Aisle View: Vivat Charles III

Church bells peal. A dozen actors in modern dress, carrying candles, enter; the set suggests a medieval chapel, with a band of faded ancestors looking on from peeling frescos. The actors sing a mournful Agnus Dei, accompanied by a busy sound tape and two live musicians in a box at the Music Box. The actors then launch into a Shakespearan tragedy, one of those “King” plays; not “King Lear” or “Richard II,” but “Charles III.” At least, it seems like Shakespeare, to the uninitiated, until the oldest man on stage says, “It’s not the same, Camilla.” We instantly know that this is not one of Will’s kings in one of Will’s plays; the King Charles in question is you-know-who. Yes, mum has died after a 60-year reign, leaving the Prince of Wales suddenly thrust onto the throne for which he has prepared his entire life. All your favorites are there. William, Harry, Kate, even the ghost of Diana, who roams the halls at night like one of the three weird witches of Macbeth. Charles faces his dilemma like Hamlet, but within two hours he has turned into an ineffectual Lear.