and Juliet, Othello. Television: Prime Suspect, Empire and on Broadway. RSC: Timon of Athens . 208 \ALho', \ALho Television includes The Student Prince, Jane Eyre , about Nothing, , Peer Gynt, The Custom Kavanagh QC, French and Saunders. Film includes of the Country, The War Plays, Golden Girls (nominated Still Crazy, Jackie, Cold Comfort Farm. Best Actress-Plays and Players Award), The Party, The Merchant of Venice , Love's Labour's Lost, Claire Price (Prin cess Eboli) Theater: Work in Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Glasgow, Southampton. Work in London at Many roles in television and film, including Henry IV Bloomsbury Theatre, New End Theatre (Hampstead), Parts I and II , Kavanagh QC, Silent Witness, Dalziel Th e Wrestling School. RSC: Volpone. Television and Pascoe, Milk and Honey. Winner of several major includes London's Burning, The White Lady, Out of film awards. Radio plays include: Mirandolina, Medea, This World, The Knock. Film: Solo Shuttle. Twelfth Night. Winner of several radio awards.

Malcolm Ranson (Fights) has worked in Norway, Tony Stenson (Music direction) Theater: Work as Japan, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and music director includes , Dick Australia and on two Broadway shows: Les Liaisons Whittington , Singing in the Rain, Cats, Starlight Dangereuses and Cyrano: The Musical. Work in Express. Mr. Stenson was U.K. music advisor for M London includes , The Shaugraun, Butterfly. RSC : A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, Last Days of Don Juan, Dr. Faustus, Troilus and Trelawney of the Wells, Troilus and Cressida, Cressida, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Oklahoma, Candide, Look Back in Anger, Not about Hyde, Henry IV Parts I and II. Music director for: The Nightingales, Private Lives, Les Miserables , The Thebans, Hamlet, A Jovial Crew, The Beggar's Opera, Scarlet Pimpernel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses , East Is , The Taming of the Shrew, East, The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan. RSC: Tamburlaine, The Winter's Tale, The Merchant of includes The Plantagenets ; The Venetian Twins; Two Venice, Love's Labour's Lost, Murder in the Shakespearean Actors; Henry IV Parts I and II ; Cathedral, The Country Wife , lon, A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac (also West End) ; The Lion, The Twelfth Night, The Wives' Excuse , The Broken Heart, Witch and the Wardrobe ; Antony and Cleopatra; A Spring Awakening, , The Relapse, Julius Servant to Two Masters. Television includes By the Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Faust, The Herbal Bed, Sword Divided, Blackadder, Submariners, Casualty, The Learned Ladies, The General from America, The and Howard's Way. Film includes Edward /I, A Feast Spanish Tragedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The of July, Twelfth Night. Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Talk of the City, The Winter's Tale, Volpone, Othello. Helen Raynor (Assistant director) Theater: Assistant director credits include SI. Nicholas, Love and Geoffrey Whitehead (Domingo) Theater: Work in Bristol , Understanding, Wishbones, Mackeral Sky, Caravan, Norwich, Scarborough includes , The The Dramatist, The Garrick Fever, Sir Martin Mar-All, Cocktail Party, Hamlet, Body Language, Wild Honey. The Norman Conquests. As director: Kissing Bingo. Work in London: The Merchant of Venice, Provincial RSC: This season: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Life, The Great Society, Beware of the Dog, The Family Reunion. Opera : As assistant director: /I matri­ Revenger's Comedies. RSC: Henry V, A Midsummer monio segreto, Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera Night's Dream, Othello. Television includes: Z Cars, The North) , Capriccio (Garsington), The Pearl Fishers, Foundation, Upstairs Downstairs, Reilly Ace of Spaces, Rigoletto (English Touring Opera), /I barbiere di The Sweeney, The Fourth Floor, Peter the Great, War Siviglia (). and Remembrance, Alas Smith and Jones, Woman at War, Red Fox, House of Elliot, Between the Lines, John Rogan (The Grand Inquisitor) Theater: Work in Young Indiana Jones, The Brief, Soldier Soldier, Jane Birmingham, Bristol , Oxford , Chichester, Manchester. Eyre, Drop the Dead Donkey. Film: SOS Titanic, The Work in London at the Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Court, Fourth Protocol, That Summer of White Roses. Almeida, Royal National Theatre, Old Vic. Nominated for an Olivier Award for Into the Woods. RSC: Several sea­ Sue Willmington (Costume design) Plays include: The sons with the company, nominated for an Olivier Award Beaux Stratagem, A Midsummer Night's Dream, for Juno and the Paycock, most recently School for Black Comedy, Communicating Doors, The Liar, All Scandal, Volpone. Many roles on television, including for Love, Miss Julie, The Price , Playing the Wife. Porterhouse Blue , The Buddha of Suburbia. Film roles Associate costume designer for Phantom of the Opera include Drowning by Numbers, Caravaggio, Richard /I. (London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne), Aspects of Credits include several BBC radio plays. Love, Follies, Jesus Christ Superstar (London). RSC: Measure for Measure, The White Devil, The Merchant Josette Simon (Queen Elizabeth) Theater: Principally of Venice, Richard /I. Opera includes productions at with the Royal National Theatre and the RSC. RNT the Hong Kong Arts Festival , Bregenz Festival, includes The White Devil, After the Fall. (Winner of Scottish Opera, New Israeli Opera, Opera du Rhin, Best Actress Award-Evening Standard, Plays and Zurich , Welsh National Opera. Players, Critics' Circle, London Theatre Awards; Drama Circle and Olivier Awards Best Actress nomination). John Woodvine (King Philip) Theater: Work in London RSC: Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado includes Dancing at Lughnasa, ,

