Next week my partner John and I will be headed to New Haven to see a student production
of my play Valhalla. This play concerns, among other things,
one of my personal heroes, Ludwig of Bavaria, who was also
known as the Dream King and the Mad King.
The illustrations below include a photo of Ludwig,
above a portrait he commissioned. During his brief
reign Ludwig built a series of storybook castles:
below you can see first Linderhof, his summer palace,
and a grotto he had built, which included theatrical
lighting, an artificial lake and a swan boat, all
based on themes from Ludwig’s favorite opera, Lohengrin.
Below that is a photo of Ludwig’s most famous castle,
Neuschwanstein, which inspired Cinderella’s Castle at
Disneyland. Ludwig’s castles, and their expense,
led to his being declared insane and his removal
from the throne. But today, these castles are among
the most popular tourist attractions in the world.
As part of this tribute to Ludwig, I’m including an
image I found where My Little Pony, or perhaps
My Little Unicorn, seems to be dressed as Ludwig.
I feel that Ludwig would have approved.
