Der König stirbt

The king is dying. In fact, his death is long overdue. The state is ruined, the economy is in tatters, foreign relations are in disarray—it is time to abdicate and leave the helm to others. But the more urgently the queens and the remaining court try to bring the ruler closer to reality, the more determinedly he refuses to accept the inevitable. He clings to his role, his importance, his language, while his world crumbles piece by piece.

In Jessica Weisskirchen's production, the absurd play about transience, power, and loss of control from Ionesco's masterpiece of absurd theater becomes a bitterly comical assessment of our present. For while we like to talk about the end of old power figures, they prove to be astonishingly alive in real politics. Authoritarian figures and the power fantasies of an old order are regaining influence worldwide. Those declared dead live longer—and some seem more immortal than ever.

The king thus becomes a figure of our time: a ruler who watches himself fall and yet refuses to step down. An evening about power fantasies, repression, and the fear of losing significance – and about all the kings of our time who simply refuse to go.