The Interview - Park Theatre London - Press Copy

Programme

Original Theatre in association with Park Theatre present the World Premiere of

By Jonathan Maitland Directed by Michael Fentiman

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‘Gloriously silly, unrestrained fun’ The Stage

Original Theatre in association with Park Theatre presents

Adapted from the nove l by HG Wells

30 Nov → 30 Dec 2023 Written by Steven Canny & John Nicholson Directed by Orla O’Loughlin Starring Michael Dylan (Wilf), Dave Hearn (The Goes Wrong Show) & Amy Revelle (Offside)

Yolanda Kettle, Tibu Fortes © Pamela Raith

A note from Original Theatre A warm welcome to Park Theatre and today’s performance of Jonathan Maitland’s new play The Interview.

The Panorama interview between Martin Bashir and Diana, Princess of Wales, casts a long shadow. The impact of this controversial broadcast is still felt, perhaps more keenly than ever, almost 30 years later. Jonathan’s play may well touch a nerve. The play explores not just how the interview came about but perhaps more importantly, the fallout from it. It is a play about - amongst other things - power, accountability and freedom of speech.

One of the joys in producing new work is the transformation an audience brings to it. It always surprises you. I was lucky enough to catch Jonathan’s first play Dead Sheep here at Park Theatre some years

ago and remember being enthralled by the way the writing weaved past events into a thrilling and emotionally charged narrative. I remember how the audience left the auditorium in animated conversation about what they’d just seen.

Having spent the better part of two years developing The Interview, I am looking forward to putting this fascinating new work in front of an audience in this most intimate space and, I hope, igniting more conversation. Director Michael Fentiman has put together an outstanding cast and, together with designer Sami Fendall, they have crafted a striking vision in which to explore this weighty pocket of history.

Enjoy the show.

Alastair Whatley Artistic Director, Original Theatre

i x t F h @OriginalTheatre x @ParkTheatre i t F @ParkTheatreLondon

Yolanda Kettle, Tibu Fortes © Pamela Raith

Ciarán Owens, Naomi Frederick © Pamela Raith

Matthew Flynn © Pamela Raith

Ciarán Owens, Yolanda Kettle, Matthew Flynn, Tibu Fortes © Pamela Raith

Q&A with The Interview writer Jonathan Maitland Why did the subject of Martin Bashir’s infamous interview with Princess Diana appeal to you?

You’ve got to be really, really interested in something to want to write a play about it, and I found this story absolutely fascinating. I’d always been intrigued by the interview, ever since it first came out in 1995, but when the controversy really blew up a couple of years ago, I thought it merited a closer look. The reaction was very manichean, essentially ‘Diana good, Bashir bad’, and there’s a certain amount of truth in that but, as always, the real truth is a lot more complicated.

What made it such fertile ground for a play?

Plays can reach places that TV and film can’t, because you can give the subject more depth and time. And there are some fascinating themes in there, such as the power of the establishment, the question of who was manipulating who, and freedom of speech. Is it right that the interview has effectively now been banned? Also, we think we know everything there is to know about Diana, but this is an excellent opportunity to look at her afresh. I don’t think there’s yet been a serious stage play about her, and it’s high time there was.

You’ve dramatised some famous and controversial figures before, including Boris Johnson and Jimmy Savile. How did you go about creating an authentic portrayal of Diana?

You have to immerse yourself in the subject. I read lots and lots of stuff, such as Tina Brown’s biography of Diana, and a fascinating book by her former private secretary Patrick Jephson called Shadows of a Princess. You pick up details that really help give you a deep insight into the real person. For example, there was a revelation that Diana had multiple mobile phones, and if she fell out with a friend she would simply get a new number and cut them out. That seemed really interesting, the idea that she could just jettison people who had been close to her. The interview is a really good way of examining her character more deeply. She was fantastically brave to do it, but her PR tactics were arguably disastrous.

of it. Then Act Two is a representation of the interview, by looking at the editing process, when Bashir is working with his editor, Steve Hewlett. We include off-cuts of some fascinating stuff that didn’t make it, alongside the famous moments that did. It’s narrative invention, but based on highly informed speculation. I’m confident it’s true enough.

Do you think the interview would have made such an impact in today’s media landscape?

