Two chairs on a stage

At the weekend Chris and I went to the Arts Court for a one-off show. Publicised by the German Embassy and the Goethe Institute, it was entitled Voltaire and Frederick, a life in letters and was a dramatised reading of an exchange of letters by Voltaire and Frederick II (aka "the Great") of Prussia. Frederick knew J.S. Bach as well, and C.P.E. Bach was a musician at his court, but they didn't come into the story. Many of the letters were sent from the palace at Potsdam (Sanssousi), which we visited once.

The two men corresponded for almost 50 years, in sickness and in health, sometimes quarrelling bitterly, till death did them part. We didn't get to hear every single word of their letters, just a selection. The letters were originally written in French and in modern English the translation was bound to include anachronisms, but it made their ideas and emotions immediately recognisable. They sounded equally intelligent. Voltaire in particular had a great sense of humour.

The only props consisted of two spotlit, modern office chairs centre stage which the actors came and sat on. They wore modern clothes and read the letters from ring binders. In fact I think it would have worked better as a radio play, although admittedly the actors' faces were interesting to watch as they read out the angry or the excited letters. Both men led troubled lives, but clung to their correspondence as a sort of consolation, it seems. The performance ended with "Frederick" reading out his eulogy to the philosopher who had died at the age of 83.