The performance, viewed through the lens of legitimacy of power and political theology, is based on Shakespeare’s octalogy of royal chronicles, which unfolds the brutal period of English history—from the great medieval crisis and the Hundred Years’ War with France to its climax in the civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. This war ends with the defeat of Richard III and the rise of the Tudor dynasty, ultimately leading to the Elizabethan era.

The medieval material and spiritual crisis is reflected in the psychopathology of five rulers: Richard II suffers from delusions of grandeur, Henry IV from paranoia, Henry V from nationalist fanaticism, Henry VI from catatonia, and Richard III embodies genocidal ruthlessness. As absolute rulers, they are all inevitably marked by the loss of humanity. Their psychological trajectory follows two paths: those who lose power gradually recognize their humanity, while those who gain power increasingly replace it with the cold mechanics of governance—searching in shattered mirrors for their lost reflection.

Shakespeare’s chronicles thus function as a series of power transfers, where the “great feudal mechanism of history” (J. Kott) questions how relevant Shakespeare’s psychological models of rulers remain today. How many contemporary political practices already echo the stifling courts of the bloodthirsty Richards and Henrys?

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• Presale price: €15, €12, €10
• Regular price: €20, €18, €15

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