Chris Nietvelt

In Roman tragedies, Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld have created a unique arena in which Shakespeare speaks about our time more than ever and the political game in all its facets.

Small-town criminal Jos (55) has, to his great frustration, been completely sidelined. His daughter disrespects him, his wife doesn't trust him, and his friends laugh at him openly. As he scrambles to fix a drug deal that went catastrophically wrong, he desperately searches for an answer to the question: Who or what is punishing me!?

Tumultuous events triggered by the death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner who ends up leaving his Indian Ocean island estate to his young illegitimate son - the child of his Indonesian housemaid.

Nicky lives life at breakneck speed: as an actress and model, she's accustomed to the spotlight and the appearance of perfection. After her latest film flops, she gets one last chance to return to the fashion world where she once started. Just as she's about to make her big comeback, she's faced with an unexpected pregnancy, something she thought impossible. A future she never wanted for herself, or even considered.

In Kings of War, director Ivo van Hove focuses on political leadership. The original texts were retranslated by Rob Klinkenberg and then thoroughly adapted: the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Rose Wars between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, which are emphatically present as a historical context in the original pieces, were referred to the background in the adaptation in order to accommodate a varied portrait of successive kings. As leaders in times of political instability and war, they show remarkable affinities with world leaders today.