Anthony Higgins in 1970s

1978

Play of the Month

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Season 13, Episode 6

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Danton's Death

George Büchner died young, but left some dramatic works, the best of which is a romantic tragedy "Danton's Death". Danton and his supporters are within a hair's breadth of death and Robespierre reigns over the minds of the people, and philosophy governs the world, and people become the history itself. Danton as the Minister of Justice, and his secretary Desmoulins were executed after they began to call the nation's attention to clemency for people. The play tells about the last months of their life, about their principles, about their personal tragedies.

The role of Camille Desmoulins in Büchner's play was played by Anthony Higgins twice - first in this television drama, and four years later in the National Theatre's staging. In this first version, Higgins' partners were many eminent colleagues (Ian Richardson, Zoé Wanamaker and some others), so the style of his acting is the same that he had at the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970's, and it means that he is very good in it. His duet with Zoé Wanamaker, who plays Camille's wife, is very romantic, and his duet with Norman Rodway (Danton) is quite professional. The only thing that was not good for this production - it is an abridgement of the text of the play; with that, the play has lost a part of its philosophical content and didn't add any more action in the play anyway.