Die Rosenkriege

Autocracies are on the rise around the world; autocrats, those ‘new kings’, are seizing control of state apparatuses, waging war against their own people and other nations to maintain their hold on power. Protesters cry “No Kings!”. Elsewhere, they are violently silenced or, in the face of all-encompassing repression, already fell silent a long time ago.

Shakespeare’s early cycle of history plays, ‘The Wars of the Roses’, which culminates in the death of Richard III, depicts the world stage as a theatre of cruelty. A lust for power, greed for wealth and an insatiable craving for prestige are the driving forces in the rise and fall of kings, violent intrigue, the triumph of deception, disruption, betrayal and war. And just as theatrical convention holds that the might of the king is projected by the actions of those around him, so too on the stage of political reality, it is invariably the supporting players who orchestrate, enable and manage the destructive concentrations of power. Shakespeare’s ‘Wars of the Roses’ play cycle dramatizes the conflicts and escalations of violence which were waged intermittently between 1455 and 1485 between the rival English houses of Lancaster and York – whose respective coats of arms bore a red and a white rose.

Following his production of “Wallenstein”, which was invited to the 2026 Theatertreffen festival in Berlin, the Münchner Kammerspiele’s in-house director Jan-Christoph Gockel is using a large ensemble and puppets to bring another thirty years’ war to the stage. Perhaps if we gaze long enough upon this dark and bleak portrait of the world – one that is, alas, all too topical today – its complementary element of light will shine forth all the more brightly as a space of possibilities.

“This is another grand battle tableau, yet entirely different from “Wallenstein” – more crazy, more opportunistic … sadly, just like our own times.” – Jan-Christoph Gockel