Shakespeare’s “King Lear” visits the Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka: a political tragedy about power, family and the collapse of trust
The Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka is hosting, on Monday, 4 May 2026 at 7:30 p.m., the play “King Lear” by William Shakespeare, produced by the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin. This is a guest performance as part of the K-HNK programme, and the title role is played by national principal actor Ljubomir Kerekeš. The production comes to
Rijeka after its Varaždin premiere held on 28 March 2026, with which one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies received a new stage interpretation directed by Ivan Plazibat.
“King Lear” is often viewed as a drama about old age, paternal blindness, family betrayal and a late confrontation with one’s own mistakes. But in this production the political dimension of the text is also strongly emphasized: the ruler’s decision to divide the kingdom among his daughters is not only a private act, but the trigger of a crisis of authority, order and community. At the centre of the story is a man who is convinced that he can retain symbolic power after renouncing real authority, but precisely that delusion opens space for manipulation, ambition and the violent collapse of the system that had until then rested on his authority.
The guest performance of the Varaždin CNT at Zajc
According to the official announcement of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc, the Rijeka guest performance has been announced as a K-HNK guest performance by the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, and the play is performed on Monday, 4 May 2026 at 7:30 p.m. Ticket sales are connected to the Rijeka theatre, and the available information on prices lists a range from 14 to 20 euros, depending on the selected seat category. For visitors coming to the city because of the performance, the location of the theatre in the centre of Rijeka, at the address Verdijeva b.b., is especially important, with the possibility of searching for
accommodation near the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc.
The guest performance is culturally relevant also because it connects two national theatre houses through an exchange programme, whereby productions created in one theatre centre are presented to audiences outside their home environment. In this case, it is a production that has already been described in announcements as a contemporary reading of Shakespeare’s tragedy about power, family and human weakness. Such a framework gives “King Lear” a relevance that goes beyond a classic repertory title: the drama speaks not only about the downfall of one king, but also about how a political order can weaken when public responsibility is replaced by private vanity.
Ljubomir Kerekeš in the title role
The role of Lear went to Ljubomir Kerekeš, one of the most recognizable Croatian actors and a national principal actor of drama. According to HRT’s report from the announcement of the Varaždin premiere, this production was Kerekeš’s jubilee 120th premiere in his career. That fact further emphasizes the demanding nature and weight of the title role, because Lear belongs among the most complex characters of dramatic literature: on stage he moves from a self-confident ruler to a man who loses authority, security, understanding of his own family and ultimately support in a world that is collapsing.
Kerekeš’s Lear is not only a king who misjudges his daughters. He is a figure of authority who does not understand that respect cannot be demanded after the foundation of trust has been undermined. In the initial decision to divide the kingdom according to publicly spoken declarations of love, the fundamental problem of the drama is already visible: truth becomes less important than the performance of loyalty, and political prudence gives way to a theatrical testing of devotion. Because of this, Lear’s fall appears both intimate and public. He is a father who does not hear the sincerity of his youngest daughter, but also a ruler who does not see the consequences of his own act.
Direction by Ivan Plazibat and the creative team
The production is directed by Ivan Plazibat, who had collaborated with the Varaždin theatre before. According to the data of the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin and the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc, the translation is by Antun Šoljan, the set designer is Davor Molnar, the costume designer is Petra Pavičić, the composer is Nevena Glušica, the language adviser is Ines Carović, and the lighting designer is Vesna Kolarec. Stage manager Vedran Dervenkar and prompter Natalija Gligora Gagić also take part in the performance process.
This kind of creative team points to a production that does not rely only on the literary strength of Shakespeare’s text, but also on a stage language that must convey the collapse of the world in which the characters find themselves. “King Lear” is a drama in which space, light, music and the rhythm of scenes have an important function: storm, wasteland, court, prison and battlefield are not merely locations, but states of consciousness and images of a society that has lost its balance. In such a work, scenographic and sound solutions must support the fundamental conflict between the appearance of power and actual powerlessness.
