Demetrius: A Play

About

Schiller's final dramatic work, left incomplete at his death in 1805 — only a substantial fragment survives. Demetrius dramatizes the story of the False Dmitry, the pretender who briefly seized the Russian throne claiming to be the murdered son of Ivan the Terrible. The fragment shows Schiller at the height of his dramatic powers, combining the political complexity of Wallenstein with the personal intensity of Mary Stuart. Various completions have been attempted; the fragment as it stands is powerful and melancholy as the final creative act of one of drama's great figures.