The Stage

The Prince of Homburg

Published Thursday 29 July 2010 at 14:09 by John Thaxter

A courageous but headstrong German officer, Prince Friedrich disobeys orders, leading his cavalry into a victorious onslaught against the invading Swedes.

But a court-martial finds his indiscipline a punishable offence and the Elector of Brandenburg puts his signature to a sentence of death by firing squad.

Von Kleist’s verse drama, written in 1810, a year before his suicide, nicely balances the romantic impulse on the one side - with its opening in a dreamy moonlit garden - against the tyranny of military command on the other, all of which here comes to life in a witty, free-flowing new version by Dennis Kelly.

Chief beneficiary is Ian McDiarmid as the uptight Elector who, while demanding order and certainty, deftly subverts his lines with amused irony.

Only the execution scene finally undermines his total command of the stage when his fascist cries of ‘Hail!’ fall on the deaf ears of a resentful army.

Jonathan Munby’s atmospheric staging, with army commanders squinting at the battle through tiny telescopes, sets the action in Napoleonic times.

This well suits the three dashing younger leads, with Charlie Cox especially effective as a likeable young prince torn between mortal terror, heroic dreams of royal courtship and buoyant confidence in his survival.

Best buddy is Harry Hadden-Paton’s Hohenzollern who cheekily lays all the blame on the Elector in an attempt to undermine the findings of the court, while upcoming stage star Sonya Cassidy is the passionate love interest, a feminine distraction from military duty that finally costs the prince his life.

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