Don Carlos (Steve Kidd) threatens his tyrannical father, King Philip II of Spain (Richard Donelly).

Peter Goldberg

The writing is impressive and the acting solid, but Don Carlos, the latest offering from Pawtucket’s Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, is a little stodgy.

This is an old-fashioned play, written in the style of Shakespeare. It has moments of intrigue, as young Don Carlos, a Spanish prince, challenges the rule of his tyrannical father, King Philip II. And the ever-changing scenes are short and snappy.

But the second act is pretty tedious. There is something about this play that’s just a little hard to penetrate.

Don Carlos, which is hardly ever staged, was written by 18th-century German philosopher Friedrich Schiller, author of the Ode to Joy that is used in the finale of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. The original text takes about six hours to perform, but Tony Estrella, the Gamm’s artistic director and the director of this production, has completely rewritten the play — in blank verse — and pared it down to just shy of three hours.

Estrella has come up with a poetic adaptation that has the ring of Shakespeare, but it felt like there was room for more trimming, the way things dragged on at times.

When we first meet Don Carlos, played by a brooding Steve Kidd, he is home from school and pining away for his one-time fiancée, who has for political reasons wed his father, the king. Philip, played by an intense Richard Donelly, is a brute who has no use for Don Carlos when the young prince offers to use his goodwill to quell a rebellion in the Spanish Netherlands. Philip calls him a political child and wants his ruthless lieutenant, the Duke of Alba, to take care of the rebels.

One doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, says the king.

Enter Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa, a childhood friend of Don Carlos’. He’s an idealist, who espouses democratic rule, an offspring of Schiller’s notion of the Enlightenment. And he is willing to sacrifice himself to help Don Carlos’ cause.

But there were times when the action wore thin, when it was a little hard to get behind what was going on on stage — until the arrival of Sam Babbitt’s Grand Inquisitor in the final moments of the play. Not to give away any scenic surprises, but a terrific Babbitt — playing a 90-something blind cardinal — makes a dramatic entrance and shows he is the real power behind the throne. Any hopes of an upbeat ending are dashed.

Despite its rather labored delivery, the acting in this production is fine. Richard Donelly, who spends a lot of time on stage, is perhaps the strongest presence in the production, giving a powerful performance as Philip, who becomes more and more paranoid as the play wears on.

Donelly starts out as an unflinching tyrant, begins to doubt his powers. At the end he confesses to the Inquisitor that he is in over his head. It’s a nicely shaded performance.

Another standout showing came from Alexander Platt as the altruistic Marquis of Posa, a man willing to die for his beliefs. Platt, who is making his Gamm debut, made a wonderfully romantic figure, a nice foil to Donelly’s ruthless ruler.

But Amanda Ruggiero, a recent URI theater graduate, was a little off the wall as Princess Eboli, Philip’s mistress. She tended to shriek her lines, to overplay the part of the distraught lover.

Georgia Cohen was more demure as Philip’s queen, the former lover of Don Carlos. But she spoke in a shifting accent that was sometimes French, as it should have been, and sometimes sounding like an Irish brogue. Whatever it was, it made it hard to make out lines.

The other central figure in this drama, of course, was Gamm stalwart Steve Kidd, who gave us a complicated troubled Don Carlos, an impetuous man who was hard to second guess. He stood out along with Donelly and Platt.

Christopher Francis Byrnes played the bumbling priest Domingo, adding something of the buffoon to the part.

David T. Howard outdid himself when it came to the stylish costumes, and Sara Ossana’s set, an ancient palace with flickering lanterns and aged frescos, was wonderfully atmospheric.

Don Carlos runs through Oct. 5 at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket. Tickets are $24-$39. Call (401) 723-4266.

cgray@projo.com