So here it is, at last: the greatest drama I've ever read. I have never been so powerfully impacted -- both intellectually a…So here it is, at last: the greatest drama I've ever read. I have never been so powerfully impacted -- both intellectually and emotionally -- by any dramatic work (and quite possibly any other work of literature), either on the page or performed on stage. Indeed, up to this point I had only consumed drama in one of three ways: as an intellectual exercise (Shakespeare, Racine, Goethe, the ancients, the Elizabethans, etc.), as a form of entertainment (Williams, Coward, Hellman, Shepard, Miller, etc.), or as some combination of the two (Beckett, Molière, Ibsen, Chekhov, Hauptmann, etc.) Reading Schiller, and Don Carlos in particular, has changed the way I consume drama. Here is all the passion and fire of life and politics on display, along with the most moving plots and engrossing characters I've ever encountered. Here is theater as dangerous and rebellious political commentary, as force for social change, as resistance to tyranny (in all forms: political, social, romantic, and even personal/inner), and as moral education for any free-thinking person. Besides complex characters who work out faults that are reflected in our own personal struggles, Schiller gives us historical perspectives that speak to the immediacy of his own time -- and of ours. His plots move with the rapidity of cinema, but never at the expense of contemplative moments. He knows when to pause to give us extended scenes that dig deeply into themes of justice and liberty, resonating with both characters within the drama and with his audience. There are lines that are absolutely devastating, having the ring of timelessness and truth that one only encounters in Shakespeare, and which, unlike the Bard, still have an emotional and stirring impact that doesn't feel antiquated (sorry Shakespeare fans):"Poor …