King John

António Pires once again presents a Shakespeare play on summer nights in the magnificent setting of the Carmo Ruins. Although this is one of the Poet’s least staged plays, King John is arguably one of the best portrayals of the often contradictory dynamics of political decisions, against the background of a dynastic crisis.

King Richard the Lionheart has died and Prince John, his younger brother, becomes the King of England. Chatillon, the ambassador of the King of France Philip II, comes to the Court to demand the abdication of John ‘the Usurper’ in favor of his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, who is the son of Geoffrey of Brittany and John’s older brother. The King of England sends the envoy away with a declaration of war and adjudicates a strange dispute between the Falconbridge brothers. Eleanor of Aquitaine, John’s mother, recognizes in Philip Falconbridge the features and bearing of her son, King Richard the Lionheart, while John, who appreciates his spirit and forthrightness, welcomes him into the family as his brother’s illegitimate child…

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