I think the sit-down broadcast interview still has huge influence. Just look at Prince Andrew with Emily Maitlis, or Harry and Meghan with Oprah. But the

Did you know Martin Bashir from your days working at the BBC? I knew him pretty well. We rarely crossed paths at the BBC, but then we both joined ITV and were in the same office for six years. He’s an interesting character. I’m not sure anyone would say they were truly friends with him because he’s a very secretive and enigmatic person.

But I was certainly friendly with him.

He even played percussion in my band, Surf ‘n’ Turf, and came to watch me play cricket. It was interesting to see his approach with people; he would lovebomb you, and blow lots of smoke about how wonderful you are. I got an insight into how he must have been with Diana.

He used flattery very effectively.

Do you depict the interview itself?

Act One looks at the months leading up to the interview, when Bashir is trying to persuade Diana to do it. She was considering other people at the time, so it’s about how he secured access to her, and the ‘will she, won’t she?’ element

Yolanda Kettle © Pamela Raith

Diana interview was probably the high water mark – it was seen by a billion people around the world. What fascinates me, and the play deals with this, is that the allegations about Bashir forging documents first surfaced soon after it was broadcast. It was on the front page of the Mail on Sunday. But no-one seemed to care. What changed 25 years later? Why did it cause such outrage?

Would you say Bashir has been unfairly vilified?

I wouldn’t defend him, because what he did was indefensible. But he does try to defend himself in the play, as he did in the BBC’s Dyson enquiry [in 2021]. There is an argument that journalists aren’t meant to be boy scouts, as my former boss used to say.

There’s a degree of exploitation in every journalistic interaction, certainly when it comes to a television interview. As the quote by Nick Tomalin puts it, the first requirement of any journalist is rat-like cunning, and Martin certainly had that, even if he crossed the line. In the end it became an absolute tragedy for his career – I actually feel quite sorry for him.

Do you think plays can find truth in a way that journalism can’t?

I think there is a greater truth that drama can reveal; I feel liberated now I no longer work for the media.

The coverage of Bashir and Diana has been very simplistic and reductive, to the point where some people have even blamed him for her death. There is no doubt that a play can make us think more deeply and more intelligently about something. You can also raise questions – in this case about the role of the establishment, and how we try to control our own narratives. I hope this will encourage the audience to think about it afresh. If people are arguing with each other on the way home, I’ve done my job.

What qualities were you looking for in the cast?

When it comes to playing real people, there are broadly two ways of going about it. You can do a nailed-on impersonation, as Alistair McGowan did to extraordinary effect when he played Jimmy Savile.

Or you can go the other way, which is to create a believable human being who is also recognisably the real person due to a vocal tic or mannerism. Will Barton, who played Boris Johnson for me, was a good example of that. Either way, the key thing is to create a plausible, relatable person, and great actors can always do this. I’m very confident we’ve found the right people in Yolanda Kettle and Tibu Fortes, whose interpretations of Diana and Martin find just the right balance.

Park Theatre has been your regular home.

What keeps you coming back?

I like that Park Theatre takes risks. It’s not afraid to give someone like me a platform – they gave me my break, and I’ve valued them ever since. Plus it’s really well run by Jez Bond and his team, and has a good and loyal audience. So why wouldn’t I go back there time and time again? This time round I’m also partnering with Original Theatre, who I’ve been really impressed with, and have introduced me to Michael Fentiman, a director whose work I really admire.

They’re one of the leading touring and streaming companies in the country, so I’m hopeful the play might have a further life – though I would never count my chickens.

What’s next?

I’ve written a play about the Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, which was commissioned by the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and is going on tour early next year. I’ve also been working on an autobiographical play about my relationship with my mother, who was a very interesting and complex character. I’m actually going to be appearing in it myself, though it’s a pretty unsparing portrayal.

