The life of Edward II of England

Based on Christopher Marlowe's classic play, The Life of Edward II of England dramatizes the life of the king who was deposed and eventually murdered by his wife and her lover. Edward's treatment of his favourite courtier, Gaveston, causes discontent among the English nobles, and provokes the Queen's jealousy. She and her lover, Mortimer, raise an army, intending to put her son on the throne. Although Brecht used Marlowe's play as a source, he envisioned Edward II as a challenge to German Shakespearean traditions, which he considered stodgy and middle-class. It premiered in Munich in 1924.