With a mixture of hope and melancholy, young Victor leaves the home of his foster mother to begin his working life. His journey takes him to a remote island, where he visits his only relative - an uncle he has never met. The old man, a lifelong bachelor, lives in a barricaded mansion, enveloped by an atmosphere of decay. The two men are immediately at odds. With his uncle hardly speaking to him, Victor finds himself a virtual prisoner on this mysterious island. As the frost between the men slowly begins to thaw, Victor realises he must confront his own past to regain control of his life.

"Tell me, please - is this a dream?' The night before he leads his troops into battle, the prince of Homburg strips off his uniform and goes sleepwalking. Moonstruck, his mind races with a young man's fantasies - love, ambition and victory. But when the morning comes, a single reckless act of disobediance sets in motion a chain of events that leads inexorable to the one thing he never dreamt would happen; his own death. Heinrich von Kleist is one of the most enigmatic figures in theatre history. Driven to suicide at the age of 34, he left behind him seven extraordinary plays. Unperformed during his own lifetime, The Prince of Homburg is now regarded as von Kleist's masterpiece and is one of the most mysterious and beautiful plays of the nineteenth century. Neil Bartlett's production opened at the RSC Stratford in January 2002, and transferred to the Lyric Theatre."