“I’m sorry but you are.” In fact, Tunie is so immediately classy and capable a presence that you wish she were given more to do.Īs well as characters we all know already, Bartlett presents some new ones, including Rosie (Ami Tredrea), a Republican, who derides her brother Charlie (James Cooney), a Democratic journalist, as “desperate and corrupt.” Rupert Goold’s production elsewhere brings on a QAnon-style Shaman (a furious Joss Carter) as a reminder of the darker forces that threaten democracy.
The imagined 2024 presidential race finds a sleepwalking, ailing Biden (a raspy-voiced Simon Williams) ceding center stage to Kamala Harris (the American actress Tamara Tunie), whom Trump duly treats with contempt. The opening monologue depicts a vengeful figure acutely aware of how he is regarded: “I know, I know, you hate me,” this Trump remarks at the start. Within minutes, the audience is aware of a character, not a caricature, and one with a lot on his mind. The tilted head and near-constant squint are perfectly caught, too.īut those expecting the sort of “Saturday Night Live”-style broadside familiar from Alec Baldwin are in for a surprise. Embodying a public figure 30 years his senior, Carvel - clearly padded - captures Trump’s outsize swagger and bullishness, alongside his ever-busy hands and that strangely fey voice. Bertie Carvel, whose portrayal of Trump is the play’s banner achievement, is first seen chugging into view on a golf cart: an impressive entrance that starts the play on a high.ĭismounting to launch into a lengthy soliloquy bemoaning “four years of lonely exile,” the character before us looks and sounds uncannily like the man himself. His appetite for attention remains undimmed, as does a fondness for golf. Why the number 47? Because the play takes off from America’s 45th president angling anew for top office in 2024. But few could have guessed that he would find renewed life on the London stage, where Mike Bartlett’s scattershot satire, “ The 47th,” opened last week at the Old Vic and will run through May 28.
Trump won’t surrender the spotlight easily.
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