By Theo Bosanquet

By Jonathan Maitland The World Premiere of The Interview took place at Park Theatre, London, produced by Original Theatre in association with Park Theatre on 1 November 2023 with the following team:

Cast Paul Matthew Flynn Martin ​​Tibu Fortes​ Luciana ​​Naomi Frederick​ Diana ​​​Yolanda Kettle​ Matt/Steve ​​​Ciarán Owens

Creative Team Director ​​​Michael Fentiman​ Set and Costume Designer ​Sami Fendall​ Lighting Designer ​​Emily Irish​ Sound Designer and Composer Barnaby Race​ Costume Supervisor ​​Logan Kelly​

Production Team Producers ​​​Steven Atkinson, Tom Hackney, Alastair Whatley Production Co-Ordinator ​Lisa Friedrich Production Manager​​ Andreas Ayling​ Wig Designer ​​​Susanna Peretz ​ Wig Supervisor ​​Pedro Paiva​ Voice Coach Mary Howland Stage Manager on the Book Kanoko Shimizu​ Assistant Stage Manager ​Paulina Krause​ Prod LX / Programmer Jamie King-Cox Production Sound Engineer Dom Beale Production Carpenter Ed Salisbury Artwork Designer​​​ Rebecca Pitt Promotion Photographer ​Michael Wharley Rehearsal and Production Photographer ​Pamela Raith Videographer​​​ Piers Foley / Tristan Shepard Marketing ​​​Emma Martin Press​​​​ Alison Duguid ​PR Social Media Manager ​Paul Jennings for Hero Social Additional Lighting equipment supplied by White Light Additional Sound equipment supplied by Autograph Sound Set build provided by EJS Scenery Ltd Transport provided by EJS

Thank You Steve Anderson, Mark Bourdeaux, John Collins, Tim Dunn, Howard Eaton, Jedd Hamilton, Helena Maitland, Stevie Porter, Christina Ritchie, Luke Swaffield, Andy Webb and The Barbican.

Original Theatre would like to thank our supporters: Sofia Cardoso, Joan Weingarten and Bob Donnalley, James L, Marie Palmer, Lydian Reeves, John P Sutton, Diana Weidner.

Matthew Flynn Paul Paul trained at The Drama Centre London.

Theatre includes: Private Peaceful (Nottingham Playhouse); Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Crucible (Storyhouse Chester); Agnes Colander (Ustinov Bath, Jermyn Street Theatre); Child of Science (Bush Theatre); Wild Honey, 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre); City Stories (55East59 New York); I am a Walrus (Young Vic); Children of the Sun, War Horse (National Theatre); Mare Rider (Arcola Theatre); Henry V, Troilus and Cressida (Globe Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire, Macbeth, Mayor of Zalamea (Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse); Two Gentlemen of Verona (Northampton); As You Like It, Macbeth, How many miles to Basra? (West Yorkshire Playhouse); 1984, Julius Caesar (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); The Gentlemen’s Tea Drinking Society (Belfast); Hangover Square (Finborough Theatre); The Winters Tale, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Rose Rage, Henry V, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night (Propeller); Romeo and Juliet (Derby Playhouse); The Prince of Homburg (RSC/ Lyric); Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar (RSC) and An Ideal Husband (Gielgud Theatre).

Television includes: Say Nothing (Disney/ FX); Cobra (Sky); Finding Alice (ITV); Great Expectations (BBC, FX); Coronation Street (ITV); Emmerdale (ITV); Innocent (ITV); Lawful Killing (BBC); Doctors (BBC); Lucan (ITV); Holby (BBC); Midsummer Murders (ITV); Foyles War (ITV); The Passion (HBO,BBC); After Thomas (ITV); The Quatermass Experiment (BBC) and The King Must Die (Channel 4).

Film includes: Femi, Sahara, Pride, A Stitch in Time, Franklyn, Broken Lines and Black Sheep.

Tibu Fortes

Naomi Frederick

Martin

Luciana

Tibu recently wrapped on a feature film starring alongside Lucy Liu, he can also be seen as a new regular in BBC One drama Shetland.

For Park Theatre: A Passage to India.

Theatre includes: Jerker (King’s Head Theatre); The Point of It (RADA Festival); Satyagraha (LA Opera); Henry V (New Generation Festival); Coconut (Ovalhouse) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe).

Television includes: Sister Boniface Mysteries; Liaison; Mammals; Ten Percent; Emmerdale; The Reluctant Landlord, Bloods and The Capture.

Film includes: Schirkoa, Saving Christmas Spirit and Johnny English Strikes Again.

