Don Carlos - Rough Magic - The Project.
This staging of the Schiller play has a great feel of size and power about it! As you enter the theatre you are met by an actor playing a bouncer, who stops you and only lets you in, in fours and fives. You are then let inside and one of the actors takes you to a seat. A small touch, but a nice one.
The theatre itself is set up with seats on all four sides, with doors set up at each corner. This allows the actors to leave the stage and one side and emerge at another! It gives the play good movement and you're never sure which door will be flung open or who is listening from what side of the stage.

The ensemble cast of 13 characters, some bit parts, but many more important to the script, were in general impressive with Darragh Kelly (as the malevolent voice of Rome) and Fergan McElherron (as Don Carlos' closest advisor) particularly standing out .
The script itself felt slightly convoluted and you did have to pay attention to follow who knew of who's letters and how was on who's side! At three hours, it was slightly long, and there was no comic relief or sub plot to break up the flow. The plot took many twists and turns, with Don Carlos struggling for truth and an idealistic better world against his tyrannical realist father, and also, with his impossible love for his step mother the Queen, who had been his childhood sweet heart.

It is a tough, long night, but quite rewarding
4 / 5

Project