Ewald Palmetshofer

Falstaff is the uncrowned king of the pubs. His tongue is a sword, his beer belly a tank. Not good company for the country's young elite - especially for the heir to the throne, the son of King Henry IV. With the eloquent, sharp-tongued, drunken, sluggish lazybones and braggart Falstaff, Shakespeare has created a character who unites everything that contradicts the prevailing order, the cold calculation and warmongering exploitation of bodies. The meat mountain is disturbing! And so it seems only logical that even Shakespeare himself announces the contrary Falstaff, popular with the audience, at the end of "King Henry IV" in a promotionally effective way for his follow-up play "King Henry V", but wipes him away in the sequel as a mere footnote to the story. The dirty man has no mission in the realm of success.
In his new play, the multi-award-winning playwright Ewald Palmetshofer brings together characters and motifs from Shakespeare's historical dramas about the usurper King Henry IV, his son, the later King Henry V, and the anti-hero Falstaff, and tells of love, humiliation and betrayal - the rise of one and the fall of the other - in a highly musical language score. (Residenztheater Munich)

"Falstaff is excess. He is the overflowing too-much-of-everything, surplus that does not yield a profit. As long as it's fun, you can afford such a Falstaff. The gentlemen like to lower themselves to him. What a laugh we had. But - please understand - after your own ascent, this heavyweight has become an unacceptable ballast. Has anyone spoken of equality? A misunderstanding. Sorry, dear!" (Ewald Palmetshofer)