Naomi read English at Oxford and trained at RADA. She won Best Newcomer for her debut role as Carol in Time & the Conways (Manchester Royal Exchange) and she received recognition twice in the Ian Charleson Awards: for Isabella in Measure for Measure (Complicité at the National Theatre) and as Irina in Three Sisters (Nuffield Theatre / Theatre Royal Bath).

Theatre includes: Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); Book Of Dust (Bridge Theatre); Agnes Colander (Theatre Royal Bath / Jermyn Street Theatre); White Teeth (Kiln Theatre); The Mentor (Theatre Royal Bath & West End); Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal Bath & Vaudeville Theatre); As You Like It and The Heresy of Love (Shakespeare’s Globe); Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre); Emil & The Detectives and Henry IV: Part 1 & 2 (National Theatre); Brief Encounter (West End) and The Winslow Boy (Old Vic Theatre).

Television includes: Industry, Belgravia, EastEnders, Inspector George Gently, Casualty and Foyles War. Film includes: Christmas In Paradise, Father Christmas is Back, The Aftermath and The Children Act.

Yolanda Kettle

Ciarán Owens

Diana

Matt/Steve

Theatre includes: Anthropology (Hampstead Theatre); Patriots (Almeida) Theatre; Plenty (Chichester Festival Theatre); Eden (Hampstead Theatre); Oil (Almeida Theatre); The Deep Blue Sea (National Theatre); For Services Rendered (Chichester Festival Theatre); Little Light (Orange Tree Theatre); Coolatully (Finborough Theatre); Birdland (Royal Court); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate); Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre); A Doll’s House (Young Vic/Duke of York’s); The Seagull (Arcola Theatre) and Saved (Royal Court Gala).

Television includes: Roadkill (BBC); Marcella 2 (ITV); The Crown (Netflix); Howards End (BBC); Doc Martin (ITV); The Collection (Amazon); Love, Nina (BBC); Father Brown and Holby City (BBC).

Film: includes Persuasion (Netflix) and Made in Italy (Amazon).

Training: Ciarán trained at LAMDA. Ciarán recently played Pierre in the UK premiere of Farewell Mister Haffman directed by Lindsay Posner.

Theatre includes: The Windsors: Endgame (West End); The Duchess of Malfi (Almeida Theatre) Cabaret (Lido 2 Paris); Rutherford and Son; Love and Information (Crucible Theatre); Tumulus (Soho Theatre); Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Bath/ UK Tour); A Handful of Stars (Trafalgar Studios); Disco Pigs (UK & Ireland Tour); The Brink (Orange Tree Theatre); King John (Shakespeare’s Globe); So Here We Are (Manchester Royal Exchange/ High Tide); The Crocodile (MIF); Oh What a Lovely War (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Candide; A Mad World, My Masters; Titus Andronicus (RSC); Mercury Fur (Trafalgar Studios) and Our Country’s Good (Out of Joint).

Television includes: Peaky Blinders (BBC); Temple (Sky); Small Axe (Amazon/BBC); Father Brown (BBC); Call The Midwife (BBC); Ancient Empires & Washington (History); Krypton (DC/SyFy); The Last Kingdom (Netflix); Strike Back (HBO Cinemax); Crazyhead (E4); Arthur and George (ITV); Spotless (Netflix) and Wallander (BBC).

Film includes: Red Joan; Where Hands Touch.

Jonathan Maitland Writer Theatre: The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson (Park Theatre and National Tour); Dead Sheep (Park Theatre and National Tour); Deny Deny Deny (Park Theatre) and An Audience with Jimmy Saville (Park Theatre).

In development: How To Survive Your Mother (King’s Head Theatre, October 2024); Eight Days In Bulovka; Wilko (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Tour) Radio: Dead Sheep / Wasps in A Jam Jar (BBC Radio 4, starring Penelope Wilton and Harriet Walter) and The Rem Co (BBC Radio 4).

Michael Fentiman Director Michael trained at Bretton Hall and Mountview Academy.

Michael’s production of Amélie was nominated for three Olivier Awards (including best new musical) in 2020 and Michael was nominated for a Grammy in 2021 for his work on the London Cast Recording.

For Original Theatre: Valued Friends (coproduction with Rose Theatre Kingston).

