The 47th - The Old Vic

Saw this tonight, and it was a middling show. I loved the Shakespeare style verse, with echoes of multiple Shakespeare plays, and I loved Bertie Carvel's immaculate melding of Trump's speech patterns into such coherent Shakespeare style monologues, but the dramatic structure was weak and unfocused, the real threat of Trump presented in shorthand, and other characters were not recognisable as their real selves (with the exception perhaps of Eric Trump). . .

Some spoilers follow. . .

Echoes of King Lear, Richard III, Richard II, Macbeth and Julius Caesar were marvellously done, and were terrifically entertaining. Bertie Carvel speaks both Trump and Shakespeare so fluently that, whether it was Trump as King Lear dividing his Kingdom, or Trump as Mark Antony, lasering Ted Cruz with the "honourable man" speech, or Trump as Richard II telling sad stories of the death of despots, or even in the overall framing device of Trump as Richard III deliciously monologuing to overthrow the natural order of things, every moment of this was simultaneously rivetting and hilarious.

Also a plus, Freddie Meredith as Eric Trump, while a caricature, is an understated delight in his every appearance.

However, Trump's real threat has always been his disdain for democracy, and whether it was the lip service to his worship of despots (with nary a mention of Putin) or the irritating Q-Anon interpretive dance as a shorthand way of communicating Trump's effect (with no attempt to explain the origin or psychology of Q-Anon adherents), the actual plot of the show comes across as thin and unambitious, much less scary than real life.

And shock horror, Carvel disappears from the show for huge lengths of running time, during which the absence of his magic presence allows us to really feel the thinness.

Some characterisations feel wrong too. Don Jr's apparently coke addled anti-democratic mini-me despotism is entirely ignored to present him as thoroughly rational, and Kamala Harris is presented as commanding and likeable, ignoring the smirking smugness that is her actual Achilles heel.

Thankfully, Lydia Wilson is highly effective as Ivanka Trump, the polished muted face of Trumpism, just as she was as the equally scheming Kate in the far more effective and focused Charles III. However, here her part is underwritten, so the full force of her characterisation comes a little too late.

This show has it's pluses and minuses, but it's Carvel who is the marvel. And I wouldn't miss his performance.

3 and a half stars from me, mostly for Carvel's precision, his comic inflections, his Shakespearan fluency, and his incredible charisma in the role.