Richard II.

“If not King, how can I be Richard?”
William Shakespeare

Richard II . loses his kingdom and finds his soul. As a powerless subject in the dungeon, deposed by Bolingbroke, he experiences once again all the stages of his bitter downfall. The loss of his kingship forces him to reflect on his own destruction.

In Cornelia Rainer’s production, Richard II is alone with his drama. His conflicts and challenges are primarily internal conflicts. And what is not resolved from within is resolved from without. In the end, Richard does not die physically, as there is no one there to murder him. Instead, he dissolves and disappears into a void that he himself wants to be and become. Cornelia Rainer reads the text not historically, but existentially. This is where she finds the connection to our present time.