Theatre includes: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Gillian Lynn and Tour); Jekyll and Hyde (Edinburgh Lyceum/ Reading Rep); Amélie (Criterion Theatre/ Watermill Theatre/UK Tour/The Other Palace); The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales Theatre); CinderELLA The Musical (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); The Taming of the Shrew (Sherman Theatre/ Tron Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre/Classic Spring); The Last Days of Anne Boleyn (Historic Palaces/Tower of London); Loot (Park Theatre/Watermill Theatre); Raising Martha (Park Theatre); Babe, The Sheep-Pig

(Polka Theatre/UK Tour); The War Has Not Yet Started (Drum Theatre Plymouth); Minotaur (Polka Theatre/Clwyd Theatr Cymru); The Taming of the Shrew (RSC/US tour); Titus Andronicus (RSC); The Comedy of Errors (Cambridge Arts Theatre); Crackers (Belgrade Theatre Coventry) and Ahasverus (RSC/Hampstead Theatre).

Sami Fendall Set and Costume Designer Sami Fendall is a British production designer who specialises in live performance, stage and screen.

Sami has produced work for Stuttgart Ballet, The Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, Scottish Ballet, Pressman Film, Apple Inc, Immersive cult and Unicef.

In 2019 Sami was the overall winner of the National Theatres award; Linbury Prize for Stage Design. Her designs for Hotel commissioned by the Birmingham Royal Ballet were created in collaboration with choreographers Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright. Sami went on to Art Direct Jess & Morgs multi-award winning production of Coppelia for Scottish Ballet.

In 2023, Sami designed the feature film Catching Dust which was selected and released at Tribeca and Raindance Film Festival.

This September the new musical CAKE directed by Drew McOnie, which was designed by Sami had its West End premiere. Currently, Sami is designing a new production for Stuttgart Ballet in Germany.

Emily Irish Lighting Designer Training: LAMDA Theatre School Technical Theatre.

Lighting Design: Jekyll & Hyde (Reading Rep Theatre) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (West End).

Production Electrician: Dear England (West End); A Strange Loop (Barbican); The Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK Tour); Nativity! (Birmingham Rep); Garsington Opera; The Lehman Trilogy (West End); Demon Dentist (UK Tour); Billionaire Boy (UK Tour); Gangsta Granny (UK Tour); Secret Cinema Stranger Things; Secret Cinema Casino Royal; Mansfield Park (Grange Opera Festival). Plus various shows including with ITV, BBC and The RSC.

Susanna Peretz Wig Designer Theatre includes: A Little Life (West End); The Time Traveller’s Wife (Story House Chester and West End); The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (West End, UK Tour, Curve Theatre, Birmingham Rep and Bridge Theatre); Noises Off (West End); Assassins, Doubt: A Parable, The Long Song, Hedda Tesman, Plenty (Chichester Festival Theatre); Wings, Death of a Salesman (also West End) (Young Vic); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (West End); Hamlet, The Cherry Orchard (Theatre Royal Windsor); Carousel, Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of The Dead (Complicité, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Bristol Old Vic, Barbican); The Last Ship (UK Tour); Is God Is Pity, Prudes, Gun Dog, Girls and Boys, Road, How To Hold Your Breath, Linda, Birdland, The Nether, The Kid Stays In The Picture, Anatomy of a Suicide, The Twits, X, Hangmen (also West End) (Royal Court); Machinal, The Game, Mr Burns, Medea, The Treatment,

Carmen Disruption, Mary Stuart (also West End) Oresteia (also Trafalgar Studios), Hamlet (also West End) (Almeida Theatre); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Old Vic); The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic and Trafalgar Studios); Bugsy Malone (also UK Tour) Ghost Stories, Scandaltown, Love Love Love, Tipping the Velvet, City of Glass, Jubilee (Lyric Hammersmith); The Way of the World, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Teddy Ferrara (Donmar Warehouse) and Witness for the Prosecution (London Court House).

Opera includes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aldeburgh Festival); Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are, Dark Mirror and Curlew River (Barbican/ US tour); The illuminated Heart (Lincoln Centre NY); Greek (Scottish Opera/ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh); and Rigoletto (Irish tour).

