König Lear

In the organizer's words:

A tragedy by William Shakespeare
in the translation and adaptation by Thomas Melle

"Which of you loves me best?" King Lear asks his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, in order to divide his kingdom fairly between them according to their vows of love. But he miscalculates: his favorite daughter Cordelia, of all people, rejects the love contest and demands honesty instead. Lear - beside himself with rage - banishes her and divides his land between the other two daughters. Condition: He and his entourage are to be fed and housed by one of them in turn every month. But Goneril and Regan quickly tire of this demand, want to get rid of him and oust him at the first opportunity. The once great king, reduced entirely to naked human existence, increasingly falls into madness, abandoned by everyone - except his court jester. News arrives from France that the exiled Cordelia has raised an army to rescue him and fight against his own sisters. An unprecedented spiral of violence is set in motion. At the end, everyone is dead. Almost.

What does it look like today when a ruler steps down and hands over his land or property to the next generation? Does this change power structures? Thomas Melle's adaptation remains close to the plot of the original, but shifts important accents towards a contemporary generational conflict and also catapults the play linguistically into the present day, into a world in upheaval. In this world, hostile camps fight with the help of "alternative truths", no one discusses with each other, instead everyone wrestles hatefully for sovereignty of interpretation. But what holds the global community together if it is no longer supported by a shared truth?

Directed by Lars-Ole Walburg, known in Kassel as the director of Singletreff (UA), Auf Wache (UA) and Der Funke Leben (UA), Shakespeare's cruel tragedy develops into a dark symbol of our modern society, in which different world views and realities are irreconcilably opposed to each other without any willingness to communicate - and greed for power remains the only constant.

In cooperation with the Department of English and American Literature at the University of Kassel.