From the Director

There is everything to say about this play and nothing. Its ambiguities, its contradictions, its playful engagement with mortality, all speak for themselves.

I’m fascinated by the kinds of dual perspective in it - we are both inside the King’s head and outside it. We are inside his death, thus watching the world die around us as we die, and simultaneously watching this clown of an ant kick and struggle against this most common experience in the world.

Over a lifetime of working together, Geoffrey and I have sought out the alternative list - Shakespeare and Chekhov of course but also Gogol and Jonson and Beaumarchais and Patrick White - the ones that play with the form, that have the stench of manure coming in through the stage door, noisy, gaudy colours, and a sense of life as a mad dance by a bunch of fabulous marionettes.

In preparing this translation over the last twelve months we’d like to thank Michael Kantor and the actors who helped along the way: Bob Hornery and Catherine McClements and Jacek Koman and Jane Menelaus; and Jane again with Angelica and James and Margaret and Sarah Menelaus for keeping us focused and fed as the summer days slipped by.

Hope it all works!

Neil Armfield