Tezza's Theatre Place

King Charles III by Mike Bartlett Imagine that you have been waiting for something your entire life. That you knew, no matter what else happened in the world, your destiny was preordained and nothing could be done to change it. Then suddenly, you are catapulted into that position and you are in charge. That’s what happens to the main character in Mike Bartlett’s play  King Charles III  which has just opened at the Tower Theatre. The Queen is dead and, in accordance with tradition, the country has a new monarch in the shape of her eldest son King Charles III (Martin South). After a lifetime of waiting, the new king, supported by his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (Jo Nevin) is ready to take up the reins of monarchy and rule until it he is no more and the succession is handed on to the next generation in the shape of his eldest son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (Dan Draper) and his popular wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Helen McGill). One of the first t...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/193202/edward-ii-review-greenwich-theatre-london/ Lazarus Theatre’s Edward II 2017 – Photo by Adam Trigg “ Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely ” or so the saying goes. But, what is power in this context? For example, an absolute monarch appears to have total power over their domain but, in reality, this is an illusion and their hold on the throne and all that goes with it is very fragile and subject to the will of many others. Lazarus Theatre Company demonstrates this superbly in their new production of Marlowe’s  Edward II  at the Greenwich Theatre. Edward I is dead and his fourth son inherits the throne and assumes the title of Edward II (Timothy Blore). Edward is young, only 23 at the time of his accession, and his youth shows when, despite all the warnings of his court, Edward invites his favourite minion Piers Gaveston (Oseloka Obi) to return to England and join his court. Although not a nobleman by bir...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/186047/review-richard-iii-cockpit-theatre/ As Napoleon once said, “ Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them .” And nowhere is the idea of ambition explored in greater style than in William Shakespeare’s  Richard III . This tragic story can be seen in a new production by Front Foot Theatre at the Cockpit Theatre. Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Km Hardy) has a simple wish. He wants to be King of England. The problem is that between Richard and the throne is his brother George, Duke of Clarence (Thomas Walker Barron), the current king, and another brother, Edward IV (Oliver Hewett) and his two sons, the Prince of Wales and Duke of York. However, Richard is not going to let a minor thing like this stop him achieving his ambition and, he quickly puts his Machiavellian brain to work on the problem. Clarence is soon dispatched an...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-handbagged-brockley-jack-theatre/ Ever wanted to be The Queen? not a Queen but The Queen? It can’t be a bad life really. You get to travel around for free, everyone does whatever you tell them and it’s a job for life. Of course, there are snakes as well as ladders in the monarchy game. As Queen you have no actual power, can’t vote and every Tuesday you have to spend some time with the current Prime Minister – someone you may not personally like or respect – and listen to them whitter on about how great things are. In the UK, for an eleven year period, the roles of Monarch and Prime Minister were both held by women. Nobody knows what passed between them at their weekly meetings, but playwright Moira Buffini has come up with some ideas and her award-winning play  Handbagged , currently running at the Jack Studio Theatre, is the fruition of her thoughts. Unusually for a play about the monarch and her PM,  Handb...