Audiences at the newly rebranded Wilde Stages Festival Dublin (formerly the International Gay Theatre Festival) are in for a very special treat this May.  South Africa’s multi-award-winning theatre company Abrahamse & Meyer Productions, will be presenting their striking queer reimagining of William Shakespeare’s Richard II and Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, bringing two of theatre’s most complex monarchs into an intimate and emotionally charged encounter.

II brings together Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II in a dark, intimate theatrical encounter where questions of power, identity, and forbidden desire take centre stage.

Performed by two actors—Marcel Meyer as Edward II and Matthew Baldwin as Richard II—the production strips the plays to their emotional core, creating a visceral, contemporary dialogue between the two kings.  Blending heightened text with physical intensity, the work reclaims the classical canon through a distinctly queer lens—offering Dublin audiences a theatrical experience that is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally immediate.

This marks a significant return to Dublin for Abrahamse & Meyer Productions, who were previously honoured at the festival in 2024, where their production of The Knightly Quest received the Oscar Wilde Award for Best New Text.  Their return coincides with the festival’s evolution into Wilde Stages Festival Dublin—a reimagined platform with a growing international focus, placing Dublin firmly at the centre of global queer theatre.

Abrahamse & Meyer Productions has a repertory of 50 plays and musicals that have been staged in 90 separate seasons, on three continents, creating more than 800 job opportunities for local artists, and winning 27 of the 108 national and international theatre awards the company has been nominated for. 

Queerguru first became avid admirers of their work at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in 2019 with two stunning, critically acclaimed productions The Lady Aoi: An Erotic Thriller by Yukio Mishima and The Night of the Iguana.  At the time we talked with this talented theatrical duo about their passion for Tennessee Williams and re-inventing the classics too (see HERE)