Au lever du rideau, le garde annonce solennellement la cour, le roi Bérenger Ier entre dans la salle du trône suivi des deux reines, Marguerite et Marie, de Juliette et du Médecin. Le froid s’est installé, le chauffage ne fonctionne pas, et les murs du palais se lézardent. La reine Marie qui pleure devant cette dégradation se fait réprimander par la reine Marguerite pour sa frivolité. Il est convenu que le roi doit être informé de cet état et que la fin de son règne est proche, mais la reine Marie refuse de croire à l’irréversibilité des choses. La reine Marguerite insiste : le sol est mou, il n’y a pas d’armée dans le royaume, le roi est malade. C’est assuré par le médecin qui rapporte que les astres sont formels, c’est la fin.

It's a good thing I had seen this play before I read it, or I would have believed it was unperformable. The stage directions call for things that would challenge most theatres, but in the end, apparently it can be done. This is the story of a king on his death bed who will not accept he is dying. His kingdom is falling apart, possibly because of his illness. Reading it, I was able to see things in it that I missed when watching it. Like, this feels very much like a Death of God play. The images, the lists of achievements of the king, leave very little doubt that either the people attending him in his last hours are building him up, or he was truly a powerful king. At first it feels like the first, but as I continued to read, it began to sound like the last. A truly absurd entry in the canon of one of the all time great absurdists. ( )

I thought it was a little heavy-handed on the obvious symbolism at times, but nonetheless a really attractive and intriguing play. ( )

This a superb meditation on the reality of death seen through the eyes of the King, who stands for the ego. His two wives, the Guard, the Maid and finally the doctor are all aspects of the King's own psyche. Each 'character' guides the King through part of the journey into death.

The conclusion is crushing: when the Kng dies, the Universe ceases to exist. And yet, this pessimism is undercut by the King's own childishness. A bigger picture is implied, but never described.

This is a play which draws the viewer in. It uses wit and words to make beauty in a sombre and dark world. ( )