The author of an acclaimed play about the future of the monarchy has taken on the “Shakespearean” figure of Donald Trump and his battle to regain the White House in 2024 in a new work in blank verse.
“I never thought I would go back to writing Shakespearean form again, but then I had an instinct that Trump is like a Shakespearean king, so it felt like a match,” said playwright Mike Bartlett, whose acclaimed King Charles III focused on a power struggle and constitutional crisis following the death of the Queen.
Bertie Carvel, who plays Tony Blair in the next season of The Crown, takes the part of Trump in The 47th, which opens at the Old Vic in March. “For me, he was the obvious choice,” said Bartlett, who previously worked with Carvel on the television drama Dr Foster.
The 47th imagines Trump’s bid to win the 2024 US presidential election and his opponents’ efforts to defeat him and rightwing populism. “Can it be defeated? And, on the other hand, what is the appeal of the thing Trump offers – which is clearly huge?” said Bartlett.
The play was intended “to interrogate where America is now, and where it’s headed” while entertaining audiences. “One of the appeals of the Shakespearean form is it can move tone between something that’s very witty and very funny, and something that’s deadly serious – and it can do that within a paragraph.”
Bartlett added: “It was a joy writing Trump in Shakespearean form. He lends himself to that beautifully, he just writes himself. He’s hilarious, and devastating. And this has opened my eyes to exactly what his rhetorical tactics are, where his wit is, where he’s intelligent, and where he’s not intelligent.”
The 47th is directed by Rupert Goold, who also directed the Olivier award-winning King Charles III, which premiered in 2014 and later became a TV film. It too was written in blank verse – also known as unrhymed iambic pentameter – in common with many Shakespeare plays.
Richard Goulding, who played Prince Harry in both play and film, said in 2017: “This blank verse form heightens all the exchanges and it makes things much more operatic, much more dramatic, and everything much more significant … It’s all about the rhythms and the way the language is used.”
Bartlett said his inspiration for The 47th stemmed from Trump denying the results of the 2020 election, and “seeing that the assaults on the Capitol and feeling the country was headed towards potential civil violence. Suddenly that power struggle is the story.”
He added: “I feel like I have the absolute right to do this, given the political power, the sway [these people] have over every single person’s life. This is what theatre should be doing – looking at these figures, looking at what motivates them, asking what can they do, what the future is going to be.
“A great play will ask existential questions. What are our ambitions? How good are we? Why are we fascinated by Trump? Do we have a devil in all of us? And does the devil have the best tunes?”
Carvel, he said, was “all-in as an actor. He fully embodies the character and he’s totally fearless to present someone on stage that you might not like at all.” Whether Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical, Simon Foster in Dr Foster, or Rupert Murdoch in Ink, “these are not people that are well liked.
“He just has a complete pursuit of the truth of the story and the character. And to play Trump, you absolutely want someone that has that intimidation about them that Trump has in real life.”
