King Charles 111: a play that doesn't translate well for TV

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King Charles 111: a play that doesn't translate well for TV

May 18, 2017 - 13:03
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We are being tortured with the iambic rhythm applied to quite dull everyday statements about tea and government

King Charles 111 with the late Tim Pigott-Smith

By Angela McCluskey @angelamccluskey

I'm half way through King Charles 111 and I'm getting a wee bit fooked off with this iambic pentameter angle on the dialogue. For gawd sake, even I, as tenement-raised Glaswegian with a grammer school background, am aware than when this style was used for theatrical productions it was done so in a purely poetical manner with great thought being given to the words used.

Here we are being tortured with the iambic rhythm applied to quite dull everyday statements about tea and government ... I'm lost as to the point of this gimmick for that is all it is ... it's adds nothing in the way of dramatic tension, in fact it completely distracts one from the matter at hand and reduces the scene to a bad comedy sketch skewering Shakespeare! 

The scene where the actor portraying- quite wrongly I think Harry as a dumpy, gnger, blubby 'way to short' version is ambushed by his hideously entitled Eton twi friends in a nightclub is just painful to watch. They present a member of the real people brigade - some girl from an estate dragged in to give him a taste of real life and she literally walks in the door and blurts out "so which one is yer father then"

Awful writing! Just awful.

The sad thing is this could be brilliant - I'm going back to Born To Kill where at least the characters are entirely believable and the thrill comes from creepily sharp writing and actors who are inhabiting their roles down the an eyelash!

 

Back to Charles 111 and oh my god Harry just spouted in pentameter - this is a mess. I lay and thought I've had enough.

 

This appointed house we share is yours not mine 

Eek!!! Here we go with the boring old chestnut 

A ginger joke 

But then I saw my phone and found 

That Jess hath sent a text 

To which she said she had thought it would never work 

William replies:

From what I've read I thought this Jessica did share your mood

And as for Charles the Turd when Harry started pentameter'ing about his phone text I threw up my paws in despair and threw in the towel. Who the hell high-fived on this absolutely pretentious pile of raw seaweed for dialogue? !f I were Charlie I'd sue the bastards for libel and bad sentence structure!