AllMovie

In this tragedy (and political allegory), a father has two sons and two daughters. He is dying, albeit quite slowly. He has a cruel turn of wit and skillfully plays each child against the others, promising them his landholdings, among other things. Though some of the children complain of his harsh regime to sympathetic friends, one of them warns them that once their father passes away, if they are not careful they will replace his familiar manipulations with those of another, equally malign leader. According to reviewers, any resemblance of this story to classical myths and tragedies is entirely intentional.