20C \ALho'e;. \ALho Between East and West , Falstaff in Henry IV Parts I Producer (Casting Executive) Maggie Lunn and II (Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Planning Administrator Carol Malcolmson Performance) , Henry V, Cats , Rocket to the Moon , Development Director Jonathan Pope Hamlet, Close the Coalhouse Door, Poor Horace , The Literary Manager Simon Reade Doctor's Dilemma , Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Head of Press and Public Relations Ian Rowley The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice , Volpone , Ghetto, , An Enemy of the People. RSC: Stratford Theatre Manager and Licensee Nicholas Nickleby , Twelfth Night , Merry Wives of Graham Sawyer Windsor, , , Director of Education Macbeth , Romeo and Juliet , Julius Caesar, The Head of Voice Andrew Wade Hostage , , The General from America , Head of Music and Associate Artist Timon of Athens. Television: Most recent work Stephen Warbeck includes Medics , Runaway Bay, Tell Tale Hearts , A Head of Resources Rachael Whitteridge Pinch of Stuff, Oliver's Travels , Heart Beat, Or. Finlay . Film includes Fatherland, Dragon world, The Trial, Producer Denise Wood Wuthering Heights, Squaring the Circle , Deceptions, An American Werewolf in London. RSC on Tour Director of Touring James Sargant Gary Yershon (Music) Theater: Mr. Yershon has com­ Deputy Director of Touring Caro MacKay posed the music for Art, Arabian Nights, The Touring Production Manager Jasper Gilbert Magistrate , Hysteria, Marathon, and numerous U.K. Tour Manager Charles Evans regional productions. RSC: Music for The Virtuoso , Tours Assistant Emma Smith Artists and Admirers , As You Like It, The Merchant of Press Kate Hunter, Boneau/Bryan-Brown Venice, The Devil Is an Ass , Hamlet, The Unexpected Marketing Andy Cole, Sarah Jervis, Man, The Taming of the Shrew, The Rivals . He has also written many scores for television and radio. He Tracey Lancaster was the musical director on 's film Topsy­ Turvy and singing coach on Strictly Sinatra. For the RSC at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House The Royal Shakespeare Company Head of Scenic Construction Alan Bartlett Stage Technician Andy Hogan Patron, Her Majesty the Queen Props Master Mickey Cove President, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Chief Electrician Geraint Pughe Chairman of the Council , Sir Geoffrey Cass Deputy Chief Electrician Chris Jordan Vice Chairmen, Charles T. Flower, Chief Sound Technician Steff Langley Professor Sta n ley Wells Sound Operator Tim Oliver Wardrobe Mistress Estelle Butler Direction Wigs Mistress Natalie Shepherd Artistic Director Adrian Noble Flyman Roger Haymes Executive Producer Lynda Farran Systems Rigger Peter Fordham Advisory Direction John Barton, David Brierley, Design Engineer William Stoyle Peter Brook, Terry Hands, Trevor Nunn Carpenters Paul Hadland, Brett Weatherhead Emeritus Directors Trevor Nunn, Terry Hands For the RSC at the BAM Harvey Theater Associate Directors Stage Technician Jessica Furse Principal Associate Director Michael Attenborough Props Master Adrian Simpson Michael Boyd Chief Electrician Geraint Pughe Gregory Doran Deputy Chief Electrician Chris Jordan Director of The Other Place Chief Sound Technician Steff Langley Sound Operator Steve Abbott Head of Technical Services Simon Bowler Wardrobe Master Francis Ponisi London Manager Neil Constable Wigs Mistress Sophie Bowerman Company Manager (Stratford) Sonja Dosanjh Company Manager (London) Charles Evans The RSC is incorporated under Royal Charter as Finance Director David Fletcher The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon­ Head of Marketing Kate Horton Avon. Registered Charity Number 212481 Production Controller James Langley

