Edward II is a play about homosexuality, the abuse of power and a quarreling court. Filled with song and poetry and heart and guts, it is a violent, sumptuous and altogether thrilling ride, set in the period of Edward’s rule. It begins when King Edward recalls his lover, Gaveston, from banishment and threatened by the preferment shown to the ‘upstart’ Gaveston (and exasperated by Edward’s neglect of matters of state), the king’s nobles join forces with Queen Isabella and the clergy to plot the downfall of Edward’s circle of flatterers, and ultimately of the king himself.