The 47th
Old Vic, London

Scandaltown
Lyric Hammersmith, London

Through a pleasant scheduling accident, playwright Mike Bartlett world-premiered within a week two contemporary political satires spoofing different classical forms.

The 47th is the play Shakespeare might have written about Donald Trump, just as Bartlett’s award-winning verse pastiche King Charles III extended the English history canon; while Scandaltown is a mock-Restoration comedy set in Boris Johnson’s London.

As with King Charles III, The 47th is titled for a future numerical succession; Joe Biden is the 46th President of the US. The 45th, Donald Trump, reportedly hopes also to be the 47th, becoming only the second (after Grover Cleveland) to serve non-consecutive terms. Bartlett’s play opens in 2024: Senator Ted Cruz is Republican front-runner to be 47, facing Biden’s campaign to go on as 46.