The coup has worked. Like a would-be king, Heinrich rules the country. But he is ageing and there is no suitable successor in sight. In the shadows of this stumbling administation, Frau Flott’s container pub business is booming.

Here John, an imposing figure in every sense of the word, and his close friend Harri party all night – an odd couple with a shared taste for sharp-tongued wit and large quantities of beer. When Harri suddenly receives an immoral proposal from the centre of power, it casts a new light not only on the future of the state, but also John’s friendship with Harri.

With linguistic panache and broad comedy the Austrian playwright Ewald Palmetshofer transposes Shakespeare’s history play, a suprising combination of royal drama and comedy, into the present day of eroding democracies. In his rewriting of politics, he drives the comedy out of the play until the autocracy loses its laughter.