The Prince of Homburg

The Observer“It gradually gathers speed to become something awkward but interesting...” Charlie Cox has a guileless charm as the Prince; Siobhan Redmond is fleet and astute; Ian McDiarmid, a mass of tiny tremors of voice and limb, is both maddening and magnetic...

MusicOMH“Jonathan Munby foregrounds the political over the philosophical aspects...” This new prose version by Dennis Kelly of Kleist’s verse drama gives a lucid account of its story and themes but lacks some of the original’s metaphysical poetry, while the changed ending undermines the play’s subtle ambivalence...

The Independent“Not all of it is echt Kleist...” In equipping the play with a radically different conclusion, this distorting adaptation robs the Kleist original of its subtlety, symmetry, and enigmatic equipoise...

The Stage“A witty, free-flowing new version by Dennis Kelly...” 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...

The Telegraph“What we need is more whirling energy and less Teutonic gloom...” The supporting performances suffer from an Identikit unsmiling restraint; even the wonderful Ian McDiarmid, playing the Elector, is restricted to variations on a theme of serpentine calculation...

this is london“It’s all rather uninvolving...” The highly-strung wit of Kleist’s verse is lost in a welter of rhetoric, and Kelly has unnecessarily amended Kleist’s ending...

The Arts Desk“The play lasts a little over two hours, but feels longer...” The language remains prosaic and Jonathan Munby's uncertain direction leaves the actors stranded between dignified seriousness and buffoonish comedy...

Whatsonstage.com“A strange, slippery European milestone...” Charlie Cox is a splendid, straightforward Romantic prince, not the existentialist hero you might have expected, horribly impulsive, even though his articulation tends to be slovenly...

Guardian“A trite lecture on the danger of nationalistic militarism...” The tantalising thing is that when Munby's production sticks close to the original, it is very good. Angela Davies's design, Neil Austin's lighting and Dominic Haslam's music lend the opening sequence a phantasmagoric quality...

Financial Times“Not yet reviewed”