20D Scb i II Ar' c::: SbockAr

The Royal Shakespeare Company When Nazi German theaters mounted Friedrich Schiller's magisterial drama Don Carlos, the fol­ comes to BAM with Gale Edwards' lowing phrases uttered by the freedom-loving production of Friedrich Schiller's Marquis of Posa often drew show-stopping applause in anonymous protest against the Don Carlos, a riveting Oedipal Hitler regime: "Give back dignity to humankind i Your people must again be what they were .... drama of prickly political intrigues. The citizen you lose for his religion/Is your best By Steven R. Cerf man .... An institution / Built upon fear will not survive its founder."

While the play comforted humanists, it retained the power to outrage authoritarians. One religious group was so offended by Don Carlos' picture of the Spanish Inquisition that in 1951 , when Verd i's opera (based on the play) returned to the Metro­ politan Opera after a long absence, 30 pickets appeared before the theater carrying signs: "Mock­ ery of religion"; "Moscow termites invade the Met"; "Planned deficit financing is Anti-American."

New Yorkers will again have the chance to form strong opinions about Schiller's classic when the A scene from Don Carlos Photo by Jonathan Dockar-Drysda/e

22 Royal S.hakespeare Company performs it at BAM Inquisitor himself has been stalking Posa for this May. years. Thi s secret slaying has robbed the Inqui­ sition of the chance to execute a prominent Schiller (1759-1805) had a gift for sustaining heretic in a grand public spectacle: histrionic excitement while discussing grown-up ideas. Consider one famous scene in Don Car­ ... His blood los where two men embody the conflict between should have poured to glorify us all.. church and state. Schiller begins it with a visual This man was ours .... tableau whose jaw-breaking power jolts even The ceremony of his soul's disgrace unsophisticated theatergoers. As King Philip II Was given to us for a divine parade. of Spain sits in his chamber, a door opens upstage to reveal the Grand Inquisitor, a desic­ Well aware that Philip indeed ordered the killing cated wraith of a man, 90 years old and as a preemptive strike to preserve royal power vis­ blind-both literally and symbolically. Led by a-vis the Church, the Inquisitor is obliquely acolytes, he oozes forward, extending a pall of warning the monarch not to try it again. Seldom decay and fanaticism with every advancing has anyone created so chilling a pcrtrait of politi­ step. Now follows an argument of exquisite sub­ cal versus theocratic calculation, and the scene tlety. The Inquisitor excoriates the King for rings true to this day. The Inquisition's "divine having the heretical Posa assassinated-not parade" is still uncomfortable to contemplate because killing is wrong, but because the shortly after the close of a century that knew the

Rupert Penry·Jones as Oon Carlos

24 his first play, the iconoclastic Robbers (1781) to his last complete drama, Wilhelm Tell (1804).

