"Mike Bartlett's flat-out brilliant portrait of a monarchy in crisis blazed open Sunday. Any echoes you may infer regarding a certain Danish prince are entirely appropriate to this dazzlingly presumptuous drama...Directed with fiery wit and rushing momentum by Rupert Goold...What could have been only a cleverly executed stunt is instead an intellectually and emotionally gripping study of the strangely enduring anachronism that is the British monarchy."
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"It’s political soap opera with soaring rhetoric. Still, Bartlett sets the bar so high, there’s room to quibble that some characters are underwritten...Bartlett’s otherwise bravura text also might have stalled if Rupert Goold’s staging weren’t so passionately acted and gorgeously designed...Galvanizing and astonishing, 'King Charles III' doesn’t just send you back to Shakespeare’s histories; it makes you want to write one."
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"The production’s greatest strength is the impressive degree of commitment put forth by the cast...The audience, never for a moment, doubts the truth on stage. Whether or not you will enjoy this truth depends on how much you agree with the decisions, in terms of balance, made by playwright Mike Bartlett and director Rupert Goold and, of course, how much you care about British politics."
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"Mike Bartlett’s 'King Charles III' is breathtakingly audacious and a lot of nasty fun…Tim Pigott-Smith looks relatively little like Charles; he is nevertheless masterfully convincing in the role…In the end, 'King Charles III' justifies its chutzpah even as it flies off the rails in the chaotic plotting of Act Two. You are engaged by its intrigue and moved, almost against your will, by its characters, then somewhat trampled by the onrush of events required to produce its powerful final tableau."
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"Not only does Bartlett (and his skillful director Rupert Goold) imagine a tale of serious shenanigans within Buckingham Palace; he does so with an ear finely tuned to a theme of the moment…Pigott-Smith’s face betrays every flicker of emotion, from elation to determination and shocking defeat..The actor will stay in your mind long after his crumpled, prone body has been consumed by the mob not outside, but within his rarefied circle."
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"This is no playful pastiche. From the moment the play opens it’s clear that grave issues are involved…The suspense is killing. The play is dead serious. The direction is pitiless. And the supporting cast is superb. But Pigott-Smith is phenomenal, not only capturing the guarded manner and haunted look of the Prince of Wales, but portraying a sense of human goodness and character nobility that can either elevate a monarch or damn him to oblivion."
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"Rupert Goold's expertly crafted production hums …Bartlett lays careful groundwork for a surprisingly gripping and original political thriller...The majestically human central performance without which the conceit would crumble is Pigott-Smith's as Charles, wisely sidestepping impersonation for more nuanced character study…That makes him a figure of enormous pathos and lends Shakespearean dimensions to the play's chilling finale."
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"Bartlett's quite brilliant play offers an entrancing if apocalyptically chaotic vision of the royal follies yet to come, once Elizabeth is gone…On this side of the Atlantic, the play, directed by Rupert Goold, gains certain interesting echoes.”
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