Film & Television includes: My Sisters Bones, Prisoners of Paradise, The Show, Electric Dreams, In The Dark Half, His Heavy Heart, Jimmy’s End, Showpieces, Skeletons (BAFTA Nominee and Michael Powell Award-winner).

Other work includes collaborations with Alan Moore on his comic book series Providence and the multimedia project As Big As the Sky with artist Ai Weiwei.

Her work has also been exhibited at Sprueth Magers Art Gallery.

Pedro Paiva Wig Supervisor Pedro Paiva is a distinguished wig and makeup theatre stylist whose artistry has touched stages internationally.

With a career spanning iconic productions such as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar, as well as the Royal Danish Theatre’s Amadeus, one of his most recent works includes the new West End production, The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Ciarán Owens, Tibu Fortes, Naomi Frederick © Pamela Raith

Michael Fentiman © Pamela Raith

Tibu Fortes © Pamela Raith

Matt Wolf on Stage Royals Royalty has long been a constant on the British stage. Think of Shakespeare, and a roll call of monarchs comes to mind – flawed and fallible as often as not but nonetheless offered majestic and consistent pride of place.

It’s fascinating, for instance, to note how early the Henry VI trilogy comes within the Shakespeare canon. The writing in that infrequently staged triptych barely hints at the epic, near-Beckettian splendour of King Lear, which is endlessly debated alongside another royal-obsessed title, Hamlet, as to which of the two is Shakespeare’s finest play. (I’m a Lear man myself.)

Shakespeare’s company of players is thought to have performed as many as four times a year before Queen Elizabeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – with its own singular royal fairies in Titania and Oberon – was most likely first performed at an aristocratic wedding with the Queen amongst the guests.

Shakespeare’s rulers run toward the despotic (Richard III) or the quixotic (Lear), but also towards an eloquence unmatched elsewhere in his work. In my view, he wrote no personage more rhetorically luxuriant than Richard II, that extraordinary manchild who speaks so beautifully that you weep well before this poet-politician himself succumbs to tears in the end-of-life journey trafficked by the play.

One bequest, I suppose, of Shakespeare has been to suggest that it’s ok – even desirable – to write about those who hold sway over us mere plebs. Schiller brought Elizabeth and Mary together for a riveting climax to Mary Stuart, historical accuracy be damned,

and Alan Bennett gave us his own equivalent Lear in The Madness of George III, with its career-defining performance on stage and screen by Nigel Hawthorne.

I’ve been fascinated across my time as an American journalist in London to note the inexhaustibility of the royals as a subject – a broad array that takes us to The Interview just now. I vividly recall the astonishment felt throughout the National’s Lyttelton auditorium in 1988 when a pre-George III Alan Bennett opened two one-act plays under the collective title Single Spies.

The second of those two plays, A Question of Attribution, paired Bennett himself as Sir Anthony Blunt opposite Prunella Scales as a shrewd, knowing Elizabeth II. As ever, we weren’t ever told whether Her Majesty actually saw the play live or even the 1991 film version of it. But I can’t imagine she would have been anything but flattered by the quiet cunning of her exchanges with the art aficionado and avowed spy, Blunt, with whom the queen chats about forgeries and fakes in an encoded conversation that speaks volumes more than either party lets on.

Bennett’s play places Elizabeth II within the elegant corridors that were her daily life. That was by no means the case with a very different royal portrait, The Queen and I. That satiric novel-turned-play from the late Sue Townsend finds the royal household deposed by a new Republican government and displaced to a council estate in Leicester. Diana struggles to raise two small boys, only for her motherin-law to close the play in unusually solicitous mode: ‘So citizens, give us a

clue,’ she says, sounding rather different from her Christmas day turns of phrase, ‘what are we going to do?’ (Diana, for her part, focuses mostly on fitness: “Once your muscle tone goes, you might as well be dead.”)

The queen emerges from Townsend’s scabrous vision dignity intact and is spared outright the versified vitriol of King Charles III, Mike Bartlett’s Olivier Award-winning ‘future history play’ positing an event that has since come to pass – the accession to the throne of a querulous Charles. A spectral Diana wafts in and out of the play, commanding as much attention after her untimely death as she did before it.

