The Queen

An ironically paraphrase of Phaedra’s story. After a play by Sarah Kane.

ABOUT THE PLAY

After decades of political disagreement, controversy and overthrow my play centres on the world’s most famous monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, and the relationship with her son. Therefore, I used a play by Sarah Kane: Phaedra’s love.

Phaedra’s love is Kane’s take on Seneca’s and Euripides tragedies ‘Hippolytus’, which tell the legend of Phaedra, the wife of Theseus. She is cursed by Aphrodite and falls desperately in love with her stepson, the beautiful and chaste youth Hippolytus, with a catastrophic outcome.

I tried to turn the story into a modern, political and subversive version. The play highlights current society’s contempt for tradition and the censure of those who actually behave outside the norm. In my adaptation it is the clash of forces that helps me with the gradual deconstruction and demystification of patterns.

However, their status does not allow them to show weakness. They must give the people the hope for redemption. To make things worse, the queen falls in love with her son and misuses her power. She starts manipulating, loses touch with her duties, and in the meantime, she tries to keep up her appearance.

Credits:

Director
Konstantinos Vasilakopoulos

Author
Sarah Kane

Adaptation
Konstantinos Vasilakopoulos

Scenographer
Geurt Holdijk (House of Architects)

Composer / Sound designer
Manolis Kasimakis

Technical producer
Titus Duitshof

Video designer
Lars Huijgen

Cinematographers
Eva Heinsbroek
Titus Duitshof

Light designer
Jasper Nijholt

Executive producer
Sarah Steeman

Costumes
Konstantinos Vasilakopoulos

Executive cameraman – Teaser
Hans de Jonge

Communication production
Dominique de Moel

Art direction
Carsten Klein

Promotional photos
Diederick Bulstra

Stage fighting
Manolis Kasimakis

Set production
Frits van Driel
Judith van de Pas
Daan Westendorp

On Video
Rick van der Steen, Barry Speekman, Ibrahim Ben Hadi, Richard Husemeier, Zephyr Brüggen

Registration Crew
Matvey Murashko
Sam van Vught
Eva Heinsbroek
Wout Panis

Video editing
Wout Panis
 
Sound editing
Manolis Kasimakis

Year

2021