King Lear, directed by Matjaž Berger, was first performed in the cellars of the old Klevevž Castle (on an estate near Škocjan); the Ljubljana premiere will take place at the Equestrian Centre of the Košir Estate in Spodnje Gameljne.

The performance is a synthesis of anthropological, physical and energy theatre of the 21st century, and together with his artistic team, Matjaž Berger builds Lear’s “maze” from the preposterous ritual of “dividing the kingdom” to the smallest point in space, Lear’s no-thing.

In his interview for the Ambient magazine the director said about the performance: “The King Lear (...) is a wish from the past. It is Shakespeare's most demanding play and the one that is the most unpredictable to interpret. I'm fascinated by the aesthetics of Lear's initial problem, the division of the kingdom, the paradox of the forced choice and the aesthetics of the emptied world that immediately follows … The performance set on stage in a mediaeval castle in Klevevž will be radical, physical, cruel, and at the same time intimate. We are in a time that doesn’t know passion, and passion always produces life and death, ‘being and nothingness’. And we’re living in a time quite alien to the word ‘honour’. Lear is also a play about honour and dignity. (…) I’m constantly balancing on the line of the ethic and the sublime.”