And, of course, it’s the royals’ slow response to the implications for the nation of Diana’s death that informs Stephen Frears’s wonderful film The Queen, whose Oscar-winning star, Helen Mirren, won every stage award going when she returned to this rarefied realm in the London and Broadway hit, The Audience. That film and play were both written by Peter Morgan, begetter of The Crown, the capacious TV phenomenon which, as timing has it, will air its sixth and final season this autumn.

The Audience wasn’t alone in imagining the queen in contact with the dizzying lineup of politicos whom she knew during her 70-year reign: the play is structured across her weekly audiences with a never-to-be-repeated array of Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill onwards.

Moira Buffini’s 2013 play Handbagged – which happened to be in revival at north London’s Kiln Theatre at the very time of the queen’s death – posits older and younger versions of both the queen and Margaret Thatcher. When the play premiered, Britain’s first female prime minister was seen to dominate in accordance with the zeitgeist at the time.

Revisited within a week of the queen’s death, the same script had about it the

inevitable air of eulogy, not least when Elizabeth II is extolled by Thatcher as ‘a focus of patriotism, loyalty, affection and esteem.’ Cue collective assent from the house, and plenty of moistened eyes.

Princess Diana hasn’t occupied pole position quite as often, though Emma Corrin’s portrayal of her opposite Josh O’Connor’s young prince gave a necessary charge to The Crown at the start of that show’s singular TV reign. I didn’t make it to New York (my home city) in time to see the stage musical Diana, which lasted 33 performances late in 2021 before, quite literally, giving up the ghost.

London playgoers can assess the piece for themselves when it is seen in concert at the Eventim Apollo on Dec 4, though the five Golden Raspberry Awards afforded its 2021 Netflix adaptation (Worst Picture included) suggest that the only way for it to go in critics’ estimation is up.

The Interview benefits presumably from narrowing its focus to the colloquy of the title – the audience that the onetime Princess of Wales gave BBC journalist Martin Bashir in Nov 1995 as a breathless global public looked on enthralled. One can imagine countless as yet unwritten titles still to come – Meghan Markle the Musical has an alliterative allure – as the conversation shifts and newer members of the House of Windsor become talking points in their own right.

I don’t know whether any writers yet have a Prince Andrew play in the pipeline – in some ways, his saga seems more suited to an Oliver Stone film – but I wouldn’t be surprised. The limelight the royals has occupied over time has taught all of us, I think, to expect the unexpected, in both art and life. A good story, after all, is a good story – and those offered up by this particular household look all but certain to run and run.

Matt Wolf in September 2023 marked 40 years as an American arts writer in London, where, over time, he has been the chief London theatre critic for the Associated Press, Variety, and The New York Times.

About Original Theatre Who are we?

Founded in 2004, Original Theatre Company has toured extensively all over the UK, introducing Original Theatre Online in 2020, producing several acclaimed online productions. In 2022, Original Theatre was awarded a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for exceptional theatre-making during the Covid lockdowns.

Current stage productions: Murder in the Dark, The Interview and The Time Machine – A Comedy.

Recent shows: Murder in the Dark, Stumped, The Time Machine – A Comedy, Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, The End of the Night (a co-production with Park Theatre); Being Mr Wickham (UK & NYC); The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Splinter of Ice, The Croft, Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch, Stephen Jeffreys’ Valued Friends (a co-production with Rose Theatre Kingston); Torben Betts’ Caroline’s Kitchen (originally Monogamy); Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art (UK & NYC); Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark, Torben Betts’ Invincible, Emlyn Williams’ Night Must Fall, Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path and the award winning tours of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong adapted by Rachel Wagstaff.

Since March 2020: •

We have produced 15 digital theatre shows that have streamed online.

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Directed by Tristan Shepherd, our Original film VIRAL has gone on to win three awards at the 2022 U.S. Nevermore film festival: Audience Award, Best Long-Form Narrative Short and Best Actress for Saffron Coomber.

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We are streaming to over 57 countries including America, India, Canada and Australia.

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Our loyal viewers have streamed our work over 54,000 times online.

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We have over 40,000 users registered to Original Theatre Online.

