Christopher Marlowe, Ewald Palmetshofer

Edward II. loves love. But he does not love Isabella, his wife and queen, but rather Gaveston, his favourite and beloved. He overwhelms him with his desire. He gives him his possessions. For him, he humiliates his wife, the aristocracy and the church. Mercilessly. But Edward's blind egocentrism does not remain unpunished. Humiliated, his wife and the nobility yearn for power. They declare war first on love, and then on Edward himself; they throw him from the throne and put his son in his place. The child: Edward III. The king is dead, long live the king. But the new king matures faster than they might have thought.

Ewald Palmetshofer overwrites Marlowe's Edward II. with his own eloquent and powerful language. The result is as poetic-rythmic as it is concise - a sensual exploration of love and hatred, power and responsibility. King Edward's quest for meaning culminates in Palmetshofer’s version in the discovery of love as an absolute. The resulting royal dethronement shakes the fragile court structure, and an evil end inevitably awaits.

GAVESTON

Now you are lying there
In the bed of feathers
In front of me
I look at you
Each piece
And every part of you
Which makes a man and king complete
Beginning to kiss
taste
caress
you