Schiller’s killer Miller

I bumped into a restoration expert last week. ‘What’s new in heritage these days?’ I asked him. ‘Oh, same old, same old,’ he told me.

I bumped into a restoration expert last week. ‘What’s new in heritage these days?’ I asked him. ‘Oh, same old, same old,’ he told me. In similar vein, London has been enjoying a spate of classic revivals on stage. At the Donmar a production of Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) has been barmily retitled Luise Miller. This promotes a minor character to the protagonist’s role. It incorrectly suggests the atmosphere of Romford roundabouts and roaring hen parties. And it echoes the author’s name too so you can’t write ‘Luise Miller by Schiller’ without having to delete and think again.

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Happily, the production, designed with tremendous panache by Peter McKintosh, is a treasure. We’re in a German principality in the 1780s. The chancellor’s dashing son has been ordered to marry the prince’s discarded mistress. Mistress loves dashing son. Dashing son loves low-born wench. Low-born wench is loved by chancellor’s evil deputy. It sounds closer to algebra than to drama but these intricate triangulations are elaborated with perfect lucidity by Schiller’s pacey narrative. His aim here, beyond treating us to a thrill-a-minute melodrama, is to give the corrupt German nobility a hefty wallop on the head. The show is gripping on many levels, as a romance, a satire, a revenge tragedy and a psychological investigation. It’s also hilarious without having a single instance of what we might call ‘a gag’. The humour emerges from the venality and selfishness of the scheming characters. Alex Kingston, buxom and blooming, is magnificent as the prince’s flinty but brilliantly eloquent concubine. There’s a wonderfully camp performance from David Dawson as a feckless popinjay, a sort of junior Osric.