The European Shakespeare Festivals Network 2027 Project Proposal

King Lear and the Fool is an approximately 80-minute, two-actor reinterpretation inspired by
William Shakespeare’s King Lear. In the form in which it has been performed since 2026, the
production revisits Shakespeare’s text through contemporary questions of power, justice, and
governance.
The story begins after Lear has handed his kingdom over to his daughters. He is no longer a king;
he has lost his palace, his power, and everything he once possessed. In the middle of a storm, the
only person who remains with him is his Fool. While Lear places the blame for his downfall on his
daughters’ ingratitude, the Fool constantly forces him to confront reality.
The relationship between these two characters forms the central conflict of the play:
What is power? How does it change hands? And will its transfer continue to be written in
blood?
What begins as a confrontation between Lear and the Fool over the transfer of power, merit, the
desire for power, justice, the people, democracy, and the dissolution of society gradually develops
into a broader political and social questioning. Throughout the play, the Fool repeatedly steps out of
the world of the play and addresses the audience as himself. By the end, he warns that what has
happened is not merely Lear’s story; if we continue to postpone confronting these questions, it may
become the story of all of us.
At the centre of the production’s visual world is a large curtain. A full moon projected onto the
curtain gradually rises throughout the performance. At times, the curtain becomes a space behind
which the characters can hide; at other moments, it transforms into a Karagöz shadow-theatre
screen, onto which the actors’ shadows are projected. In the acting, the relationship between
Karagöz and Hacivat, the two essential figures of the Karagöz tradition, creates a parallel with the
relationship between Lear and the Fool. In this way, the production establishes a direct dialogue
between Shakespeare’s classical text and Karagöz, one of Anatolia’s powerful traditions of
political and social storytelling.
For us, this approach is more than an aesthetic choice. We see Shakespeare and Karagöz as two
theatrical traditions that emerged from different cultural contexts, yet share a strong impulse to
question power, society, and human behaviour. By bringing these two traditions together, the
production explores what they can reveal about each other — and about the world we live in today.
King Lear and the Fool is part of Öteki Tiyatro’s long-term artistic research into Shakespeare.
We have previously developed works such as Hamlet forever, Aman Şekspir Duymasın!, and
Venedikli Tacir, a Karagöz adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Through these
projects, we approach Shakespeare not simply as a body of classical texts, but as a living source that
can be revisited and reinterpreted through the theatrical languages of different cultures.
With its two-actor structure, minimal stage design, and easy portability, King Lear and the Fool
can be presented in different countries and under different performance conditions. Through ESFN
ShakeSphere, we aim to bring the production to audiences across Europe and open Shakespeare’s
questions about power, justice, and human nature to new discussions within different cultural
contexts.