Director Ivan Plazibat, according to HRT’s report from the press conference ahead of the premiere, emphasized that this is a story about political power that corrupts people. This interpretive line clearly builds on the very structure of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The characters do not fall only because they are evil or good, but because their ambitions, fears, weaknesses and capacity for betrayal intensify in proximity to power. That is precisely why “King Lear” does not function as a simple moral division, but as a drama in which human contradictions are seen in the most extreme circumstances.
Ensemble and cast
Alongside Ljubomir Kerekeš, Dea Presečki appears in the production in the double role of Cordelia and the Fool. This casting is particularly interesting because Cordelia and the Fool in Shakespeare’s world carry different but connected forms of truth. Cordelia refuses to speak love as a political performance and is therefore punished, while the Fool, through irony and apparent buffoonery, says what must not be said directly at court. Combining these two functions in one actress can further emphasize the motif of truth, which in the world of power is at once necessary and dangerous.
Hana Hegedušić plays Goneril, Tea Harčević plays Regan, Marinko Leš plays Gloucester, Lovro Rimac plays Edmund, Karlo Mrkša plays Edgar, Sunčana Zelenika Konjević plays Kent, Pavle Matuško plays the Duke of Albany, Robert Španić plays the King of France, a knight from Lear’s retinue, a French soldier and other roles, while Vid Ćosić plays the Duke of Burgundy and Oswald. Such a cast brings together an ensemble that must carry two parallel tragedies: Lear’s family and political downfall and Gloucester’s story of paternal delusion, betrayal and late recognition of the truth.
It is precisely the parallelism of Lear and Gloucester that makes “King Lear” one of the deepest dramas about human judgment. Both fathers misread their own children; both trust the wrong ones and reject those who tell them the truth or remain loyal to them. Through these two lines, Shakespeare shows that collapse does not arise only from open hostility, but also from the inability to distinguish sincerity, flattery, interest and loyalty. That is why the drama is at once political, familial and existential.
A drama about a state collapsing from within
In the original text of the play, and also in the official announcements of the Varaždin and Rijeka performances, it is especially emphasized that “King Lear” is not only a tragedy about old age and betrayal. It is also a study of the collapse of the state. Lear’s decision to divide the kingdom among his daughters is seemingly a personal, almost family decision, but its consequences affect the entire political order. He believes that he can renounce responsibility while keeping privileges; that he can hand over governance and remain an unquestioned authority. In that delusion, a crack opens through which the struggle for power, contempt for weakness and violence enter.
The political force of “King Lear” comes precisely from the fact that the drama does not depict the state as an abstract institution, but as a network of trust, duties and symbolic authority. When that network is broken, formal titles no longer mean much. The king who has lost power remains exposed, and those who have received authority no longer feel an obligation toward the old order. Shakespeare thereby shows how much political stability depends on prudence, but also on the ethical boundary that the characters must themselves respect. When that boundary disappears, authority turns into a struggle without rules.
Because of this, “King Lear” remains, even after more than four centuries, a text that can be read through a contemporary lens. Its relevance is not in a direct mapping onto one political moment, but in the recognition of mechanisms of power: flattery as political currency, family closeness as a means of influence, the public word as a performance of loyalty, and the powerlessness of institutions when they are led by people who do not distinguish responsibility from personal vanity. In that sense, the production in Rijeka brings not only a canonical title, but also theatrical material that encourages reflection on the fragility of every order.
A family tragedy at the centre of a political fracture
Although “King Lear” is often described as a drama about political power, its emotional core remains the relationship between parents and children. Lear does not ask from his daughters only love, but a public confirmation of his own importance. Goneril and Regan understand the rules of the game and offer him the words he wants to hear, while Cordelia refuses to turn love into a rhetorical contest. Her silence is not emptiness, but a form of truth, yet Lear at that moment does not recognize it. From such mistaken judgment arises a tragedy that will spread far beyond the family circle.
