Don Carlos and Primo Set for West End Transfers in 2005

The West End is getting two more transfers of straight plays this winter. The Sheffield Theatre production of Don Carlos is scheduled to go into the Gielgud Theatre for a 12-week run beginning January 28. The National Theatre production of Primo, currently playing at the Cottesloe Theatre, is moving to the Hampstead for performances from February 23 to March 19.

Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos centers on the title character, who is passionately in love with Elizabeth, the French Princess to whom he was once betrothed. Carlos' tyrannical father, King Philip II of Spain, decides to marry Elizabeth himself. The young prince's hatred for his cold and distant parent knows no bounds. He enlists his oldest friend the Marquis of Posa to act as go-between. But Posa decides to convert Carlos and Elizabeth's youthful passion into a full scale rebellion against King Philip's oppressive and bloody regime. The Sheffield production, which just finished running at the Crucible Theatre, uses a new adaptation by Mike Poulton. The cast includes Richard Coyle as Don Carlos, Derek Jacobi as King Philip II of Spain, Claire Price as Queen Elizabeth and Una Stubbs as the Duchess of Olivarez.

Primo, based on If This Is A Man by Primo Levi, was adapted by and stars Anthony Sher. In it, Sher plays Primo Levi, who survived Auschwitz to bear witness to a story of almost inconceivable brutality. But against the odds, what ultimately emerges in his writing is a sense of humanity, of man's worth. Richard Wilson directs. While the show is running at the Cottesloe through December 1, all performances there are sold out.