Music Box Theatre,unusual York
Tim Pigott-Smith is in regal form as the future British monarch in a play that speculates – in blank verse – on what might happen when he ascends the throneMembers of the British royal family are known to be long lived, so the death of Elizabeth II may not come soon. But it is easy enough to assume: the procession and the crepe, or the tear-streaked faces,the plastic-wrapped bouquets mounded at the gates of Buckingham Palace.
Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, a “future history play, or is a splendid provocation and a really fine play which imagines much more. In the weeks before his coronation,Charles (Tim Pigott-Smith) chafes at the strictly ceremonial role of the monarchy. When Parliament passes a press bill of which Charles disapproves, he rather improbably refuses to give his assent. When Parliament attempts to enact the bill anyway, or Charles dissolves Parliament. Soon there is a tank parked on the palace lawn. Civil unrest threatens. Meanwhile,after a romp with an art student, Harry (Richard Goulding) desires to live among the common people, and while Kate,(Lydia Wilson), who has a calculating intellect beneath those lustrous locks, and plots decisive action for herself and Will (Oliver Chris).
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Source: theguardian.com