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We launched Originals: Live at Riverside Studios, our biggest playwriting submission competition that saw three brand new plays have their world premieres

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Recent awards: Commendation for Exceptional Theatre Making During Lockdown – The Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2022, Special ONEOFF Award – 2022 Offies, Best Online Production – The Version Awards and Best Production Created for Streaming – BroadwayWorldUK Awards.

For Original Theatre Artistic Director Alastair Whatley Creative Producer Tom Hackney Digital Producer Steven Atkinson Head of Marketing Emma Martin Digital Theatre Manager Aaron Weight Production Co-ordinator Lisa Friedrich Social & Content Paul Jennings for Hero Social PR Alison Duguid www.originaltheatre.com � � � � @originaltheatre � � @originaltheatrecompany Contact us at info@originaltheatre.com Photographs by Charlotte Graham, James Findlay, Helen Maybanks, The Other Richard

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About Park Theatre Park Theatre was founded by Artistic Director, Jez Bond and Creative Director Emeritus, Melli Marie. The building opened in May 2013 and, with 12 West End transfers, two National Theatre transfers and 14 national tours in ten years, quickly garnered a reputation as a key player in the London theatrical scene. Park Theatre has received six Olivier nominations, won numerous Off West End Offie Awards, and won The Stage’s Fringe Theatre of the Year and Accessible Theatre Award.

Park Theatre is an inviting and accessible venue, delivering work of exceptional calibre in the heart of Finsbury Park. We work with writers, directors and designers of the highest quality to present compelling, exciting and beautifully told stories across our two intimate spaces.

Our programme encompasses a broad range of work from classics to revivals with a healthy dose of new writing, producing in-house as well as working in partnership with emerging and

established producers. We strive to play our part within the UK’s theatre ecology by offering mentoring, support and opportunities to artists and producers within a professional theatre-making environment.

Our Creative Learning strategy seeks to widen the number and range of people who participate in theatre, and provides opportunities for those with little or no prior contact with the arts.

In everything we do we aim to be warm and inclusive; a safe, welcoming and wonderful space in which to work, create and visit.

★★★★★ “A five-star neighbourhood theatre” Independent

As a registered charity [number 1137223] with no regular public subsidy, we rely on the kind support of our donors and volunteers. To find out how you can get involved visit parktheatre.co.uk

For Park Theatre

Sales & Marketing

Artistic Director Jez Bond

Sales & Marketing Director Dawn James

Executive Director Catherine McKinney

Head of Ticketing Matthew Barker

Creative Learning

Senior Marketing Officer Anna Charlesworth

Community Engagement Manager Carys Rose Thomas Creative Learning Leaders Amy Allen, Toby Hampton, Kieran Rose, Vanessa Sampson

Development Development Director Tania Dunn Development & Producing Coordinator Ellen Harris

Finance Finance Director Elaine Lavelle Finance Officer Nicola Brown

General Management General Manager Tom Bailey Deputy General Manager David Hunter Producer Programmer Amelia Cherry Administrator Mariah Sayer Access Coordinator David Deacon Duty Venue Managers Daisy Bates, Leiran Gibson, Gareth Hackney, Zara Naeem, Laura Riseborough, Natasha Green, Shaun Joynson, Leena Makoff, Wayne Morris, Nick Raistrick

Park Pizza Supervisors Daisy Bates, Luke Brock Bar Team George Gehm, John Burman, Bradly Doko, Hugo Harrison, Alex Kristoffy, Vanessa Restivo, Bonnie Shapland-Hill, Julia Skinner, Maddie Stoneman, Maria Ziolkowska

Marketing Assistant Conor Gormally Senior Box Office Supervisor Natasha Green Box Office Supervisors Jacquie Cassidy, Gareth Hackney, Kyanne Smith, Maddie Stoneman Public Relations Mobius Industries

Technical & Building Technical & Buildings Manager Gianluca Zona Deputy Technical & Buildings Manager Teddy Nash Venue Technician Michael Bird

Trustees Ibukun Alamutu Kurt Barling Hedda Beeby Anthony Clare - Chair Jonathan Edwards Bharat Mehta Rufus Olins Victoria Phillips Joe Smith Julia Tyrrell Associate Artist Mark Cameron Creative Director Emeritus Melli Marie Founding President Jeremy Bond † (1939–2020) With thanks to all of our supporters, donors and volunteers.