William Shakespeare/Nuno Cardoso

 

World Premiere

27.01.2027, 19.30

28.01.2027, 19.30

24.02.2027, 19.30

25.02.2027, 19.30

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„No Kings“ has become a vibrant slogan, defying Trumpism and defending democracy, not just in the United States. This transnational European project investigates contemporary forms of power through a dialogue between Shakespeare's iconic Kings and the language of global governance.

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Fragments of King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, or Hamlet intersect with speeches from the World Economic Forum Davos, interviews, economic reports, news, algorithms, advertising slogans, and social media. None of these discourses possesses greater legitimacy than the other. All are part of the samemachinery for constructing reality.

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Developed as an international artistic laboratory, the project connects artists from different European countries to create monologues rooted in their own social and political realities which together are going to make up a full contemporary show at a later stage of the project. Portuguese stage director Nuno Cardoso who recently staged Lobo Antunes’ epic novel Fado Alexandrino at TNL is going to craft a collective reflection on nothing less but the future of democracy in Europe.

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Departing in Santiago de Compostela—a historic place of encounter and exchange—No Kings is not a play about Shakespeare, nor a play about Davos. It is a theatrical investigation into who speaks, who decides, and who inherits the future. At TNL the work-in-progress will be performed by a powerful actress who embodies a European history within herself: Hana Sofia Lopes.

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Direction and Costumes: Nuno Cardoso

Set Design: Fernando Ribeiro

Dramaturgy: Florian Hirsch

 

With: Hana Sofia Lopes

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A coproduction: Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Centro Dramático Galego (Santiago de Compostela), São Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisbon) and others