King Charles III

Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, Monday, November 30, to Saturday, December 5

ROBERT Powell presides over a constitutional crisis in the touring version of Mike Bartlett’s Olivier Award-winning West End hit King Charles III.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II Powell’s Charles ascends to the throne, only to find his principles compromised by a controversial new law to curb press freedom.

The star of Jesus Of Nazareth and The Detectives talks to Duncan Hall about his love of the monarchy, the nature of freedom and his close encounters with the Prince Of Wales.

The Guide: Is it tough taking on someone like the Prince Of Wales who is known to millions across the world?

Robert Powell: Not really. I’m not doing an impersonation of him - that would be silly and a different show. I’m just occupying his space, and the audience buy into it immediately. The fact he is still around is neither here nor there.

How has writer Mike Bartlett portrayed the character of Charles in the play?

Mike has been very thoughtful about his portrayal of Charles as the Charles we know. It’s a future history – it’s not something that will happen, or has happened. It’s a constitutional crisis in a parallel universe that happens because of Charles’s initial commitment to something which gets out of hand. I don’t think the Prince Of Wales would be offended.

In some ways Charles is in a strange position – when he becomes king he will have all this power, but he won’t be able to do anything with it.

One of Charles’s lines towards the end of the play when things are getting desperate is “What is power held if never used?” He is extremely diffident at the beginning of the play, not that he doesn’t want to be king. It’s easier to be the heir rather than the King, because once you’re King you’re trapped. There’s no hiding place. Once he takes on the crown he takes on the responsibility of the crown, and takes it very seriously. It comes from a place of conscience about the bill he chooses not to sign – it’s a bill which he feels shouldn’t be introduced into law.

There’s a certain irony that he refuses to let a law curbing press freedom through considering Charles’s own experiences with the press!

That’s essentially the heart of the play – at one point the Prime Minister says: “Of all the bills we thought you wouldn’t object to it would be this one.”

The whole point is government has to be held to account. You only have to look around the world. Where there is no freedom of the press without exception they are the most appalling regimes. Charles doesn’t expect the media to get any better, they will still produce the rubbish they produce, but at least that’s a price worth paying.

As the Prince Of Wales he has always been keen to get his opinions across.

He has – when we had the “Spidergate” controversy [when newspapers called for the publication of the Prince’s private letters to Government ministers] the calls by the press for them all to be published really blew up in their faces. When they were published it was clear he was only talking absolutely bloody sense. It’s not a bad thing at all to have a King driven by very strong feelings.

Have you met the Prince Of Wales in person?

I’ve met him many times – I’m an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust on an ad hoc basis – when they need something doing and haven’t got anyone to do it I will speak at charity events. It’s an extraordinary charity – if I could invent one I would have invented this one. It takes care of young people between the ages of 13 and 30, putting people back on track. The problems of society can be ameliorated by dealing with young people before things go wrong. Charles and the Prince’s Trust do an extraordinarily good job.

We’re also members of the same club, so I sometimes see him there too.

It must be strange seeing the Prince Of Wales in that context - outside of a public occasion or the trappings of a Royal visit?

I have been in reasonably close contact with many of the Royal Family. The Duke Of Edinburgh was patron of the Lords Taverners when I was president for a couple of years. I met them socially. The Duke Of Edinburgh likes to have a joke or be told stories. They are all very sharp – what surprises everyone who only knows them through the press is how extraordinarily intelligent and well-briefed they are. They do an amazing job, but I’m really a strong monarchist. I can’t see any reason for not having them.

People say you can’t have a monarchy because they’re not elected – but they don’t do any harm, and the good they do is enormous.

There has been controversy recently about the influence the unelected House Of Lords had on the Government’s social policy.

I’m not sure the House Of Lords was improved by removing the hereditary peers. They never had an axe to grind, and had no-one to kow-tow to. Now you have Labour and Tory peers and I don’t think that’s right. The Lords should be a group of highly intelligent people who can look at a broad spectrum of problems. People say 800 or 600 years ago somebody gave £100 to a King and got knighted and given a peerage. It’s exactly the same now for people who give £2 million to a political party. What kind of country do we live in where we can sit back and let that happen? It should be on merit.

The whole of King Charles III is written in Shakespearean blank verse. Was that a challenge?

I’m no stranger to blank verse having worked with Shakespeare all my acting life – it’s second nature. But there are restrictions – if you make a mistake you can’t start mucking about with blank verse or improvise something to get around it otherwise you get in real trouble. It gives the play an extraordinary sense of gravity through the wonderful music of the language. Even if the audience is not familiar with blank verse they quickly become attuned to it.

The job of an actor is very simple. When I come across a piece of Shakespeare I don’t know I will spend two or three hours working on it, breaking it down until I see where the edges are and how it works. My job is then to say it so that the audience gets it immediately. Shakespeare comes to life when it is done really well.

Is there a heavy Shakespearean influence in the play?

The Scottish Play [Macbeth] is certainly in there, and King Lear is fairly evident with the betrayal of the parent by the children and the mockery of old age. Throughout the play I’m conversing with the audience. They see the insecurity of Charles, whereas when he’s with other characters he’s much stronger and more guarded. It’s just like playing Hamlet – the audience sees the character that no-one else sees – only the audience knows what is going on in Charles’s mind.

The future King of England, Poirot, Jesus Of Nazareth, are there any other roles you would still like to play?

A lot of actors say they would like to tackle Lear. I did that when I was 18 at school - I played Edgar with Alec Guinness as Lear.

Theatre is unbelievably hard work, and I’m not getting any younger. There will come a time where I think there has got to be an easier way to make a living.

Charles will take me until next May, we go on tour again in the spring and then on to Australia. Then I’ll be back in the theatre in autumn starring in [Alan Ayckbourn’s] Relatively Speaking starting in Bath with Liza Goddard.

King Charles III comes to Theatre Royal Brighton from Monday, February 8, to Saturday, February 13. Tickets from £15, call 08448 717650.

Starts 7.30pm, 2.30pm matinees, tickets from £14. Call 01243 781312 or visit cft.org.uk.