As he planned Don Carlos in 1784, Schiller envi­ sioned a "domestic drama in a royal house." Emperor Charles V is dead; his world-girdling empire is fracturing under the rule of his son King Philip II , who tries to put down a Protestant uprising in Flanders by brutal repression. Philip's own son Don Carlos, expected to live up to his grandfather's name as the prospective Charles VI , quails at the challenge, and now a quasi-Oedipal love for his father's wife has reduced him to paralysis. The court is a hotbed of intrigue: Car­ los correctly assumes that everyone who speaks to him is a spy for the King.

Into these suffocating surroundings, Schiller inserted a spokesman for his own progressive views: the Marquis of Posa , a wildly anachronistic Age-of-Enlightenment idealist from a world ready for the French Revolution. Posa/Schiller confesses:

... This cen tury is far from ripe for my designs. I live Among the citizens that are to come.

Imploring the king-at the risk of his own liberty -to exercise religious tolerance, he pleads in Rousseau-like tones: Don Carlos by Alonso Sanchez Moscow show trials of the 1930s, the McCarthy­ Look all around at nature's mastery­ era HUAC hearings, and the theological executions Founded on freedom. And how rich it grows, in Iran during the Ayatollah Khomeini regime. Feeding on freedom .... Can there be any Holier duty than equality? .. Such wheels-with in-wheels moves and counter­ Make your citizens a million kings .. . moves-always accompanied by eye-catching Grant freedom of thought! dramatic action-occur repeatedly in Don Carlos (1787), Schiller's first verse play and the first Posa is but one of a phalanx of grand-scale work that shows the full scope of his genius. It characters that offer endless cha llenges to the is a drama that boasts the psychological acuity most gifted classical actors. Note, for example, of Hamlet, the political sophistication of War the twists and turns of Princess Eboli , pursuing and Peace, and the theological complexity of ruthless sexual schemes to obtain a throne, yet Saint Joan. willing to destroy her own prospects to preserve her genuine patriotic scruples. This is, of course , the same Schiller whose 1785 "Ode to Joy" would climax Beethoven's Ninth Then , there is Philip himself, politically belea­ Symphony with the credo "Aile Menschen werden guered and mired in family dysfunction. BrOder" ("All people will become brothers"). Free­ Tormented by sexual suspicions, he surrounds dom was his obsessive theme in the theater, from his wife with spies , whom he abuses without

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hesitation. Yet, his expressions of loneliness are unfailing frankness-and capable of enormously so honest that our sympathy is aroused, and we clear insights-Carlos exasperates us but never admire the surprising intellectual detachment he alienates us so far that we cease to root for him. musters when hearing pleas for tolerance that Posa , dying, says: represent a significant threat to his power. His affection for Posa grows almost to idolatry, and Save yourself, when he realizes that he must execute the Mar­ For Flanders' sake. To rule is your vocation, quis , Ph ilip is too shaken to hide his tears. To die for you was mine Schiller himself observed, "If th is tragedy is to move people, it must do so through the situa­ In accepting Posa's charge, Carlos rises to the tion and character of King Philip. " Far more greatness that was always his family heritage--a elusive is the exact mind-set of this complex, greatness, ironically, that spells his doom . With the enigmatic man as he delivers his own son to ultimate arrest of the hero, Schiller produces the the Grand Inquisitor with the drama's last line: rarest kind of shock: the shock of the inevitable. "Cardinal, I have done my part, now do you rs." Steven R. Cert is Sko/field Professor of German Amid such epic figures , Carlos holds his own­ at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. animated, Schiller believed , with "the soul of Hamlet ... and my own pulse." Neurotic, epileptic, The RSC performs Don Carlos at the BAM hopelessly undiplomatic, yet attractive in his Harvey Theater, May 16-20.

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