Bartlett, Mike
Entry updated 25 April 2022. Tagged: Author, Theatre.
(1980- ) UK playwright, at least three of whose plays have sf elements. The 1968-2525 timespan of Earthquakes in London (performed 4 August 2010 Cottesloe Theatre, London; 2010) includes realist historical scenes and events in both contemporary and Near Future London, as well as visions of a Ruined Earth, scenes set in the future comprising enacted scenes as well as projected images, conveyed through vaudeville routines, of drastic Climate Change and other Disasters. 13 (performed 25 October 2011 National Theatre, London; 2011) depicts political bickering over a proposed invasion of Iran under American supervision, as revolution batters at the gates of the state. The blank verse King Charles III (performed 3 April 2014 Almeida Theatre, London; 2014), filmed for Television as King Charles III (2017) directed by Rupert Goold, describes a Near Future constitutional crisis when the newly-crowned Charles refuses royal assent to a bill designed to cripple press freedom in an increasingly Paranoia-gripped UK (see Politics). His betrayal by the ghost of Princess Diana, the Duchess of Cambridge, and his son Prince William results in his abdication and the passing of the destructive bill. The 47th (performed 29 March 2022 The Old Vic, London; 2022), also in iambic pentameter blank verse, anatomizes in broad strokes the 2024 American presidential campaign. Donald Trump is portrayed as a clever man whose every move is calculated; to prevent another four years of his regime requires a profound moral sacrifice on the part of Kamala Harris. [JC]
Michael Bartlett
born Oxford, Oxfordshire: 7 October 1980
works (selected)
- Earthquakes in London (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2010) [play: first performed 4 August 2010 Cottesloe Theatre, London: pb/]
- 13 (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2011) [play: first performed 25 October 2011 National Theatre, London: pb/]
- King Charles III (London: Nick Hern Books, 2014) [play: first performed 3 April 2014 Almeida Theatre, London: pb/]
- The 47th (London: Nick Hern Books, 2022) [play: first performed 29 March 2022 The Old Vic, London: pb/]
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