That is precisely why the drama also affects audiences who do not seek only a political allegory in it. It speaks about generational silences, unrealistic expectations, the need for recognition and the fear of losing importance. Lear cannot accept old age as a change in his relationship to the world. He wants confirmation that he is still the centre of the family and the state, but he does not understand that love cannot be measured by public speech. His collapse is therefore not only punishment for a wrong political decision, but also a painful confrontation with the fact that authority without closeness remains empty.
The intendant of the Varaždin CNT, Senka Bulić, according to HRT’s report, described “King Lear” as a great intimate and political drama that concerns today’s time. Such a reading is especially important because it puts in the foreground the question of what remains when power, security and love disappear. In that question, the private and public layers of the tragedy meet: a man who had everything is left without support, and a state that rested on his authority enters chaos.
Shakespeare as a mirror of time
The official announcements of the production emphasize that “King Lear” still works today as a mirror of time. This formulation is not merely a promotional phrase, because Shakespeare’s tragedy truly keeps returning to theatres precisely when societies feel the tension between authority, responsibility and the collapse of trust. The drama offers neither simple comfort nor a quick moral resolution. It shows how mistakes at the top can spill over to all levels of the community, but also how personal weaknesses become political facts when they are borne by a person with power.
In European literature, “King Lear” occupies a special place as a text in which the intimate drama of a family turns into a broad image of the collapse of order. Lear’s storm is not only a meteorological scene, but a theatrical image of a world in which there are no longer firm points of orientation. Characters who believed in titles, inheritance, oaths and hierarchy suddenly find themselves in a space in which strength, deception and the bare struggle for survival prevail. That is why “King Lear” is also a drama about language: what is at the beginning spoken as flattery triggers a catastrophe, while truth arrives too late or in forms that power does not want to hear.
The Rijeka performance at the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc therefore has a broader cultural significance than the mere guest appearance of one theatre house. It brings the audience an encounter with a text that at once belongs to the theatrical canon and remains open to new readings. For those coming from outside the city, the available
accommodation offers in Rijeka can be a practical part of planning the visit, but the central reason for coming remains a theatrical event that combines a classic dramatic text, contemporary direction and a strong cast.
A production that seeks a concentrated audience
“King Lear” is not a title that relies on superficial attraction. It is a production that seeks a concentrated audience, ready to follow fractures in relationships, changes of alliances and ever deeper psychological cracks in the characters. In this drama, almost every relationship is questioned: father and daughter, father and son, ruler and subject, old age and youth, truth and advantage, power and powerlessness. That is precisely why it can have a strong effect both on viewers who know Shakespeare’s text well and on those encountering it on stage for the first time.
In the Varaždin production, special weight is also carried by the fact that the title role is played by an actor with great stage experience. Lear is a role that requires not only technical skill, but also the ability to portray a man falling apart before the audience while still not losing complexity. He must be both guilty and vulnerable, both powerful and powerless, both terrifying and deeply human. Therein lies the demanding nature of Shakespeare’s writing: the audience does not observe only the fall of one ruler, but a process in which the stripped-bare man gradually appears behind the political figure.
The production that comes to Rijeka on 4 May 2026 can therefore be read as a theatrical event, but also as an opportunity for a new reflection on one of the most important texts of European dramatic literature. “King Lear” shows that the collapse of order does not always have to be announced by noise, war or open rebellion. Sometimes it begins with a wrong decision, a wrong word, unrecognized sincerity and a moment in which personal vanity takes the place of political responsibility.
Sources:- Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc – official announcement of the Rijeka guest performance of “King Lear”- Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin – official page of the production, creative team, ensemble and premiere information- HRT – report from the announcement of the Varaždin premiere and statements about the production- Novi list – announcement of the guest performance of the Varaždin CNT in Rijeka- HNK Zajc / ticket sales – date, location and ticket price range
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