Tonight I saw the next play in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s season, a Shakespeare-like play called King Charles III, which the author refers to as a future history play. It was written by Mike Bartlett in 2014. It imagines the premise that the current Queen of England, Elizabeth II, has died and her son the current Prince Charles has become king. On principle he tries to take a slightly more activist role as monarch and not just be a rubber stamp for the government.
It was interesting staging with a fairly fixed ornate set, but with graphic images on the back wall that periodically switched between royal portraits and newspaper images showing the building controversies. The acting was excellent, and the appearance of the cast, particularly of Prince William, appeared to closely match the real royal family.
This dealt with some interesting clashes between politics British-style and the monarchy, and between the generations of the royal family who each had their own agenda. It ended sad in my view as the initially principled Charles (who becomes a bit over tyrannical) is coerced into abdicating in favor of his son William who is more adept at playing the PR game, but who ultimately will just be a plastic image of a monarch.
Trailer